Assessment of coastal flooding hazard along the Emilia Romagna littoral,IT

Aim of this paper is to develop simple tools for mapping — at regional and local scale — coastal areas exposed at flooding risk. A two-step simplified procedure for coastal management purposes is presented and is applied to Emilia Romagna (Italy), whose low and sandy coast faces the relatively mild Northern Adriatic Sea. The procedure is composed by a 1D conceptual model to determine flooding probability along wide coastal stretches and by a more detailed 2D Level II reliability method, that provides local quantitative statistical maps of inland flooding propagation. Qualitative maps obtained by literature approaches and quantitative results of flooding probability along the littoral show a good agreement. A coastal flood state indicator is proposed to rapidly assess coastal hazard.     

Evaluation of seismic vulnerability of a complex RC existing building by linear and nonlinear modeling approaches

Recent earthquakes, that stroked Italian regions in past decades (Umbria— Marche 1997; Molise 2002; L’Aquila 2009), pointed out the high vulnerability of reinforced concrete existing buildings causing severe damages in the structures and consequently life losses. This is mainly due to the fact that such structures were often built without reference to seismic actions or on the basis of old standard provisions. Nowadays in Italy, Public Authorities are requested to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of their building stock assessing the actual capacity of such structures, as a consequence of new hazard levels and seismic microzonation introduced by new standards. According to Eurocode 8 or Italian standard NTC 2008, the seismic analysis of existing reinforced concrete buildings can be performed by one of the established procedure (i.e. Linear Static Analysis LSA, Linear Dynamic Analysis LDA, Nonlinear Static Analysis NSA, Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis NDA), depending on the achieved knowledge level about the structural system and materials. In order to compare efficiency and differences of previously described approaches, a deep investigation was executed on a reinforced concrete existing building whose dynamic behaviour was evaluated by an experimental dynamic analysis. In such a way, updated models were obtained and adopted for seismic analysis performed by using linear and nonlinear approaches, taking into account the stiffness and strength contribution of masonry infill walls. It was so possible to get useful indications on the reliability and discrepancies of different modelling approaches as well as on the influence of masonry infills on the seismic response of existing r.c. buildings.     

Numerical modelling of installation effects for diaphragm walls in sand

The scopes of this work are to study the mechanisms of load transfer and the deformations of the ground during slurry trenching and concreting in dry sand and to evaluate their effects on service structural loads, wall deflections and ground displacements behind the wall caused by subsequent excavation. A series of three-dimensional finite element analyses was carried out modelling the installation of diaphragm walls consisting of panels of different length. The soil was modelled as either linearly elastic-perfectly plastic or incrementally non-linear (hypoplastic) with elastic strain range. Plane strain analyses of diaphragm walls of identical cross section were also carried out in which wall installation was either modelled or the wall was wished in place (WIP). The analyses predict ground movements consistent with the experimental observations both in magnitude and trend. The results also show that the maximum horizontal wall deflections and structural loads reduce with increasing panel aspect ratio towards a minimum which is about twice the value computed for WIP analyses. Panel aspect ratios should be larger than about three to take advantage of the three-dimensional effects. The pattern and magnitude of surface vertical displacements obtained from linearly elastic-perfectly plastic analyses, no matter whether three- or two-dimensional, are unrealistic.     

Fluid Geochemistry as Indicator of Tectonically-Related,Deep Water Circulations in the Sardinian Rift-Campidano Graben (Italy): New Insights from Environmental Isotopes

The EC funded Geochemical Seismic Zonation program (EEC GSZ Project 1996–1998) chose Sardinia as a low-seismicity site, in which the relationships between fluid geochemistry and seismo-tectonics had to be investigated and results compared with outcomes from other selected high-seismicity sites. A first article, examining the role of fault segmentation and seismic quiescence on the geochemical composition of groundwaters and gases, has already been presented (Angelone et al. 2005). This article deals with environmental isotopes which, together with selected hydrochemical data, give hints on tectonically-related fluid circulations. Four water-dominated hydrothermal systems were considered, all located along regional fault systems and discharging groundwaters belonging to the Na–HCO₃ and Na–Cl facies. In the considered systems, groundwater circulation takes place, principally, in the Palaeozoic Crystalline Basement (PCB), with the exception of the Logudoro system, where hydrological circuits develop in the Mesozoic Carbonate Platform (MCP). The high CO₂ contents, the non-attainment of fluid-rock equilibrium and the large lithological variability prevent the construction of a unique hydrogeological–geochemical conceptual model. In this case, stable isotopes provide a useful tool to describe the origin of fluids and their subterranean movements. Stable isotopes of water, integrated with hydrochemical data, indicate that fluids are derived from three main end members. The dominant component is a relatively recent local meteoric water; the second one is marine water; and the third one is a fossil freshwater, depleted in heavy isotopes with respect to modern rains. The latter end member entered the aquifer system in the past, when climatic conditions were greatly different from today. At least two circulation systems can be recognised, namely a shallow cold system and a deep hydrothermal system, as well as two distinct hydrological processes: (1) gravity-controlled descent of cold water towards greater depths and (2) convection linked to a thermal gradient, causing deep fluids to rise up from the hydrothermal reservoir towards the surface. The highly variable δ¹³C_TDIC values suggest the presence of two distinct CO₂ sources, namely, a biogenic one and a thermogenic one. The relation between the isotopic compositions of CO₂ and He indicates an increased mantle signature in uprising CO₂-rich fluids.     

Coanda effect in coastal flows

In the present paper some numerical simulations and experiments were carried out to study jet-wall interaction in shallow waters. Namely, modifications of the hydrodynamic field concerning the interaction of river run-off with a shallow coastal water body, due to the presence of marine structures, were investigated. Stratification effects due to salinity and temperature were neglected, and the interest was focused on barotropic features (Coanda effect). The numerical analysis was carried out by means of shallow water equations, numerically solved by finite difference, and the present method was validated by means of a typical simple-shaped test case. The experiments were carried out in a shallow water tank, flow visualizations were performed, and the velocity field was obtained by PIV. The main features of jet-wall interaction flow were investigated in simple-shaped geometries, and applications were shown for two practical cases: Pescara channel harbour (Adriatic Sea, Italy) and the proposed design of Latina harbour (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy).     

The International Radiation Symposium 2016

正1.Overview The 2016 International Radiation Symposium,a joint venture between the IRC(International Radiation Commission)and IAMAS(International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences),took place at the University of Auckland from April 16th to 22nd.The wide scope of atmospheric radiation research was apparent,with focuses rang-