Capability of ETM+ in estimates standing stock in beech stands of mountain forest

Stand volume is an important criterion in forest sciences for monitoring status and function of forests, estimation of productivity, prediction and modeling of forest disturbance, economic and environmental issues, and forest planning. The aim of this research is to evaluate the ETM+ sensor of Landsat 7 satellite data ability for forest timber volume estimation. For this purpose, 40 selective sample plots with 60?×?60 m dimension were selected, and in each sample plot, standing volume was calculated. Correspondent digital data to plots were extracted from spectral and considered as independent variables. Original stand volume data, square root, and logarithm of them were considered as dependent potential for stand volume estimation. Variables using stepwise regression, the best model with coefficient of determination, and adjusted coefficient of determination with regard to determining the appropriate model were modified Log?V=?07.546?+?0.85Greenness???10.564NDWI???28 0.063Band1. In this model, the coefficient of determination and adjusted coefficient of determination were obtained 0.778 and 0.770, respectively. Result showed that spectral data of the mentioned sensor have a moderate.     

Influence of Collective Boulder Array on the Surrounding Time-averaged and Turbulent Flow Fields

Arrays of large immobile boulders,which are often encountered in steep mountain streams,affect the timing and magnitude of sediment transport events through their interactions with the approach flow.Despite their importance in the quantification of the bedload rate,the collective influence of a boulder array on the approach timeaveraged and turbulent flow field has to date been overlooked.The overarching objective is,thus,to assess the collective effects of a boulder array on the time-averaged and turbulent flow fields surrounding an individual boulder within the array,placing particular emphasis on highlighting the bed shear stress spatial variability.The objective of this study is pursued by resolving and comparing the timeaveraged and turbulent flow fields developing around a boulder,with and without an array of isolated boulders being present.The results show that the effects of an individual boulder on the time-averaged streamwise velocity and turbulence intensity were limited to the boulder’s immediate vicinity in the streamwise（x/d c 〈 2-3） and vertical（z/d c 〈 1） directions.Outside of the boulder’s immediate vicinity,the time-averaged streamwise velocity was found to be globally decelerated.This global deceleration was attributed to the form drag generated collectively by the boulder array.More importantly,the boulder array reduced the applied shear stress exerted on theindividual boulders found within the array,by absorbing a portion of the total applied shear.Furthermore,the array was found to have a ＂homogenizing＂ effect on the near-bed turbulence thus significantly reducing the turbulence intensity in the near-bed region.The findings of this study suggest that the collective boulder array bears a portion of the total applied bed shear stress as form drag,hence reducing the available bed shear stress for transporting incoming mobile sediment.Thus,the effects of the boulder array should not be ignored in sediment transport predictions.These effects are encapsulated in this study by E     

Automatic Determination of Number of Homogenous Regions in SAR Images Utilizing Splitting and Merging Based on a Reversible Jump MCMC Algorithm

This paper presents an algorithm dealing with initial segmentation of speckled Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) intensity images in order to automatically determine the number of homogeneous regions. Taking this problem into account, segmentation procedure utilizing splitting and merging is designed, iteratively. The proposed approach is based upon Bayesian inference, a maximum likelihood gamma distribution parameter estimator, and a Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) algorithm. By using of image splitting operation, SAR image is partitioned into finite regions iteratively, until all individual regions are coherent. Then each region is assigned a unique label to indicate the class to which the homogeneous region belongs. The intensities of pixels in each coherent region are assumed to satisfy identical and independent gamma distribution. Then an RJMCMC scheme is designed to simulate the posterior distribution in order to estimate the number of components and delineate an initial segmentation. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to define the number of homogeneous regions rather than a perfect segmentation, i.e. model outputs can be served for unsupervised segmentation methodologies as prior information. The results obtained from Radarsat-1/2 of SAR intensity images show that the proposed algorithm is both capable and reliable in defining the accurate number of homogeneous regions in a wide variety of SAR intensity images, comprising a high level of speckle noise.     

Closure to ＂Discussion on ＇Optimum placement and characteristics of velocity-dependent dampers under seismic excitation＇ by SA Mousavi and AK Ghorbani-Tanha＂ by Izuru Takewaki

The authors would like to thank the discusser for his considerations and comments. The discusser believes that some of the derived formulations need to be referred to his previously published works and also some related studies have not been cited.     

Suspended load estimation using L1-fuzzy regression,L2-fuzzy regression and MARS-fuzzy regression models

ABSTRACT

The problem of estimation of suspended load carried by a river is an important topic for many water resources projects. Conventional estimation methods are based on the assumption of exact observations. In practice, however, a major source of natural uncertainty is due to imprecise measurements and/or imprecise relationships between variables. In this paper, using the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) technique, a novel fuzzy regression model for imprecise response and crisp explanatory variables is presented. The investigated fuzzy regression model is applied to forecast suspended load by discharge based on two real-world datasets. The accuracy of the proposed method is compared with two well-known parametric fuzzy regression models, namely, the fuzzy least-absolutes model and the fuzzy least-squares model. The comparison results reveal that the MARS-fuzzy regression model performs better than the other models in suspended load estimation for the particular datasets. This comparison is done based on four goodness-of-fit criteria: the criterion based on similarity measure, the criterion based on absolute errors and the two objective functions of the fuzzy least-absolutes model and the fuzzy least-squares model. The proposed model is general and can be used for modelling natural phenomena whose available observations are reported as imprecise rather than crisp.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor H. Aksoy     

The oil price crash of 2020: causes,consequences and historical context

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed every affair of our society, and rightly so. Nevertheless, the world has also plunged into an economic crisis of enormous gravity on par with the Great Depression of the 1930s. The oil market crash is an alarming symptom of this weakened economy which hurts all people, whether affected by coronavirus or not. This article examines its causes, consequences and historical context.     

Removal of the Alphazurine FG Dye from Simulated Solution by Electrocoagulation

The removal of Alphazurine FG (AF) dye from water by an electrocoagulation process has been studied. The effect of some operational parameters, such as anode material, current density, initial dye concentration, pH of solution, conductivity, and inter‐electrode distance, on the removal efficiency was investigated. Iron and aluminum were used as anodes in the electrocoagulation cell. It was found that the efficiency of the iron anode was better than that of the aluminum anode for AF removal. The factors that affected the removal efficiency were the current density and the initial dye concentration. The removal efficiency increased from about 35% at 25 A m^–2 to about 97% at 100 A m^–2, during 4 min of electrocoagulation. The results exhibited pseudo‐first‐order kinetics for AF removal by electrocoagulation. In addition, a mathematical model was successfully established for predicting the removal efficiency. A comparison between the model results and experimental data gave a high correlation coefficient (R² = 0.9925), which indicates that the model is able to predict the removal efficiency of AF.     

Physically based modelling of sheet erosion (detachment and deposition processes) in complex hillslopes

A one‐dimensional uncoupled model governed by this research is a physics‐based modelling of the rainfall‐runoff induced erosion process. The presented model is composed of three parts of a three‐dimensional (3D) hillslope geometry, a nonlinear storage (kinematic wave) model for hillslope hydrological response, and an unsteady physically based surface erosion model. The 3D hillslope geometry model allows describing of the hillslope morphology by defining their plan shape and profile curvature. By changing these two topographic parameters, nine basic hillslope types are derived. The modelling of hillslope hydrological response is based on a flow continuity equation as the relation of discharge and flow depth is passed on kinematic wave approximation. The erosion model is based on a mass conservation equation for unsteady flow. The model assumes that suspended sediment does not affect flow dynamics. The model also accounts for the effect of flow depth plus loose soil depth on soil detachment. The presented model was run for two different precipitations, slope content, and length, and results were plotted for sediment detachment/deposition rate. Based on the obtained results, in hillslopes with convex and straight profile curvatures, sediment detachment only occurred in the whole length of the hillslope. However, in concave ones, sediment detachment and deposition only occurred together in hillslope. The hillslopes with straight profiles and convergent plans have the highest rate of detachment. Also, results show that most detachment rates occur in convex profile curvatures, which are about 15 times more than in straight profiles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial distribution and biodiversity of macrofauna in the southeast of the Caspian Sea, Gorgan Bay in relation to environmental conditions

Spatial distribution and biodiversity of macrofauna in the Gorgan Bay, southeast of the Caspian Sea, were studied at fifteen stations in June 2010. Also, depth, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, total organic matter content and sediment particle size were measured in each station. A total 3,356 individuals belonged to eight families and ten species were identified. Polychaeta were numerically dominated groups and Streblospio gynobranchiata, was constant and dominant species with 60.28% of total individuals but Bivalvia with four species had highest species number, though the density of them were low. The maximum density (4,500 ind/m²) was obtained at station 1 while the minimum (411 ind/m²) was observed at station 6. There was not significant correlation between the density of macrofauna with all environmental conditions. In total, six feeding group were considered but surface deposit feeder and deposit feeder were dominant in all stations. The maximum mean species number, diversity, richness, and evenness were obtained, 6.33, 1.46, 1.38 and 0.87, respectively. Based on the M-AMBI and the AMBI classification it seems that bentic environment in Gorgan Bay was not bad but the results of Shannon-Wiener, Margalef and Simpson indices the results were vice versa. In general, the values of the mentioned indices decreased from the western to the eastern part of the bay. Furthermore, the nonmetric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) showed that the structure of the macrofaunal assemblages was divides to six groups.     

伊朗锡斯坦地区沙漠灾害区划(英文)

Desertification process as a great problem affects most of the countries in the world.This process has a high rate in arid and semiarid areas.Today,human societies are encountering the desertification phenomenon as a serious problem which causes various irreparable damages to economic and social sectors.In order to assess desertification results in production of different regional models for their application in another region the indices should be re-investigated and adjusted to local conditions.Several models have been developed for desertification evaluation.The present study,attempts to assess quantitatively the desertification process has in an area located at Sistan plain of Iran(Niatak region as a case study) by using Modified MEDALUS method.The obtained results indicated that of the whole studied region(comprising 4819.6 acres),2651.56 acres(55%) are located in medium desertification intensity class,1269.48 acres(26.34%) are positioned in severe desertification intensity class,and 898.54 acres(18.64%) are placed in vary severe desertification intensity class.