Possibilities and Limitations of Interdisciplinary, User-oriented Research: Experiences from the German Research Network Natural Disasters

The German Research Network for Natural Disasters (DFNK) linked 15 partners with scientific expertise in the field of natural hazards. Main objectives were the development and provision of the scientific fundamentals for an advanced risk management of important natural disasters in Germany, i.e., floods, earthquakes, storms and wildland fires. This included risk analyses, the development of information systems for supporting disaster management, and recommendations for risk reduction measures. This paper gives an overview of DFNK and summarises its experiences concerning multidisciplinarity and user-orientation. It illustrates the concept of risk chains, causally linking the different processes from hazard to risk. The step from hazard to risk requires interdisciplinary research teams. The experiences show that integrative concepts allow results not achievable with mono-disciplinary approaches. Integrative approaches pave the way to harmonised safety considerations taking into account the different hazards in a region within a common framework. User-orientation, policy advice and development of operational tools are key issues of disaster research. The experiences of DFNK illustrate the limitations of a research network in bridging the gap between research and application within rather short-term projects. Successful cooperation with users could be established by those activities where, at the beginning of the project, a user was identified who had a strong interest in solving an urgent problem.     

Assessment of Discharge through a Dike Breach and Simulation of Flood Wave Propagation

This paper presents a simple and fast method to calculate flow through a dike breach. The approach was based on two-dimensional numerical simulations of idealized dike breakages at straight river-sections. As a result, computation of discharge through a breach can be achieved by use of the new developed formula (denoted as dike break formula). Furthermore, a methodology that combines one-dimensional hydrodynamic modelling, the dike break formula and a simple GIS-based method to estimate inundation areas is described. This fast and easy-to-handle tool can be utilized for near real-time forecasting or evacuation decisions. Detailed predictions were made for a number of flood and dike break scenarios at the River Rhine to prove the accuracy of the new method compared with two-dimensional numerical models.     

Stratigraphy and ammonite fauna of the upper Shemshak Formation (Toarcian–Aalenian) at Tazareh, eastern Alborz, Iran

With a thickness of 3900 m, the Tazareh section is one of the thickest developments of the Shemshak Formation in the Alborz range. It overlies with sharp and disconformable contact the limestones and dolomites of the Lower–Middle Triassic Elikah Formation and is topped, again with a disconformable contact, by the marls and limestones of the Middle Jurassic Dalichai Formation. The nearly exclusively siliciclastic succession represents a range of environments, from fluvial channels, flood plains, swamps and lake systems to storm-dominated shelf, and a comparatively deep marine and partly dysoxic basin. The segment of the section between 2300 and 3500 m is exclusively marine and contains a moderately diverse ammonite fauna, ranging from the Middle Toarcian to the Upper Aalenian. The ammonite fauna comprises 21 taxa, among them the new genus Shahrudites with two new species, Shahrudites asseretoi and S. stoecklini from the Middle Aalenian Bradfordensis Zone. The other ammonites from the Shemshak Formation at Tazareh (as elsewhere in North and Central Iran) are exclusively Tethyan in character and closely related to faunas from western and central Europe. An ammonite-based correlation of Toarcian–Aalenian successions of the eastern Alborz with time-equivalent strata of the Lut Block, part of the Central-East Iranian Microcontinent (ca. 500 km to the south), suggests a strong influence of synsedimentary tectonics during the deposition of the upper Shemshak Formation.     

Comparisons of homogeneously reprocessed GPS and VLBI long time-series of troposphere zenith delays and gradients

Troposphere parameters estimated from space-geodetic techniques, like the Global Positioning System (GPS) or Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), can be used to monitor the atmospheric water vapor content. Although the troposphere can only be monitored at discrete locations, the distribution of the instruments, at least the GPS antennas, can be assumed to be quasi-global. Critical in the data analysis are systematic effects within each single technique that significantly degrade the accuracy and especially the long-term stability of the zenith delay determination. In this paper, consistent time-series of troposphere zenith delays and gradients from homogeneously reprocessed GPS and VLBI solutions are compared for a time period of 11 years. The homogeneity of these completely reprocessed time-series is essential to avoid misinterpretations due to individual model changes. Co-located sites are used to investigate systematic effects and the long-term behavior of the two space-geodetic techniques. Both techniques show common signals in the troposphere parameters at a very high level of precision. The biases between the troposphere zenith delays are at the level of a few millimeters. On the other hand, long-term trends significantly differ for the two techniques, preventing climatological interpretations at present. Tests assume these differences to be due to mathematical artifacts such as different sampling rates and unmodeled semi-annual signals with varying amplitudes.     

The contribution of Very Long Baseline Interferometry to ITRF2005

The contribution of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) to the ITRF2005 (International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2005) has been computed by the IVS Analysis Coordinator’s office at the Geodetic Institute of the University of Bonn, Germany. For this purpose the IVS Analysis Centres (ACs) provided datum-free normal equation matrices in Solution INdependent EXchange (SINEX) format for each 24 h observing session to be combined on a session-by-session basis by a stacking procedure. In this process, common sets of parameters, transformed to identical reference epochs and a prioris, and especially representative relative weights have been taken into account for each session. In order to assess the quality of the combined IVS files, Earth orientation parameters (EOPs) and scaling factors have been derived from the combined normal equation matrices. The agreement of the EOPs of the combined normal equation matrices with those of the individual ACs in terms of weighted root mean square (WRMS) is in the range of 50–60 μas for the two polar motion components and about 3 μs for UT1−UTC. External comparisons with International GNSS Serive (IGS) polar motion components is at the level of 130–170 μas and 21 μs/day for length of day (LOD). The scale of the terrestrial reference frame realized through the IVS SINEX files agrees with ITRF2000 at the level of 0.2 ppb.     

A method to reconstruct flood scenarios using field interviews and hydrodynamic modelling: application to the 2017 Suleja and Tafa,Nigeria flood

Natural Hazards - The scarcity of model input and calibration data has limited efforts in reconstructing scenarios of past floods in many regions globally. Recently, the number of studies that use...     

What we know about elemental bulk chondrule and matrix compositions: Presenting the ChondriteDB Database

Chondrules and matrix are the major components of chondritic meteorites and represent a significant evolutionary step in planet formation. The formation and evolution of chondrules and matrix and, in particular, the mechanics of chondrule formation remain the biggest unsolved challenge in meteoritics. A large number of studies of these major components not only helped to understand these in ever greater detail, but also produced a remarkably large body of data. Studying all available data has become known as ?big data? analyses and promises deep insights – in this case – to chondrule and matrix formation and relationships. Looking at all data may also allow one to better understand the mechanism of chondrule formation or, equally important, what information we might be missing to identify this process. A database of all available chondrule and matrix data further provides an overview and quick visualisation, which will not only help to solve actual problems, but also enable students and future researchers to quickly access and understand all we know about these components. We collected all available data on elemental bulk chondrule and matrix compositions in a database that we call ChondriteDB. The database also contains petrographic and petrologic information on chondrules. Currently, ChondriteDB contains about 2388 chondrule and 1064 matrix data from 70 different publications and 161 different chondrites. Future iterations of ChondriteDB will include isotope data and information on other chondrite components. Data quality is of critical importance. However, as we discuss, quality is not an objective category, but a subjective judgement. Quantifiable data acquisition categories are required that allow selecting the appropriate data from a database in the context of a given research problem. We provide a comprehensive overview on the contents of ChondriteDB. The database is available as an Excel file upon request from the senior author of this paper, or can be accessed through MetBase.     

Timing of rockfalls in the Mont Blanc massif (Western Alps): evidence from surface exposure dating with cosmogenic <Superscript>10</Superscript>Be

Rockfalls and rock avalanches are a recurrent process in high mountain areas like the Mont Blanc massif. These processes are surveyed due to the hazard they present for infrastructure and alpinists. While rockfalls and rock avalanches have been documented for the last 150 years, we know very little about their frequency since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). In order to improve our understanding, it is imperative to date them on a longer timescale. A pilot campaign using Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclide (TCN) dating of five samples was carried out in 2006 at the Aiguille du Midi (3842 m a.s.l.). In 2011, a larger scale study (20 samples) was carried out in five other test sites in the Mont Blanc massif. This paper presents the exposure ages of the 2011 TCN study as well as the updated exposure ages of the 2006 study using newer TCN dating parameters. Most of these exposure ages lie within the Holocene but three ages are Pleistocene (59.87?±?6.10 ka for the oldest). A comparison of these ages with air temperature and glacier cover proxies explored the possible relationship between the most active rockfall periods and the warmest periods of the Holocene: two clusters of exposure ages have been detected, corresponding to the Middle Holocene (8.2–4.2 ka) and the Roman Warm Period (c. 2 ka) climate periods. Some recent rockfalls have also been dated (<?0.56 ka).     

A tectono-stratigraphic record of an extensional basin: the Lower Jurassic Ab-Haji Formation of east-central Iran

The Lower Jurassic Ab-Haji Formation consists of siliciclastic strata which are widespread and superbly exposed across the Tabas and Lut blocks of east-central Iran. The formation records the geodynamic history of central Iran during the Early Jurassic in the aftermath of the main Cimmerian event (near the Triassic–Jurassic boundary) through its sedimentary facies and stratigraphic architecture and allows palaeogeographic and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. We measured and studied three well-exposed outcrop sections and identified lithofacies and facies associations (fluvial plain, delta plain, delta front, prodelta, and shallow-marine siliciclastic shelf). The integration of all geological, stratigraphic, and sedimentological data shows a west-to-east continental-to-marine gradient within the Ab-Haji Formation. Based on thickness variations, lateral facies changes, palaeocurrent patterns, and changes in the nature of the basal contact of the Ab-Haji Formation on the Tabas and Lut blocks, we locate the fault-bounded Yazd Block in the west and the Shotori Swell at the eastern edge of the Tabas Block as provenance regions. The pattern of thickness variations, rapid east–west facies changes, and provenance is best explained by a tectonic model invoking large tilted fault blocks in an extensional basin. The basal unit shows distinct increase in grain size at the base of the Ab-Haji Formation, similar to the Shemshak Group of the Alborz Mountains (the base of the Alasht Formation) and the non-marine time-equivalent succession of the Binalud Mountains of northeastern Iran. This grain size pattern may have been caused by rapid source area uplift due to slab break-off of the subducted Iran plate in the course of the Cimmerian collision in east-central Iran.