The analysis of liquid storage tanks on deep elastic foundations

The behaviour of a cylindrical liquid storage tank resting on a deep homogeneous elastic layer is examined. The analysis employs a substructure approach and proceeds by examining the behaviour of the tank base, the tank walls and the soil separately and developing flexibility matrices for each of these components. These flexibility matrices are then assembled and the complete soil structure system analysed.     

Palaeomagnetism and Age of Rocks from Easter Island and Juan Fernandez

In 1966 the expedition,' Carousel ' of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography called for three days at Easter Island and for a few hours at Juan Fernandez. The opportunity was taken to collect rock samples of known orientation for the determination of their ages and directions of magnetization. Owing to the shortness of the available time, the investigation was less thorough than was desirable. A Brunton compass was used to orient the samples.     

The role of science in setting water resource use limits: case studies from New Zealand

Abstract

Water resource use limits ensure protection of environmental values and define the availability and reliability of water supply for out-of-channel use. We examined how three types of scientific tools (environmental flow setting methods, hydrological analyses for setting total allocations and spatial frameworks) have been used to define limits across jurisdictional regions comprising multiple catchments in New Zealand. We found that recently developed minimum flow and total allocation setting tools are widely used. Spatial frameworks are increasingly used to discriminate and account for variation in environmental characteristics, thereby increasing the specificity of water resource use limits. The uptake of scientific tools has enabled improvements in the clarity of water management objectives and the transparency of limits defined by regional water management plans. We argue that more integrated use of scientific tools could improve the clarity and transparency of regional limits by explicitly demonstrating the trade-off between out-of-channel use and protection of environmental values.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Guest editor M. Acreman

Citation Snelder, T.H., Rouse, H.L., Franklin, P.A., Booker, D.J., Norton, N., and Diettrich, J., 2014. The role of science in setting water resource use limits: case studies from New Zealand. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 844–859.     

Can bottom-up procedures improve the performance of stream classifications?

Top-down methods for defining stream classifications are based on a conceptual model or expert-defined rules, whereas bottom-up methods use biological training data and statistical modelling. We compared the performance of six classification methods for explaining the taxonomic composition of invertebrate and fish assemblages recorded at 327 and 511 sites, respectively, distributed throughout France. Classification 1 and 2 were top-down classifications; The European Water Framework System A (WFDa,) and the French Hydro-ecoregions (HER 2). Four bottom-up classification procedures of increasing complexity were defined based on 11 variables that included watershed characteristics describing climate, topography, and geology, and site characteristics including elevation, bed slope and temperature. Classification 3 was defined using matrix correlation (MC) to select a combination of variable categories that produced the best discrimination of the observed taxonomic composition. Classification 4 and 5 were defined by clustering the sites based on their taxonomic data and then using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and Random forests (RF) to discriminate the clusters based on the environmental variables. Classification 6 was defined using generalized dissimilarity modelling (GDM). Our hypothesis was that the bottom-up classifications would perform better because they flexibly accommodate complex relationships between compositional and environmental variation. We tested the classifications using the classification strength statistic (CS). The RF-based classification fitted the taxonomic patterns better than GDM or LDA and these latter classifications generally fitted better than the MC, WFDa or HER classifications. Cross validation analysis showed that differences in predictive CS (i.e. the CS statistics produced from sites not used in defining the classifications) were often significant. However, these differences were generally small. Gains in predictive performance of classifications appear to be small relative to the increase in complexity in the manner in which environmental variables are combined to define classes.     

西藏高原中、北部断裂构造特征:INDEPTH(Ⅲ)-MT观测提供的依据

根据1998年和1999年INDEPTH(Ⅲ)MT在西藏中、北部所完成的德庆-龙尾错(500线)和那曲-格尔木(600线)超宽频带大地电磁深探测剖面数据研究西藏高原中北部断裂构造特征,有助于推进印度板块与亚洲板块碰撞、俯冲构造模式的研究.研究结果表明,区内发育有F1～F10一系列深断裂.其中,F2向北倾斜是早期的主断裂,F1则是后期主逆冲断裂,它们共同构成空间结构复杂的嘉黎深断裂带.班公-怒江缝合带的主断裂系由略微向南陡倾的F3、F4和F5三组超壳深断裂构成;由于受后期构造运动强烈的改造,缝合带内发育多条延深不大的上地壳断层.唐古拉断裂带由F6、F7两组主断裂和一系列次级断裂构成;主断裂产状上陡、下缓,总体向南倾斜,向下延深达下地壳.而金沙江缝合带是由F8(金沙江断裂)和F9(可可西里断裂),以及它们之间存在的一系列上地壳次级断层共同组成的,是一组很宽的地块碰撞缝合带.F10即昆中断裂是产状陡立的超壳深断裂,是昆仑山断裂带的主体构造,它构成松潘-甘孜-可可西里地块的北部边界.从剖面电性结构特征分析,昆中断裂以南属于西藏高原主体;而以北地区是否还归属西藏高原?这有待更深入的讨论.值得特别关注的事实是,研究区内2组缝合带之下都存在向上地幔延伸的壳内高导体,它们可能反映区内壳幔热交换过程的痕迹.     

Inversion of magnetotelluric data in the presence of strong bathymetry/topography

We describe an algorithm for inverting magnetotelluric (MT) data in the presence of strong bathymetry or topography. Instead of correcting distortions due to bathymetry or topography we incorporate them directly into the inversion. To achieve a high accuracy in computing MT responses we use finite‐difference approximations that permit sloping discrete boundaries inside model elements. The same approach is applicable to any seafloor electromagnetic calculation and can also be used to incorporate steep topography on land. We test our approach on various topographic features and compare our results to that of a finite element approach. Finally, we present inversion examples that illustrate the effectiveness of our inversion algorithm in recovering true subsurface structures in the presence of strong bathymetry and topography.     

Boundary element analysis of contaminant transport in fractured porous media

A two-dimensional boundary integral method to analyse the flow of contaminant in fractured media having a two- or three-dimensional orthogonal fracture network is presented. The method assumes that the fractures provide the paths of least resistance for transport of contaminants while the matrix, because of its low permeability, acts as ‘storage blocks’ into which the contaminant diffuses. Laplace transform is used to eliminate the time variable in the governing equation in order to facilitate the formulation of a boundary integral equation in the Laplace transform space. Conventional boundary element techniques are applied to solve for the contaminant concentrations at specified locations in the spatial domain. The concentration in the time domain is then obtained by using an efficient inversion technique developed by Talbot. The method is able to analyse the behaviour of waste repositories which have diminishing concentration due to the mass transport of the contaminant into the surrounding fractured media.     

Finite element analysis of problems with infinitely distant boundaries

A method allowing for the presence of infinitely distant boundaries in prismatic bodies is developed. The method is closely related to the consistent boundary concept used in dynamic applications but the development presented is algebraic and context free and is thus applicable to a wide variety of geotechnical problems both static and dynamic.