High‐resolution topography and anthropogenic feature extraction: testing geomorphometric parameters in floodplains

In floodplains, anthropogenic features such as levees or road scarps, control and influence flows. An up‐to‐date and accurate digital data about these features are deeply needed for irrigation and flood mitigation purposes. Nowadays, LiDAR Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) covering large areas are available for public authorities, and there is a widespread interest in the application of such models for the automatic or semiautomatic recognition of features. The automatic recognition of levees and road scarps from these models can offer a quick and accurate method to improve topographic databases for large‐scale applications. In mountainous contexts, geomorphometric indicators derived from DTMs have been proven to be reliable for feasible applications, and the use of statistical operators as thresholds showed a high reliability to identify features. The goal of this research is to test if similar approaches can be feasible also in floodplains. Three different parameters are tested at different scales on LiDAR DTM. The boxplot is applied to identify an objective threshold for feature extraction, and a filtering procedure is proposed to improve the quality of the extractions. This analysis, in line with other works for different environments, underlined (1) how statistical parameters can offer an objective threshold to identify features with varying shapes, size and height; (2) that the effectiveness of topographic parameters to identify anthropogenic features is related to the dimension of the investigated areas. The analysis also showed that the shape of the investigated area has not much influence on the quality of the results. While the effectiveness of residual topography had already been proven, the proposed study underlined how the use of entropy can anyway provide good extractions, with an overall quality comparable to the one offered by residual topography, and with the only limitation that the extracted features are slightly wider than the investigated one. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Physical infrastructure interdependency and regional resilience index after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan

A resilience index is used to quantify preventive measures, emergency measures, and restoration measures of complex systems, such as physical infrastructures, when they are subjected to natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, etc. Interdependencies among these systems can generate cascading failures or amplification effects, which can also affect the restoration measures right after an extreme event and generate a reduction of the resilience index. In this article, a method is proposed to evaluate the physical infrastructure resilience of a region affected by a disaster considering infrastructure interdependency. It is illustrated using available restoration curves from the March 11 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan. The weights assigned to each infrastructure, which are used to determine resilience, are evaluated using the degree of interdependency indices which are obtain by time series analysis. Results show that the weight coefficients thus obtained do not influence the resilience index significantly; however, the methodology proposed is unbiased from subjective judgment and is able to identify the critical lifelines. Furthermore, the results of the case study presented here suggest that to obtain meaningful estimation of the weight coefficients, it is necessary to consider the period range between two perturbations (e.g., main shock and aftershock). Future infrastructure disruption data (from this and other earthquakes) would be needed to generalize this finding that will allow also to quantify the changes in the restoration curves caused by the magnitude and distance of the shocks from the epicenter, as well as the intrinsic properties of the physical infrastructures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Failure simulation of shear‐critical RC columns with non‐ductile detailing under lateral load

Reinforced concrete columns with non‐ductile detailing typically exhibit a softening behavior characterized by severe degradation when subjected to cyclic lateral loads. Whether the response is brittle or ductile, shear failure occurs with an inclined through crack along which sliding occurs coupled with loss of horizontal and vertical load‐bearing capacity of the member. The rapid loss of resistance after the peak strength is reached is because of one or more of the following local failure mechanisms: brittle failure of poorly confined concrete; buckling of longitudinal reinforcing bars because of lack of adequate transverse reinforcement or following opening of stirrups after spalling of cover concrete; bond failure. In this study, a modeling strategy to build a detailed 3D finite element model capable of capturing all of the above‐mentioned local failure mechanisms is presented. In particular, a steel–concrete interface model for representing the interaction within the member between concrete core, cover and longitudinal and transverse reinforcement is proposed. Comparison with results of an experimental test of a shear‐sensitive column demonstrates the effectiveness of the simulation up to failure of the element. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A joint analysis of river runoff and meteorological forcing in the Karakoram,upper Indus Basin

Satellite‐geodetic altimetry investigations in the Karakoram have indicated slight mass gain or loss of the glaciers during the early part of 21st century. Equivalent discharge in the upper Indus Basin due to these mass changes has been estimated at 5 to 10% of mean annual flow. However, satellite altimetry and geodetic glacier mass estimates in the extreme topography of the Karakoram have not yet been counter‐validated by hydrological analysis. Therefore, we present a first cross validation of three to five decades of river flow data from the three major watersheds in the Karakoram, with matching series of monthly precipitation, temperature, and evaporation provided by six atmospheric reanalysis products for 1979–2014. The analyses suggest that in most cases river flows have been increasing steadily from the end of the 1960s and 1970s to the middle of the 1990s and have stabilized or are in decline since then. Hunza watershed in Karakoram West shows consistently declining flows over the first half of the analysis period and stable flows during the second half for most of the summer melting season, suggesting mass accumulation. Rising river flows in the Shyok and Shigar watersheds, followed by stabilizing or slightly declining flows from 1995 onward, can be explained by consistently increasing precipitation during the first half of the analysis period, and successive stabilization or minor decline thereof. Flow data do not necessarily suggest considerable loss or gain of glacial mass in the Karakoram during the late 90s and early 2000s as suggested by satellite‐based altimetry studies.     

Young runoff fractions control streamwater age and solute concentration dynamics

We introduce a new representation of coupled solute and water age dynamics at the catchment scale, which shows how the contributions of young runoff waters can be directly referenced to observed water quality patterns. The methodology stems from recent trends in hydrologic transport that acknowledge the dynamic nature of streamflow age and explores the use of water age fractions as an alternative to the mean age. The approach uses a travel time‐based transport model to compute the fractions of streamflow that are younger than some thresholds (e.g., younger than a few weeks) and compares them to observed solute concentration patterns. The method is here validated with data from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest during spring 2008, where we show that the presence of water younger than roughly 2 weeks, tracked using a hydrologic transport model and deuterium measurements, mimics the variation in dissolved silicon concentrations. Our approach suggests that an age–discharge relationship can be coupled to classic concentration–discharge relationship, to identify the links between transport timescales and solute concentration. Our results highlight that the younger streamflow components can be crucial for determining water quality variations and for characterizing the dominant hydrologic transport dynamics.     

Biomorphological scaling laws from convectively accelerated streams

Worldwide convectively accelerated streams flowing in downstream-narrowing river sections show that riverbed vegetation growing on alluvial sediment bars gradually disappears, forming a front beyond which vegetation is absent. We revise a recently proposed analytical model able to predict the expected longitudinal position of the vegetation front. The model was developed considering the steady state approximation of 1-D ecomorphodynamics equations. While the model was tested against flume experiments, its extension and application to the field is not trivial as it requires the definition of proper scaling laws governing the observed phenomenon. In this work, we present a procedure to calculate vegetation parameters and flow magnitude governing the equilibrium at the reach scale between hydromorphological and biological components in rivers with converging boundaries. We collected from worldwide rivers data of section topography, hydrogeomorphological and riparian vegetation characteristics to perform a statistical analysis aimed to validate the proposed procedure. Results are presented in the form of scaling laws correlating biological parameters of growth and decay from different vegetation species to flood return period and duration, respectively. Such relationships demonstrate the existence of underlying selective processes determining the riparian vegetation both in terms of species and cover. We interpret the selection of vegetation species from ecomorphodynamic processes occurring in convectively accelerated streams as the orchestrated dynamic action of flow, sediment and vegetation characteristics. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speciation and role of iron in cloud droplets at the puy de Dôme station

Iron is the most abundant transition metal in the atmosphere and can play a significant role in cloudwater chemistry where its reactivity is closely related to the partitioning between Fe(II) and Fe(III). The objective of this work is to determine the total iron content and the iron speciation in a free tropospheric site, and to understand which factors influence these parameters. We collected 147 samples of cloudwater during 34 cloud events over a period of four years at the puy de Dôme summit. Besides iron we measured other chemical compounds, solar radiation, physico-chemical and meteorological parameters potentially connected with iron reactivity. The total iron concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 9.1 μM with the major frequency occurring at low levels. The pH and presence of organic complexants seem to be the most significant factors connected with total dissolved iron; while the iron oxidation state seems to be an independent factor. Light intensity, presence of complexants or oxidants (H₂O₂) do not influence the Fe(II)/Fe(Total) ratio, that was quite constant at about 0.75. This could be due to the potential redox that forces the Fe(II)-Fe(III) couple to the reduced form or, more probably to the complexation by Natural Organic Matter, that can stabilize iron in its reduced form and prevent further oxidation. Our field measurements did not show the diurnal cycle observed in surface water and predicted by models of atmospheric chemistry. This result prompts a more careful review of the role of iron and, by analogy, all the transition metals in atmospheric liquid phase, often over-estimated in the literature.     

Comparison of nonlinear static methods for the assessment of asymmetric buildings

Traditional nonlinear static methods, e.g. the original version of the N2 method implemented in Eurocode 8, are not always effective in the assessment of asymmetric structures because of the errors committed in the evaluation of the torsional response. To overcome this shortcoming, two methods have recently been suggested by Kreslin and Fajfar (Bull Earthquake Eng 10(2):695–715, 2012) and Bosco et al. (Earthq Eng Struct Dyn 41:1751–1773, 2012). In particular, the method proposed by Kreslin and Fajfar adjusts the results of the nonlinear static analysis by means of those of a standard modal response spectrum analysis. In the method proposed by Bosco et al., the researchers suggested the use of two nonlinear static analyses characterized by lateral forces applied to different points of the deck. In this paper, the two improved nonlinear static methods and the original N2 method are applied to predict the maximum dynamic response of single- and multi-storey systems subjected to artificial and recorded accelerograms. The results highlight that the improved nonlinear static methods provide estimates which are more accurate than those of the original N2 method. Further, the comparison of the results identifies the range of the structural properties within which the original N2 method is still reliable and the range within which one of the two improved methods should be preferred.     

The topographic signature of a major typhoon

In August 2009, the typhoon Morakot, characterized by a cumulative rainfall up to 2884 mm in about three days, triggered thousands of landslides in Taiwan. The availability of LiDAR surveys before (2005) and after (2010) this event offers a unique opportunity to investigate the topographic signatures of a major typhoon. The analysis considers the comparison of slope–area relationships derived by LiDAR digital terrain models (DTMs). This approach has been successfully used to distinguish hillslope from channelized processes, as a basis to develop landscape evolution models and theories, and understand the linkages between landscape morphology and tectonics, climate, and geology. We considered six catchments affected by a different degree of erosion: three affected by shallow and deep‐seated landslides, and three not affected by erosion. For each of these catchments, 2 m DTMs were derived from LiDAR data. The scaling regimes of local slope versus drainage area suggested that for the catchments affected by landslides: (i) the hillslope‐to‐valley transitions morphology, for a given value of drainage area, is shifted towards higher value of slopes, thus indicating a likely migration of the channelized processes and erosion toward the catchment boundary (the catchment head becomes steeper because of erosion); (ii) the topographic gradient along valley profiles tends to decrease progressively (the valley profile becomes gentler because of sediment deposition after the typhoon). The catchments without any landslides present a statistically indistinguishable slope–area scaling regime. These results are interesting since for the first time, using multi‐temporal high‐resolution topography derived by LiDAR, we demonstrated that a single climate event is able to cause significant major geomorphic changes on the landscape, detectable using slope–area scaling analysis. This provides new insights about landscape evolution under major climate forcing. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bank erosion in agricultural drainage networks: new challenges from structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry for post‐event analysis

Drainage channels are an integral part of agricultural landscapes, and their impact on catchment hydrology is strongly recognized. In cultivated and urbanized floodplains, channels have always played a key role in flood protection, land reclamation, and irrigation. Bank erosion is a critical issue in channels. Neglecting this process, especially during flood events, can result in underestimation of the risk in flood‐prone areas. The main aim of this work is to consider a low‐cost methodology for the analysis of bank erosion in agricultural drainage networks, and in particular for the estimation of the volumes of eroded and deposited material. A case study located in the Veneto floodplain was selected. The research is based on high‐resolution topographic data obtained by an emerging low‐cost photogrammetric method (structure‐from‐motion or SfM), and results are compared to terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data. For the SfM analysis, extensive photosets were obtained using two standalone reflex digital cameras and an iPhone5® built‐in camera. Three digital elevation models (DEMs) were extracted at the resolution of 0.1 m using SfM and were compared with the ones derived by TLS. Using the different DEMs, the eroded areas were then identified using a feature extraction technique based on the topographic parameter Roughness Index (RI). DEMs derived from SfM were effective for both detecting erosion areas and estimating quantitatively the deposition and erosion volumes. Our results underlined how smartphones with high‐resolution built‐in cameras can be competitive instruments for obtaining suitable data for topography analysis and Earth surface monitoring. This methodology could be potentially very useful for farmers and/or technicians for post‐event field surveys to support flood risk management. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.