Contribution of remote sensing and GIS to analysis of the risk of flooding in the Zat basin (High Atlas-Morocco)

Natural Hazards - Despite the controversy regarding their use, school buildings are often assigned as emergency evacuation shelters, temporary accommodation and aid distribution hubs following...     

Modeling and Simulating Ground Motion from Potential Seismic Sources to Kuwait: Local and Regional Scenarios

Geotectonics - The urban development in Kuwait is growing rapidly in the past few years. Recently, a large number of new bridges, tall buildings and other infrastructures are constructed in Kuwait....     

南图尔盖盆地Aryskum坳陷钾盐的测井响应特征及其分布

钾盐作为战略资源,在农业、工业等领域具有重要的使用价值。世界大多数固态钾资源发现于大规模的石油勘探过程中,充分利用各种油气地质、地球物理资料开展钾盐勘探对于国家发展尤为重要。位于哈萨克斯坦的南图尔盖盆地地质构造简单、资源勘探潜力较大。文中以南图尔盖盆地Aryskum坳陷为研究区块,基于其沉积地质特点,结合多口井的常规测井资料及前人研究成果,综合分析自然伽马、自然电位、三孔隙度等测井曲线的响应特征,含钾层段具体表现为自然伽马异常高值,并通过无铀伽马曲线等排除铀、钍元素影响,扩径使得中子值偏高,自然电位异常幅度由砂岩层的负异常变化为正异常,电阻率值偏高,密度值介于2.25~2.45 g/cm³,声波时差在270~350 μs/m范围内。基于含钾层测井曲线特点,利用测井曲线综合识别法、重叠法、交会图法进行研究区钾盐识别。在研究区30余口井中发现有可溶性钾盐层分布,分布在M-Ⅱ-3、M-Ⅱ-2小层底部,其中M-Ⅱ-3层底部为主要钾盐层段,并对各井含钾层段累计厚度进行统计分析。最后,借助地层对比分析含钾层段在横向和纵向上的展布情况,通过等厚图的绘制开展了找钾有利区分析,拓展了测井资料在南图尔盖盆地钾盐勘查中的应用,进而为今后研究区钾盐找矿提供重点方向。     

Forecasting Copper Prices Using Hybrid Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System and Genetic Algorithms

Natural Resources Research - An accurate forecasting model for the price volatility of minerals plays a vital role in future investments and decisions for mining projects and related companies. In...     

On heavy metal concentrations and biogenic enrichment in microbial mat environments

Heavy metal concentrations of a recent salina on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said (Egypt) were investigated. Samples for the heavy metal study were taken in different ponds of the salina. It was found that microbial mat dominated brine sediments concentrated and enriched heavy metal 2–3 times more than sediments lacking microbial mat developments, suggesting that cyanobacteria play a major role in this enrichment. Heavy metal enrichment by cyanobacteria was therefore also studied in the laboratory environment. This study is compared with a recent study of Solar Lake and Sabkha Gavish sediments (Sinai, Egypt). Our conclusion is that recent hypersaline environments with ambient microbial mat (potential stromatolite) developments are ideal examples of present-day environments of metal accumulations.     

Effect of clayey media parameters on the negative response of a coincident loop1

The aim of this work is to consider the phenomenon of negative response and its detectability in a polarizable half-space formed of Clay-water mixture which commonly exists in water aquifers and which can be used as a simple indicator of the presence of Underground water. We make use of an analytical treatment for the transient voltage induced in a coincident loop lying on a half-space as a basis for our computations. A Cole-Cole model is used to represent the Clay with appropriate parameters. As saturated Clay is characterized by high conductivity and moderate chargeability, it is hardly detectable relative to the practical noise level. However, there are optimum Clay parameters that offer a maximum negative response. It is also observed that for a very short time constant τ in the Cole-Cole model, the amplitude of the negative response decreases with the decrease of the time constant due to the fast decay of the polarization current. Finally, it is found that there is an optimum value for the loop radius which gives the largest value of the negative response and this loop radius depends on the model parameters.     

Local geoid determination combining gravity disturbances and GPS/levelling: a case study in the Lake Nasser area, Aswan, Egypt

 The use of GPS for height control in an area with existing levelling data requires the determination of a local geoid and the bias between the local levelling datum and the one implicitly defined when computing the local geoid. If only scarse gravity data are available, the heights of new data may be collected rapidly by determining the ellipsoidal height by GPS and not using orthometric heights. Hence the geoid determination has to be based on gravity disturbances contingently combined with gravity anomalies. Furthermore, existing GPS/levelling data may also be used in the geoid determination if a suitable general gravity field modelling method (such as least-squares collocation, LSC) is applied. A comparison has been made in the Aswan Dam area between geoids determined using fast Fourier transform (FFT) with gravity disturbances exclusively and LSC using only the gravity disturbances and the disturbances combined with GPS/levelling data. The EGM96 spherical harmonic model was in all cases used in a remove–restore mode. A total of 198 gravity disturbances spaced approximately 3 km apart were used, as well as 35 GPS/levelling points in the vicinity and on the Aswan Dam. No data on the Nasser Lake were available. This gave difficulties when using FFT, which requires the use of gridded data. When using exclusively the gravity disturbances, the agreement between the GPS/levelling data were 0.71 ± 0.17 m for FFT and 0.63 ± 0.15 for LSC. When combining gravity disturbances and GPS/levelling, the LSC error estimate was ±0.10 m. In the latter case two bias parameters had to be introduced to account for a possible levelling datum difference between the levelling on the dam and that on the adjacent roads. Received: 14 August 2000 / Accepted: 28 February 2001     

Pollution vulnerability of the Quaternary aquifer near Cairo, Egypt, as indicated by isotopes and hydrochemistry

The present study was conducted to delineate the pollution vulnerability of the Quaternary aquifer in two areas, Imbaba and Shobra El-Khima, near Cairo, Egypt. Environmental isotopes combined with hydrochemistry were used for this purpose. The groundwater in the Imbaba area (average total dissolved solids about 900 mg/L; sodium/chloride, sulfate, and bicarbonate water types) is more mineralized than groundwater in the Shobra El-Khima area (average total dissolved solids 500 mg/L; calcium and sodium/bicarbonate water type). A high nitrate content and significant mineralization in the groundwater are probably due to contamination of recharge to the aquifer by irrigation drainage, deteriorated sewage networks, and septic tanks. The deuterium and oxygen-18 compositions of the groundwater are depleted compared to Nile River water, which is the main source of aquifer recharge. This less isotopically enriched water probably represents older Nile water recharge that flooded the region before construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1963, or it is a mixture of a young water and originally deposited paleowater that was in deeper horizons at a time of cooler and more humid climate. Intensive pumping has moved the paleowater higher in the aquifer. Groundwater in the Shobra El-Khima area has higher residence time, based on the tritium concentration, than groundwater in the Imbaba area. The percentage of the isotopically depleted water equals 75% in the Shobra El-Khima and 35% in Imbaba, and the thickness of the clay cap above the aquifer is 38 m in Shobra El-Khima and 20 m in Imbaba. These factors are indicative of the rate of recharge to the aquifer and were used to evaluate the pollution vulnerability in the two areas. Electronic Publication     

Streamflow estimation using optimal regional dependency function

The determination of spatial dependency of regionalized variable (ReV) is important in engineering studies. Regional dependency function that leads to calculation of weighting coefficients is required in order to make regional or point‐wise estimations. After obtaining this dependency function, it is possible to complete missing records in the time series and locate new measurement station. Also determination of regional dependency function is also useful to understand the regional variation of ReV. Point Cumulative Semi‐Variogram (PCSV) is another methodology to understand the regional dependency of ReV related to the magnitude and the location. However, this methodology is not useful to determine the weighting coefficient, which is required to make regional and point‐wise estimations. However, in Point Semi‐Variogram (PSV) proposed here, weighting coefficient depends on both magnitude and location. Although the regional dependency function has a fluctuating structure in PSV approach, this function gradually increases with distance in PCSV. The study area is selected in Mississippi river basin with 38 streamflow stations used for PCSV application before. It is aimed to compare two different geostatistical models for the same data set. PSV method has an ability to determine the value of variable along with optimum number of neighbour stations and influence radius. PSV and slope PSV approaches are compared with the PCSV. It was shown that slope slope point semi‐variogram (SPSV) approaches had relative error below 5%, and PSV and PCSV methods revealed relative errors below 10%. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding nesting ecology and behaviour of green marine turtles at Setiu,Terengganu, Malaysia

In this paper, we emphasize the importance of understanding the nesting ecology and nesting behaviour of green marine turtles (Chelonia mydas). Data were collected from 2007 until 2012 from nesting beaches at Setiu Terengganu, Malaysia. We focused on one of the beaches, Telaga Papan, based on data collected in 2012. We recorded the distribution of nesting areas, the emergence hour and the correlation between successful nesting attempts and false crawls. Telaga Papan had a significantly higher distribution of green marine turtle nesting compared with the other five beaches (ANOVA, F_5,42 = 8.874, P < 0.01, mean = 36.750 ± 3.727). The highest number of successful nesting attempts was recorded in 2012 (mean = 28.714). A majority of the species landed between 22:00 and 23:59 h (25%). There was a strong correlation between successful nesting attempts and false crawls (r_s = 0.883, P = 0.02). Based on these findings on the nesting ecology and nesting behaviour of green marine turtles, we suggest that scientific research, strict monitoring, awareness programs and policy implementation should be carried out proactively. Such activities are necessary to reduce the anthropogenic pressures at the nesting beaches as well as to ensure more successful nesting attempts of green marine turtles in Setiu.