Characteristics of winter mass balance of Glacier No.1 at the headwaters of the Urumqi River,Tianshan Mountains

This study analyzes the response of glacier to climate change during the past 49 years in Urumqi River source region, the Tianshan Mountains of China. The temporal and spatial variations of winter mass balance (bn-w) at different time scales were analyzed to identify their response to climate change during 1988–2006 (The observation of winter mass balance observation began in 1988) on the Glacier No.1 at the headwaters of the Urumqi River, Tianshan Mountains, China. The winter accumulation shows a significantly decreasing trend. The results show that the cumulative values on Glacier No.1 is 2,202 mm water equivalent during 1988–2006 and the mean values is 116 mm a⁻¹. Furthermore, the trend analysis of the winter mass balance indicates a rapid decrease since 1990, and the mean mass balance is only 79 mm a⁻¹ during 1997–2006. Winter mass balance correlates well negatively with the total evaporation from September to April (r = −0.68, α = 0.01), and positively with the total precipitation from September to April (r = 0.74, α = 0.01). However, winter mass balance shows a weak correlation with mean minimum air temperature during September to April (r = −0.35), and runoff on September (r = −0.13).     

Water balance in the playa-lakes of an arid environment,Monegros, NE Spain

The playa-lakes of the Monegros desert in north-east Spain are saline wetlands in an arid environment, a rare phenomenon in Europe. These extremely valuable habitats are threatened by changes associated with agricultural expansion and incorporation of new irrigated areas. An understanding of the present hydrologic regime will enable changes to be identified, particularly those brought about by flooding and pollution caused by irrigation surplus. This study sets out to show the results of applying a daily water balance in three selected playa-lakes. The balance was in two parts and consisted of: (1) the average balance for all the endorheic basin using the BALAN_11 program, and (2) the water balance in some playa-lakes, applying discharge flows obtained from the previous balance. The resulting volumes of water were converted to water depths and contrasted with reference volumes taken from field and Landsat images. The model was calibrated by applying various hypotheses of function which enabled the results to be adjusted. The proposed balance is an acceptable reproduction of field water measurements during this period, and underlines the consistency of the conceptual model. The methodology used is appropriate for understanding the playa-lakes function and for monitoring them for conservation purposes.     

Quantifying the spatio-temporal patterns of settlement growth in a metropolitan region of Ghana

Retrospective understanding of the magnitude and pace of urban expansion is necessary for effective growth management in metropolitan regions. The objective of this paper is to quantify the spatial–temporal patterns of urban expansion in the Greater Kumasi Sub-Region (GKSR)—a functional region comprising eight administrative districts in Ghana, West Africa. The analysis is based on Landsat remote sensing images from 1986, 2001 and 2014 which were classified using supervised maximum likelihood algorithm in ERDAS IMAGINE. We computed three complementary growth indexes namely; Average Annual Urban Expansion Rate, Urban Expansion Intensity Index (UEII) and Urban Expansion Differentiation Index to estimate the amount and intensity of expansion over the 28-year period. Overall, urban expansion in the GKSR has been occurring at an average annual rate of 5.6 %. Consequently, the sub-region’s built-up land increased by 313 km² from 88 km² in 1986 to 400 km² in 2014. The analysis further show that about 72 % of the total built-up land increase occurred in the last 13 years alone, with UEII value of 0.605 indicating a moderate intensity of urban expansion. Moreover, the metropolitan-core of the sub-region, being the focal point of urban development and the historical origins of expansion, accounted for more than half of the total built-up land increase over the 28-year period. Over the last decade and half however, urban expansion has spilled into the neighbouring peripheral districts, with the highest intensity and fastest rate of expansion occurring in districts located north and north east of the sub-regional core. We recommend a comprehensive regional growth management strategy grounded in effective strategic partnerships among the respective administrative districts to curb unsustainable urban expansion.     

Particle shape effect on thermal conductivity and shear wave velocity in sands

This study presents the correlations between quantified shape parameters and geotechnical properties for nine sand specimens. Four shape parameters, sphericity, convexity, elongation and slenderness, were quantified with two-dimensional microscopic images with the aid of image processing techniques. An instrumented oedometer cell is used to measure compressibility, thermal conductivity and shear wave velocity during loading, unloading and reloading stages. As the particle shape inherently determines the initial loose packing condition, initial void ratio and shape parameters are well correlated with compressibility. The applied stress in soils increases the interparticle contact area and contact quality; round particles tend to achieve higher thermal conductivity and shear wave velocity during stress-induced volume change. Multiple linear regression is implemented to capture the relative contributions of involved variables, revealing that the thermal evolution is governed by the initial packing density and particle shape. The experimental observations underscore the predominant effect that particle shape has on the geomechanical and physical properties upon stress-induced soil behavior.     

3-D GRACE gravity model for the 2011 Japan earthquake

The GRACE mission has contributed to the seismic characterization of major earthquakes in offshore regions of the world. Here, we isolate satellite gravity signal (μGal range) for the Japan Earthquake of 2011 using a difference method. Contrary to the existing gravity models, we propose a unit vertical pyramid based five-layer 3-D thrust fault model, which extends to the hypocenter and honors the ocean water layer and sea floor upheaval also. Our model partly uses existing seismological information (hypocenter depth of 32 km, rupture length of 300 km and vertical slip of 4 m), provides a snapshot of episodic subduction of the Pacific Plate below the Atlantic Plate and its gravity response closely matches the observed gravity (RMS error of 3.4012×10^?13μGal), fully accounting for co-seismic mass redistribution including sea surface deformation. Our inferred rupture length, rupture velocity, average seismic moment magnitude and momentum, respectively, are 300 km, 4.49 km/s, 1.152×10²¹?1.8816×10²¹ N m and 2.319×10⁶ GNs, which fairly agree with the literature. Further, our model inferred momentum at the sea floor corresponds to an area pulse that led to Tsunami generation.     

Effects of climate change on spring wheat phenophase and water requirement in Heihe River basin,China

Climate change has significantly altered the temperature rhythm which is a key factor for the growth and phenophase of the crop. And temperature change further affects crop water requirement and irrigation system. In the north-west of China, one of the most important crop production bases is Heihe River basin where the observed phenological data is scarce. This study thus first adopted accumulated temperature threshold (ATT) method to define the phenological stages of the crop, and analysed the effect of climate change on phenological stages and water requirement of the crop during growing season. The results indicated the ATT was available for the determination of spring wheat phenological stages. The start dates of all phenological stages became earlier and the growing season length (days) was reduced by 7 days under climate change. During the growing season, water requirement without consideration of phenophase change has been increased by 26.1 mm, while that with consideration of phenophase change was featured in the decrease of water requirement by 50 mm. When temperature increased by 1°C on average, the changes were featured in the 2 days early start date of growing season, 2 days decrease of growing season length, and the 1.4 mm increase of water requirement, respectively.     

Decadal Changes in Water Quality and Net Productivity of a Shallow Danish Estuary Following Significant Nutrient Reductions

We utilized an extensive data set (1977–2013) from a water quality monitoring program to investigate the recovery of a Danish estuary following large reductions in total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) loading. Monthly rates of net transport and biogeochemical transformation of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and phosphorus (DIP) were computed in two basins of the estuary using a box model approach, and oxygen-based rates of net ecosystem production (NEP) were determined. Since 1990, nutrient loading was reduced by 58 % for nitrogen and 80 % for phosphorus, causing significant decreases in DIN (60 %) and DIP (85 %) concentrations. Reductions in nutrient loadings and concentrations reduced annual chlorophyll levels by 50 % in the inner estuary and improved Secchi depth by approximately 1 m during the same period, particularly in the summer period. In the outer, deeper region of the estuary trends in water quality was less evident. Improvements in the inner estuary were strongly coupled to declines in DIN. Thresholds of DIN and DIP concentrations limiting phytoplankton growth indicated that both regions of the estuary were nitrogen limited. NEP rates indicated the development of more net autotrophic conditions over time that were likely associated with higher benthic primary production stimulated by improved light conditions. Box model computations revealed a modest reduction in summer net production of DIP over time, despite the persistence of elevated fluxes for several years after external loads were reduced. Since the mid-1990s, nutrient loading and transformation were stable while nutrient concentrations continued to decline and water quality improved in the inner estuary. The oligotrophication trajectory involved an initial fast transformation and modest retention of nutrients followed by a gradual decline in the rate of improvement towards a new stable condition.     

Review of water and soil contamination in and around Salihli geothermal field (Manisa,Turkey)

The town of Salihli is situated in Gediz Graben in the western Anatolia. This region is important in terms of industry, mining, geothermal energy, water sources, and agricultural production. Geothermal flow and anthropogenic activities in Salihli threaten the surrounding environment due to the contamination of cold groundwater, surface water, and soil. The goal of the present study is to determine the environmental effects of the geothermal and anthropogenic activities in Salihli on soil, stream sediments, and water. Stream sediments and farm soil have been contaminated by substances derived from geothermal and industrial effluents. To this end, the quality review of the water was completed and the heavy metal levels in stream sediment samples were measured to determine the extent of contamination. The elements As, B, Br, Fe, and Ni are the major contaminants present in surface water and groundwater in the study area. The concentrations of these elements excess tolerance limits of international water standards. Gibbsite, K-mica, kaolinite, sepiolite, halite, sulfur, willemite, and Pb(OH)₂ might be precipitated as scales at low temperatures on the soil; this could be interpreted as a resultant from soil contamination. The concentrations of 17 elements (As, Ba, B, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Li, Mo, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sr, and Zn) were measured in samples from stream sediments and surface soils. In the study area, especially geothermal and anthropogenic activities give rise to environmental pollution.     

Wavefield analysis of crosswell seismic data

Despite the numerous advantages of crosswell seismic data over surface seismic data, crosswell seismic geophysics is still underutilized and underdeveloped. The factors limiting the full utilization of crosswell data include the lack of standardized methods for processing and imaging the data. This is because crosswell data is not completely understood. To improve the understanding of crosswell data, we performed acoustic and elastic modeling of a west Texas carbonate oilfield data using finite difference methods and crosswell geometry. To account for the different wave modes in the field data, we decomposed the full data into its constituent wave modes. Results of the forward modeling show that elastic synthetic data is a better representation of crosswell field data than the popular acoustic synthetic data. Wavefield decomposition gave insight into the time-space kinematics behavior of the different wave modes that constitute the full data. Overall, the study improved our understanding of crosswell field data. The learning from this study has been utilized to perform data-driven reflection enhancement processing where the discerned characteristic of different seismic arrival is utilize to suppress unwanted and enhanced the desired wave modes. The processing reduced the complex data to only up-going P-P reflections that can be imaged to reveal the subtle geological structures of the oilfield.