A novel approach to leveraging social media for rapid flood mapping: a case study of the 2015 South Carolina floods

Rapid flood mapping is critical for local authorities and emergency responders to identify areas in need of immediate attention. However, traditional data collection practices such as remote sensing and field surveying often fail to offer timely information during or right after a flooding event. Social media such as Twitter have emerged as a new data source for disaster management and flood mapping. Using the 2015 South Carolina floods as the study case, this paper introduces a novel approach to mapping the flood in near real time by leveraging Twitter data in geospatial processes. Specifically, in this study, we first analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of flood-related tweets using quantitative methods to better understand how Twitter activity is related to flood phenomena. Then, a kernel-based flood mapping model was developed to map the flooding possibility for the study area based on the water height points derived from tweets and stream gauges. The identified patterns of Twitter activity were used to assign the weights of flood model parameters. The feasibility and accuracy of the model was evaluated by comparing the model output with official inundation maps. Results show that the proposed approach could provide a consistent and comparable estimation of the flood situation in near real time, which is essential for improving the situational awareness during a flooding event to support decision-making.     

Palaeomagnetic results from the ca. 1130 Ma Borgmassivet intrusions in the Ahlmannryggen region of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, and tectonic implications

Detailed palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses provide improved palaeomagnetic results from 23 sites in the Borgmassivet intrusions in the Ahlmannryggen region of Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. These intrusions are of similar age to their host, the ca. 1130 Ma Ritscherflya Supergroup (RSG). A mean direction of D=235.4°, I=−7.6° with k=45.9 and α₉₅=4.5° was obtained from this study. When combined with previously reported results from 11 sites in the same region, including sites from the Ritscherflya Supergroup, it gives an overall mean direction for 34 sites from the igneous suite with D=236.5°, I=−3.6°, k=27.9 and α₉₅=4.8°. Isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) experiments on several specimens suggest magnetite or titanomagnetite as the primary remanence carrier, while high temperature magnetic susceptibility experiments indicate the presence of single domain particles. These observations, together with field evidence and the high coercivities and unblocking temperatures, support a primary origin for the observed characteristic remanence. The Borgmassivet palaeomagnetic pole lies at 54.5°E, 8.3°N with A₉₅=3.3°. If Antarctica is moved to its Gondwanan position adjacent to southeast Africa, the Borgmassivet pole (BM) coincides with that of the African well-established, well-dated (1100 Ma) Umkondo Large Igneous Province pole, supporting the hypothesis that the Grunehogna craton of Dronning Maud Land was part of the Kalahari craton of southern Africa at ca. 1100 Ma.     

Rapid estimation of maximum and minimum void ratios of granular soils

Maximum and minimum void ratios (e_max and e_min) of granular soils are commonly used as indicators of many engineering properties. However, few methods, apart from laboratory tests, are available to provide a rapid estimation of both e_max and e_min. In this study, we present a theoretical model to map the densest and the loosest packing configurations of granular soils onto the void space. A corresponding numerical procedure that can predict both e_max and e_min of granular soils with arbitrary grain size distributions is proposed. The capacity of the proposed method is evaluated by predicting the maximum and minimum void ratios of medium to fine mixed graded sands with different contents of fines. The influence of the grain size distribution, characterized quantitatively by uniformity parameter and the fractal dimension, on e_max and e_min is discussed using the proposed method. Moreover, application of this method in understanding the controlling mechanism for the void ratio change during grain crushing is presented.

     

倾斜基岩上的土-框架相互作用研究

倾斜基岩上的框架是山地、丘陵地区多见的一种结构形式，但以往对其抗震性能研究很少。本文利用二次开发后的ANSYS对倾斜基岩上的框架的抗震性能进行了上下部相互作用分析。在研究中发现，考虑土一结相互作用后，结构的高阶振型在地震反应中的参与程度提高；可能在结构的地震反应傅里叶谱中形成双峰；并使地震反应沿结构高度的分布不再沿直线变化，而呈锯齿状分布。由于倾斜基岩将降低土层对地震波的放大作用，但基本不改变地基的卓越频率，因此倾斜基岩将会抑制上部结构的地震反应；而倾斜基岩上结构的地震反应分布将比相应平坦基岩上结构的地震反应分布更接近直线形分布，但变化形状基本相同。     

渤海、黄海强温跃层数值预报模式

文中对前人关于水温垂直结构计算、模拟和预报研究成果进行了评价，并在此基础上建立了考虑海面吸收辐射和透射辐射、地形、风、海流、界面摩擦及其引起的混合作用的强温跃层三维数值预报模式。该模式运行的驱动量仅为风和气温场资料，因而具有较好的实用性；此外，从试报的结果看，效果是令人满意的。     

海岸侵蚀灾害管理中的几项基础工作

讨论了作为海岸带管理工作中一项重要管理内容──海岸侵蚀灾害管理中的几项基础性工作,主要讨论了灾害评估的意义;海岸侵蚀灾害管理基础图件和专业图件的名称及主要内容;建立海岸侵蚀灾害信息系统的意义和主要内容;关于海岸侵蚀灾害管理法的意义和急迫性;提出了建立禁建区和禁采区的意义和紧迫性,并指出在海岸带开发建设中要统一管理,全面规划,注意到海岸带生态环境的特殊性。总之在海岸侵蚀灾害管理中,首先要做好基础工作,在此基础上做好法制建设和依法管理。     

硫酸盐渍土膨胀规律的综合影响因素的试验研究

对含氯化钠硫酸盐渍土的膨胀规律作了综合影响因素的研究，首次提出了５因素盐胀率的计算公式，并得出了盐胀率的单因素和交互作用影响的规律；另外找出了某些因素的定量指标。     

二维视电阻率断面的快速最小二乘反演

快速最小二乘反演是以平滑限定的最小二乘方法为基础,是对二维视电阻率断面进行反演的一种方法。反演过程不需要提供初始模型,在首次迭代时使用一均匀介质地下模型作为初始模型,该模型的视电阻率偏导数值可以用解析法得到。在后面的迭代中,使用了拟牛顿法去修改每一次迭代的偏导数矩阵,避免了偏导数矩阵的直接计算,从而减少了计算时间和存储空间。同时运用牛顿矩阵校正技术解最小二乘方程组也减少了大量的计算时间。总之,该方     

Temporal vP/vS variation characteristics in different zones of China’s Capital Circle area before and after Wen’an earthquake

On July 4, 2006, an earthquake of MS5.1 took place in Wen’an, Hebei Province, just at the south center of China’s Capital Circle area digital seismograph network. It is the strongest event recorded ever since the network went into operation in 2002. We processed the vast amounts of phase data yielded by the 107 digital seismic stations between 2002~2007 using Wadati method. In order to improve the precision and stability of shear and compressional wave velocities (vP/vS) calculation, we impose a number of restrictions on the computation environment and condition, e.g., the earthquakes are densely concentrated, selected stations are limited in range, the number of stations in- volved in the computation is larger than 5 and linear fitting features high precision and small error. Under these restrictions, the study shows that vP/vS in and around Wen’an and Tangshan underwent a normal-low-normal proc- ess one year before Wen’an earthquake, vP/vS became obviously low and the low ratio lasted for about one year, meanwhile, little variation of vP/vS was seen in Xingtai, northwest of Beijing, southwest of Beijing, Beijing-Tianjin and Beijing; after the quake, the vP/vS returned normal in Wen’an and Tangshan. Error and stability analysis of the calculated result for vP/vS shows it is convincible that anomaly appeared in and around Wen’an and Tangshan be- fore Wen’an earthquake.