Comparative study of multilayer perceptron-stochastic gradient descent and gradient boosted trees for predicting daily suspended sediment load: The case study of the Mississippi River,U.S.

Monitoring sediment transport is essential for managing and maintaining rivers.Estimation of the sediment load in rivers is fundamental for the study of sediment movement,erosion,and flood control.In the current study,three machine learning models-multi-layer perceptron(MLP),multi-layer perceptron-stochastic gradient descent(MLP-SGD),and gradient boosted tree(GBT)-were utilized to estimate the suspended sediment load(SSL)at the St.Louis(SL)and Chester(CH)stations on the Mississippi River,U.S.Four evaluation criteria including the Correlation Coefficient(CC),Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency(NSE),Scatter Index(SI),and Willmott’s Index(WI)were utilized to evaluate the performance of the used models.A sensitivity analysis of the models to the input variables revealed that the current day discharge variable had the most effect on the SSL at both stations,but in the absence of current-day discharge data(Qt),a combination of input parameters including SSL_t-3,SSL_t-2,SSL_t-1,Q_t-3,Q_t-2,Q_t-1 can be used to estimate the SSL.The comparative outcomes indicated the high accuracy of MLP-SGD-5 model with a CC of 0.983,SI of 0.254,WI of 0.991,and NSE of 0.967 at station CH and the MLP-SGD-6 model with a CC of 0.933,SI of 0.576,WI of 0.961,and NSE of 0.867,respectively,at station SL.The results of MLP models were improved by SGD optimization.Therefore,the MLP-SGD method is recommended as the most accurate model for SSL estimation.     

Assessment of As and Cd contamination in topsoils of Northern Ghorveh (Western Iran): role of parent material, land use and soil properties

The aim of this study was to investigate the influences of land use, parent materials (rock types) and soil properties on total arsenic and cadmium concentrations in the agricultural soils. A total of 87 surface (0–20 cm) soil samples were collected from four types of land use: irrigated farming, rangeland, dry farming and orchard. The average concentrations of the analyzed elements in topsoil were 84.426 mg As/kg and 3.289 mg Cd/kg. In addition, the pH, organic matter (OM), cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil grain sizes and CaCO₃ were measured for each sample. The results indicated that land use had no significant effect on As and Cd concentrations. Our findings indicated that the Cd concentrations were influenced by bedrock composition, but for As there were no significant differences between various soil parent materials (bedrocks). Soil pollution was assessed on the basis of pollution index (PI), comprehensive pollution index (P _n ) and geoaccumulation index (I _geo). Calculated indices showed high-pollution levels for As and low- to moderate-pollution levels for Cd.     

Dynamic analysis of flexible rectangular fluid containers subjected to horizontal ground motion

In this paper, an analytical method is proposed to determine the dynamic response of 3‐D rectangular liquid storage tanks with four flexible walls, subjected to horizontal seismic ground motion. Fluid–structure interaction effects on the dynamic responses of partially filled fluid containers, incorporating wall flexibility, are accounted for in evaluating impulsive pressure. The velocity potential in which boundary conditions are satisfied is solved by the method of separation of variables using the principle of superposition. The impulsive pressure distribution is then computed. Solutions based on 3‐D modeling of the rectangular containers are obtained by applying the Rayleigh–Ritz method using the vibration modes of flexible plates with suitable boundary conditions. Trigonometrical functions that satisfy boundary conditions of the storage tank such that the flexibility of the wall is thoroughly considered are used to define the admissible vibration modes. The analysis is then performed in the time domain. Moreover, an analytical procedure is developed for deriving a simple formula that evaluates convective pressure and surface displacements in a similar rigid tank. The variation of dynamic response characteristics with respect to different tank parameters is investigated. A mechanical model, which takes into account the deformability of the tank wall, is developed. The parameters of such a model can be obtained from developed charts, and the maximum seismic loading can be predicted by means of a response spectrum characterizing the design earthquake. Accordingly, a simplified but sufficiently accurate design procedure is developed to improve code formulas for the seismic design of liquid storage tanks. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A GIS-based time-dependent seismic source modeling of Northern Iran

The first step in any seismic hazard study is the definition of seismogenic sources and the estimation of magnitude-frequency relationships for each source. There is as yet no standard methodology for source modeling and many researchers have worked on this topic. This study is an effort to define linear and area seismic sources for Northern Iran. The linear or fault sources are developed based on tectonic features and characteristic earthquakes while the area sources are developed based on spatial distribution of small to moderate earthquakes. Time-dependent recurrence relationships are developed for fault sources using renewal approach while time-independent frequency-magnitude relationships are proposed for area sources based on Poisson process. GIS functionalities are used in this study to introduce and incorporate spatial-temporal and geostatistical indices in delineating area seismic sources. The proposed methodology is used to model seismic sources for an area of about 500 by 400 square kilometers around Tehran. Previous researches and reports are studied to compile an earthquake/fault catalog that is as complete as possible. All events are transformed to uniform magnitude scale; duplicate events and dependent shocks are removed. Completeness and time distribution of the compiled catalog is taken into account. The proposed area and linear seismic sources in conjunction with defined recurrence relationships can be used to develop time-dependent probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Northern Iran.     

Estimation of mass change trends in the Earth’s system on the basis of GRACE satellite data, with application to Greenland

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission measures the Earth’s gravity field since March 2002. We propose a new filtering procedure for post-processing GRACE-based monthly gravity field solutions provided in the form of spherical harmonic coefficients. The procedure is tuned for the optimal estimation of linear trends and other signal components that show a systematic behavior over long time intervals. The key element of the developed methodology is the statistically optimal Wiener-type filter which makes use of the full covariance matrices of noise and signal. The developed methodology is applied to determine the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet, both per drainage system and integrated, as well as the mass balance of the ice caps on the islands surrounding Greenland. The estimations are performed for three 2-year time intervals (2003–2004, 2005–2006, and 2007–2008), as well as for the 6-year time interval (2003–2008). The study confirms a significant difference in the behavior of the drainage systems over time. The average 6-year rate of mass loss in Greenland is estimated as 165 ± 15 Gt/year. The rate of mass loss of the ice caps on Ellesmere Island (together with Devon Island), Baffin Island, Iceland, and Svalbard is found to be 22 ± 4, 21 ± 6, 17 ± 9, and 6 ± 2 Gt/year, respectively. All these estimates are corrected for the effect of glacial isostatic adjustment.     

Soil salinization and critical shallow groundwater depth under saline irrigation condition in a Saharan irrigated land

In the arid irrigated lands, understanding the impact of shallow groundwater fluctuation on soil salinization has become crucial. Thus, investigation of the possible options for maintaining the groundwater depth for improving land productivity is of great importance. In this study, under saline irrigation condition, the effects of shallow groundwater depth on water and salt dynamics in the root-zone of date palms were analyzed through a particular field and modeling (SWAP) investigation in a Tunisian Saharan oasis (Dergine Oasis). The model was calibrated and validated against the measured soil water content through the date palm root-zone. The good agreement between measured and estimated soil water content demonstrated that the SWAP model is an effective tool to accurately simulate the water and salt dynamics in the root-zone of date palm. Multiple groundwater depth scenarios were performed, using the calibrated SWAP model, to achieve the optimal groundwater depth. The simulation results revealed that the shallow groundwater with a depth of ~80 cm coupled with frequent irrigation (20 days interval) during the summer season is the best practice to maintain the adequate soil water content (>0.035 (cm³ cm^?3) and safe salinity level (<4 dS m^?1) in the root-zone layer. The results of field investigation and numerical simulation in the present study can lead to a better management of lands with shallow water table in the Saharan irrigated areas.