Use of an artificial neural network for analysis of the susceptibility to landslides at Boun,Korea

The purpose of this study was to develop landslide susceptibility analysis techniques using artificial neural networks and to apply the resulting techniques to the study area of Boun in Korea. Landslide locations were identified in the study area from interpretation of aerial photographs and field survey data. A spatial database of the topography, soil type, timber cover, geology, and land cover was constructed and the landslide-related factors were extracted from the spatial database. Using these factors, the susceptibility to landslides was analyzed by artificial neural network methods. The results of the landslide susceptibility maps were compared and verified using known landslide locations at another area, Yongin, in Korea. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to analyze efficiently the vast amount of data and an artificial neural network turned out to be an effective tool to analyze the landslide susceptibility.     

Long-term change in eelgrass distribution at Bahía San Quintín,Baja California,Mexico, using satellite imagery

Seagrasses are critically important components of many marine coastal and estuarine ecosystems, but are declining worldwide. Spatial change in distribution of eelgrass,Zostera marina L., was assessed at Bahía San Quintín, Baja California, Mexico, using a map to map comparison of data interpreted from a 1987 Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre multispectral satellite image and a 2000 Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapping image. Eelgrass comprised 49% and 43% of the areal extent of the bay in 1987 and 2000, respectively. Spatial extent of eelgrass was 13% less (−321 ha) in 2000 than in 1987 with most losses occurring in subtidal areas. Over the 13-yr study period, there was a 34% loss of submerged eelgrass (−457 ha) and a 13% (+136 ha) gain of intertidal eelgrass. Within the two types of intertidal eelgrass, the patchy cover class (<85% cover) expanded (+250 ha) and continuous cover class (≥85% cover) declined (−114 ha). Most eelgrass losses were likely the result of sediment loading and turbidity caused by a single flooding event in winter of 1992–1993. Recent large-scale agricultural development of adjacent uplands may have exacerbated the effects of the flood. Oyster farming was not associated with any detectable losses in eelgrass spatial extent, despite the increase in number of oyster racks from 57 to 484 over the study period.     

MODFLOW 2000 head uncertainty,a first-order second moment method

A computationally efficient method to estimate the variance and covariance in piezometric head results computed through MODFLOW 2000 using a first-order second moment (FOSM) approach is presented. This methodology employs a first-order Taylor series expansion to combine model sensitivity with uncertainty in geologic data. MODFLOW 2000 is used to calculate both the ground water head and the sensitivity of head to changes in input data. From a limited number of samples, geologic data are extrapolated and their associated uncertainties are computed through a conditional probability calculation. Combining the spatially related sensitivity and input uncertainty produces the variance-covariance matrix, the diagonal of which is used to yield the standard deviation in MODFLOW 2000 head. The variance in piezometric head can be used for calibrating the model, estimating confidence intervals, directing exploration, and evaluating the reliability of a design. A case study illustrates the approach, where aquifer transmissivity is the spatially related uncertain geologic input data. The FOSM methodology is shown to be applicable for calculating output uncertainty for (1) spatially related input and output data, and (2) multiple input parameters (transmissivity and recharge).     

An experimental study on semi-brittle and plastic rheology of Panzhihua gabbro

Rheological properties of the crust and upper mantle are essential data that are needed in modelling the mechanical behaviour of the shallow part of the earth. The importance of such data has been seen in discussions about the strength profile of continen…     

The 1786 earthquake-triggered landslide dam and subsequent dam-break flood on the Dadu River, southwestern China

Chinese historic documents recorded that on June 1, 1786, a strong M=7.75 earthquake occurred in the Kangding-Luding area, Sichuan, southwestern China, resulting in a large landslide that fell into the Dadu River. As a result, a landslide dam blocked the river. Ten days later, the sudden breaching of the dam resulted in catastrophic downstream flooding. Historic records document over 100,000 deaths by the flood. This may be the most disastrous event ever caused by landslide dam failures in the world. Although a lot of work has been carried out to determine the location, magnitude and intensity of the 1786 earthquake, relatively little is known about the occurrence and nature of the landslide dam. In this paper, the dam was reconstructed using historic documents and geomorphic evidence. It was found that the landslide dam was about 70 m high, and it created a lake with a water volume of about 50×10⁶ m³ and an area of about 1.7 km². The landslide dam breached suddenly due to a major aftershock on June 10, 1786. The peak discharge at the dam breach was estimated using regression equations and a physically based predictive equation. The possibility of a future failure of the landslide seems high, particularly due to inherent seismic risk, and detailed geotechnical investigations are strongly recommended for evaluating the current stability of the landslide.     

How are storm time injections different from nonstorm time injections?

One of the key elements of storms and substorms is the injection of energetic particles into the region of near geosynchronous orbit, that is, the sudden flux enhancement in the energy range of tens to hundreds of keV. This paper reports the observational results on how such injection features during storm times are different from those of nonstorm times. We particularly focus on the difference between proton injections and electron injections. Based on a number of storm time injection events that meet our strict selection criteria, we find a notable difference between proton injections and electron injections in the energy-spectral dependence of the flux enhancement averaged over the first 30 min after the injection onset: The average flux enhancement of many protons injections tends to be bigger at higher energy channels than at lower energy channels, but electron injections exhibit the opposite tendency for the energy-spectral dependence of flux enhancement, i.e., average flux enhancement decreasing with increasing energy. We show that this feature is almost unique only for the injection events during the storm main and early recovery phase. It is suggested that any successful scenario intended to model storm time injections should be able to explain this difference between proton injections and electron injections.     

Evaluation of the seismic performance of a three‐story ordinary moment‐resisting concrete frame

This study focuses on the seismic performance of Ordinary Moment‐Resisting Concrete Frames (OMRCF) designed only for gravity loads. For this purpose, a 3‐story OMRCF was designed in compliance with the minimum design requirements in the American Concrete Institute Building Code ACI 318 (1999). This model frame was a regular structure with flexure‐dominated response. A 1/3‐scale 3‐story model was constructed and tested under quasi‐static reversed cyclic lateral loading. The overall behavior of the OMRCF was quite stable without abrupt strength degradation. The measured base shear strength was larger than the design base shear force for seismic zones 1, 2A and 2B calculated using UBC 1997. Moreover, this study used the capacity spectrum method to evaluate the seismic performance of the frame. The capacity curve was obtained from the experimental results for the specimen and the demand curve was established using the earthquake ground motions recorded at various stations with different soil conditions. Evaluation of the test results shows that the 3‐story OMRCF can resist design seismic loads of zones 1, 2A, 2B, 3 and 4 with soil types S_A and S_B . For soil type S_C , the specimen was satisfactory in seismic zones 1, 2A, 2B and 3. For soil type S_D , the OMRCF was only satisfactory for seismic zones 1 and 2A. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid seismic protection of cable‐stayed bridges

This paper proposes a hybrid control strategy combining passive and semi‐active control systems for seismic protection of cable‐stayed bridges. The efficacy of this control strategy is verified by examining the ASCE first‐generation benchmark problem for a seismically excited cable‐stayed bridge, which employs a three‐dimensional linearized evaluation bridge model as a testbed structure. Herein, conventional lead–rubber bearings are introduced as base isolation devices, and semi‐active dampers (e.g., variable orifice damper, controllable fluid damper, etc.) are considered as supplemental damping devices. For the semi‐active dampers, a clipped‐optimal control algorithm, shown to perform well in previous studies involving controllable dampers, is considered. Because the semi‐active damper is a controllable energy‐dissipation device that cannot add mechanical energy to the structural system, the proposed hybrid control strategy is fail‐safe in that the bounded‐input, bounded‐output stability of the controlled structure is guaranteed. Numerical simulation results show that the performance of the proposed hybrid control strategy is quite effective in protecting seismically excited cable‐stayed bridges. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.