Climate extremes in the United States: recent research by physical geographers

This paper reports our review of research on domestic climate extremes conducted by US physical geographers over the past 15?years. Sections cover extremes in wind, precipitation, lightning, and temperature, as well as derivative climate extremes (droughts, floods, and storm surges). Themes considered include: the spatial and temporal distribution of the climate extreme; its implications for our understanding of the physical processes that produce it; the spatial and temporal distributions of the extreme’s economic and human costs; lessons for assessment, policy, and management; and scale. We conclude that most of the works reviewed inadequately address the human basis of vulnerability to climate extremes, and encourage physical geographers to work with colleagues from the other subfields of geography and the social sciences to develop the holistic understanding of vulnerability needed to effectively adapt to the more extreme climate projected under climate change.     

Floor spectra of mixed base isolated structures

This work investigates the efficiency of mixed base isolation, combining passive isolation bearings with semi-active (SAC) devices, to reduce the floor spectral acceleration in the vicinity of the non-isolated modes’ frequencies. Both analytical and experimental studies have been carried out. Analytical results of the behaviour of a multiple degree of freedom base isolated structure demonstrate the efficacy of the method. Though the considered controller is based on a reduced order model with only two degrees of freedom (2 DOF) without spillover compensation, the results show that, for the type of structures studied here, spillover effects are not considerable. An experimental study of a 2 DOF model of a base isolated structure equipped with a semi-active magneto-rheological (MR) damper has been carried out. Due to limitations of the experimental set-up, it has not been possible to obtain direct experimental evidence of the efficacy of SAC control to improve floor spectra. Nevertheless, based on the good agreement between analytical and experimental results which validate the considered MR model and control algorithm, numerical analyses of more relevant configurations illustrated the benefit of the utilization of such devices.     

Modeling regional sediment transport and shoreline response in the vicinity of tidal inlets on the Long Island coast,United States

A new numerical model was developed to simulate regional sediment transport and shoreline response in the vicinity of tidal inlets based on the one-line theory combined with the reservoir analogy approach for volumetric evolution of inlet shoals. Sand bypassing onshore and sheltering effects on wave action from the inlet bar and shoals were taken into account. The model was applied to unique field data from the south coast of Long Island, United States, including inlet opening and closure. The simulation area extended from Montauk Point to Fire Island Inlet, including Shinnecock and Moriches Inlets. A 20-year long time series of hindcast wave data at three stations along the coast were used as input data to the model. The capacity of the inlet shoals and bars to store sand was estimated based on measured cross-sectional areas of the inlets as well as on comprehensive bathymetric surveys of the areas around the inlet. Several types of sediment sources and sinks were represented, including beach fills, groin systems, jetty blocking, inlet bypassing, and flood shoal and ebb shoal feeding. The model simulations were validated against annual net longshore transport rates reported in the literature, measured shorelines, and recorded sediment volumes in the flood and ebb shoal complexes. Overall, the model simulations were in good agreement with the measured data.     

Experimental investigation of bedload transport processes under unsteady flow conditions

Hydraulic engineering is usually based on theoretical analysis and/or numerical modelling simulation. As the dynamic behaviour of sediment movement under unsteady flow is still unclear, and field measurement is comparatively difficult during a large flood, prior investigations through flume experiments are required. A series of flume experiments, conducted using different inflow hydrographs without sediment supply from upstream, was carried out to investigate the sediment transport process under unsteady flow conditions. A series of triangular hydrographs were performed in the experiments. The results indicate that a temporal lag was found between the flow hydrograph peak and the sediment hydrograph peak because large size sand dunes lasted for a short period in the falling limb of the flow hydrograph. The temporal lag was found to be about equal to 6–15% of the flow hydrograph duration. Owing to the temporal lag, the total bedload yield in the rising period was less than that in the falling period. Furthermore, the measured total bedload yield in the unsteady flow experiments was larger than the predicted value, which was estimated by using the results obtained from the equivalent steady flow experiment. The peak bedload transport rate for unsteady flow conditions was also larger than the predicted value. The ratios of the measured to the predicted quantities mentioned above were found to be constant values for different shapes of hydrographs. It is, therefore, expected that the analytical results of sediment transport from equivalent steady flow can be a good reference for sediment transport under unsteady flow conditions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fuzzy finite element analysis of a foundation on an elastic soil medium

One of the important factors that lead to errors in settlement predicitions is the degree of precision in obtaining the soil parameters. Most mathematical methods for reliability modelling offered to date in the area of geomechanics are based on the classical probabilistic approach, in which soil properties are treated as random variables. In this paper, a model based on the theory of fuzzy sets is presented to take account of the uncertainty in the soil behaviour. This proposed method considers the elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio as two fuzzy numbers in the elastic matrix. An example is given to show the possibility distributions of the displacements and the stresses at some locations in the soil medium. By means of a fuzzy inference scheme, the total possibility distributions or total membership functions of the finite element results may be obtained by considering the estimated error resulting from the mesh discretization.     

SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM STUDY OF CRUSTAL DEFORMATION IN VIETNAM

1　IntroductionOneofthemaintasksinstudyinggeodynamicprocessisevaluatingtherateofearthcrustmove ments.Normally ,themethodsforstudyingearthcrustmovementareestablishedonthebasisoftheobjectofstudyandtherequirementsfortheresultstobeobtainedasfollows.1 )Tostudythemovingprocessofcrustplatesinalargeareaandwithinacertaintectonicperiod ,geologicmethodsareusuallyused .2 )Geodeticmeasurementsarecarriedoutinanareacoveringfromsomekm2 totensofkm2 andal lowtodeterminethedisplacementoftheearthcrustwithinaperio…     

Studying Transformations of the Hydrogeochemical Conditions of Pliocene Aquifer System (Mekong R. Delta,Vietnam) Using Thermodynamic Modeling

Water Resources - The results of earlier studies of stable and radioactive isotopes have shown that groundwater of the Middle Pliocene aquifer system form mostly due to the infiltration of meteoric...     

Predicting water flow in fully and partially saturated porous media: a new fractal-based permeability model

Hydrogeology Journal - Predicting the permeability of porous media in saturated and partially saturated conditions is of crucial importance in many geo-engineering areas, from water resources to...     

Improved flood susceptibility mapping using a best first decision tree integrated with ensemble learning techniques

Improving the accuracy of flood prediction and mapping is crucial for reducing damage resulting from flood events. In this study, we proposed and validated three ensemble models based on the Best First Decision Tree (BFT) and the Bagging (Bagging-BFT), Decorate (Bagging-BFT), and Random Subspace (RSS-BFT) ensemble learning techniques for an improved prediction of flood susceptibility in a spatially-explicit manner. A total number of 126 historical flood events from the Nghe An Province (Vietnam) were connected to a set of 10 flood influencing factors (slope, elevation, aspect, curvature, river density, distance from rivers, flow direction, geology, soil, and land use) for generating the training and validation datasets. The models were validated via several performance metrics that demonstrated the capability of all three ensemble models in elucidating the underlying pattern of flood occurrences within the research area and predicting the probability of future flood events. Based on the Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve (AUC), the ensemble Decorate-BFT model that achieved an AUC value of 0.989 was identified as the superior model over the RSS-BFT (AUC = 0.982) and Bagging-BFT (AUC = 0.967) models. A comparison between the performance of the models and the models previously reported in the literature confirmed that our ensemble models provided a reliable estimate of flood susceptibilities and their resulting susceptibility maps are trustful for flood early warning systems as well as development of mitigation plans.     

Investigating the impacts of typhoon-induced floods on the agriculture in the central region of Vietnam by using hydrological models and satellite data

Flooding associated with landing tropical cyclones (TCs) is one of the major natural hazards in the coastal region of Vietnam. Annually, approximately 5 or 6 TCs make landfall in Vietnam, bringing heavy rains and inducing flooding, particularly to the central coastal region because of its topography and geographic configuration. This study focuses on the modelling of typhoon-induced floods that have resulted in widespread damage to agriculture over the central Thua Thien Hue Province of Vietnam by coupling two well-known hydrological models, KINEROS2 and HEC-RAS (Daniel et al. in Open Hydrol J 5(1), 2011), and using GSMaP (Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation) data as the satellite rainfall input. Landsat imagery and GIS are also used for mapping and analysing the inundated areas. The discharge and water level from the KINEROS2 and HEC-RAS models displayed acceptable results for the floods modelled from three selected typhoons; both the Nash–Sutcliffe simulation efficiency coefficient (NSE) and the coefficient of determination (R²) were greater than 0.6. The simulated inundation maps of these typhoon-induced floods were compared with those extracted from the Landsat imagery to assess consistency. The result revealed a similar spatial extension of the inundated agricultural areas. This information, together with the forecasted TC movements and associated rainfalls, will be helpful to plan methods for mitigating potential typhoon-induced flooding and damage, particularly damage to agricultural regions.