Assessment and Prediction of Liquefaction Potential Using Different Artificial Neural Network Models: A Case Study

Soil liquefaction as a transformation of granular material from solid to liquid state is a type of ground failure commonly associated with moderate to large earthquakes and refers to the loss of strength in saturated, cohesionless soils due to the build-up of pore water pressures and reduction of the effective stress during dynamic loading. In this paper, assessment and prediction of liquefaction potential of soils subjected to earthquake using two different artificial neural network models based on mechanical and geotechnical related parameters (model A) and earthquake related parameters (model B) have been proposed. In model A the depth, unit weight, SPT-N value, shear wave velocity, soil type and fine contents and in model B the depth, stress reduction factor, cyclic stress ratio, cyclic resistance ratio, pore pressure, total and effective vertical stress were considered as network inputs. Among the numerous tested models, the 6-4-4-2-1 structure correspond to model A and 7-5-4-6-1 for model B due to minimum network root mean square errors were selected as optimized network architecture models in this study. The performance of the network models were controlled approved and evaluated using several statistical criteria, regression analysis as well as detailed comparison with known accepted procedures. The results represented that the model A satisfied almost all the employed criteria and showed better performance than model B. The sensitivity analysis in this study showed that depth, shear wave velocity and SPT-N value for model A and cyclic resistance ratio, cyclic stress ratio and effective vertical stress for model B are the three most effective parameters on liquefaction potential analysis. Moreover, the calculated absolute error for model A represented better performance than model B. The reasonable agreement of network output in comparison with the results from previously accepted methods indicate satisfactory network performance for prediction of liquefaction potential analysis.     

Quantification of photosynthetic inorganic carbon utilisation via a bidirectional stable carbon isotope tracer

The amount of bicarbonate utilised by plants is usually ignored because of limited measurement methods. Accordingly, this study quantified the photosynthetic assimilation of inorganic carbon (CO₂ and HCO₃ ^?) by plants. The net photosynthetic CO₂ assimilation (P _N), the photosynthetic assimilation of CO₂ and bicarbonate (P _N’), the proportion of increased leaf area (f _LA) and the stable carbon isotope composition (δ¹³C) of Orychophragmus violaceus (Ov) and Brassica juncea (Bj) under three bicarbonate levels (5, 10 and 15 mm NaHCO₃) were examined to determine the relationship among P _N, P _N’ and f _LA. P _N’, not P _N, changed synchronously with f _LA. Moreover, the proportions of exogenous bicarbonate and total bicarbonate (including exogenous bicarbonate and dissolved CO₂-generated bicarbonate) utilised by Ov were 2.27 % and 5.28 % at 5 mm bicarbonate, 7.06 % and 13.28 % at 10 mm bicarbonate, and 8.55 % and 17.31 % at 15 mm bicarbonate, respectively. Meanwhile, the proportions of exogenous bicarbonate and total bicarbonate utilised by Bj were 1.77 % and 3.28 % at 5 mm bicarbonate, 2.11 % and 3.10 % at 10 mm bicarbonate, and 2.36 % and 3.09 % at 15 mm bicarbonate, respectively. Therefore, the dissolved CO₂-generated bicarbonate and exogenous bicarbonate are important sources of inorganic carbon for plants.     

Study on the Temporal-Spatial Evolution of Prehistoric Settlements and Its Correlation with Subsistence Strategy and Climate History in the Western Liao River Area

Western Liao River area is one of the most important birthplaces of agricultural civilization in northern China. With recent works like relics survey, site excavation and environmental archaeology going further, the time sequence, cultural content and subsistence strategy history of this area are getting explicit. Questions like ancient exploiting history of natural resources, climate background and cultural impact of subsistence strategy have been paid great attention. Traditional environmental archaeology methods like plant and animal remains analysis are mostly utilized to conduct in-site investigation, current studies rarely adopt quantitative methods to examine the sites’ macro temporal-spatial distribution and aggregation pattern. Based on abundant digitized relic survey data, GIS methods like kernel density analysis are utilized to indicate the temporal-spatial distribution and aggregation pattern of prehistoric cultures in Western Liao River area. The latitudinal, longitudinal and altitudinal migrations of site distributional core are indicated by 3D perspective shift and elevation statistics. By referencing existing studies on subsistence strategy and paleoclimate history, results of spatial analysis are used to reveal the correlation among sites’ temporal-spatial distribution, subsistence strategy adopted and climate variation. This also contributes to our understanding and utilization of massive locational information of prehistoric sites in ancient man-land relationship study.     

Fifteen Years of Ocean Observations with China Argo

For 15 years since the beginning of China Argo project, China has deployed over 350 profiling floats in Pacific and Indian ocean, and constructed China Argo ocean observing network. Moreover, we have setup the Argo data receiving, processing and distributing system, and developed various Argo data products using Argo observations, which has promoted the progress of ocean data sharing in China. The abundant Argo data have become a main data source in oceanic and atmospheric basic researches and operational applications. A batch of important achievements in basic research and operational application have been brought, e.g. in aspects of tropical cyclone (typhoon), ocean circulation, meso-scale eddy, turbulence, heat/salt storage and transport and water mass, as well as in ocean, atmosphere/climate operational forecasting and predicting. With the extension of the international Argo program from “Core Argo” to “Global Argo”, we are faced with great challenges in the long-term maintaining and sustained developing of our Argo ocean observing network. It is suggested that we should take the opportunity to construct China regional Argo ocean observing network as soon as possible in adjacent northwestern Pacific and Indian ocean using Chinese BeiDou profiling floats, which will make us to take responsibility and obligation of a big country for addressing global climate changes and preventing natural disasters.     

Change Analysis of Three Major Antarctic Ice Shelves Based on Multi-source Remote Sensing Data

In recent years, melting and calving happen in the Antarctic ice shelves. In this paper, seven periods of coastlines were applied to provide an analysis of the ice front changes of Ross, Filchner-Ronne and Amery ice shelves with the inclusion of 1997 and 2000 Radarsat products, 2003/2004 and 2008/2009 MODIS products and 2006, 2012, 2015 coastline which were extracted from MODIS images. Change area, SCE (Shoreline Change Envelope) and NSM (Net Shoreline Movement) were applied to analyze the variation of the ice shelf front. The results shows that, the ice front of Amery ice shelf has advanced since 1997 and the total outward extension distance of the ice front was about 20 to 25 km while the advance area reached 3.03×10³ km². Ross ice shelf and Filchner-Ronne ice shelf continued to advance after ice calving events under the driver action of glacier. However, the advance area was less than the retreat area and the net change area is respectively -9.39×10³ km² and -5.86×10³ km². The retreat distance of the collapse area were up to 53 km and 39 km in the two biggest ice shelves.     

A Survey of the Spatio-Temporal Data Model

Traditional GIS(Geographic Information System)mostly can only describe the transient state data and does not have the ability to deal with the temporal dynamic data. When the data changes, new data will take the place of the old data, namely the transient state change into another, and the old data will disappear. Therefore, it is unable to make an analysis of the updating changes of the data and predict the development trend of the future. In this case, TGIS (Temporal Geographic Information System) emerges and expands the time dimension on the basis of traditional GIS. Spatio-temporal data model is the key to TGIS. Spatio-temporal data modeling is not only related to dynamic expression of spatio-temporal objects, but also gives an important support for spatio-temporal analysis and reasoning. This paper summarized the theories and applications status at home and abroad of spatio-temporal data model in detail, illustrated family tree of spatio-temporal data model for the nearly fifty years, discussed improvement and application status of Base State with Amendments Model, Event-based Spatio-temporal Data Model, Object-oriented Data Model and other spatio-temporal data models, and raised the existing problems of spatio-temporal data model. The current existing problems mainly includes: ①There are a lot of spatio-temporal data models put forward, but some of them only focus on semantic design and neglect the verified; ②Most of existing spatio-temporal data model are for vector data, only the Event-based Spatio-temporal Data Model is raster data structure; ③At present, the expression the time-space information of geographic entity is relative separated with spatio-temporal data model; ④Spatio-temporal data model is mainly used in cadastral management, land use and forestry data updating, less application in other fields. In the end, the future development direction was put forward of spatio-temporal data model. In the time of big data and “Internet plus”, it is necessary to explore the big data spatio-temporal data model that supports multiple data formats.     

北京飞云瀑景点崩塌地质灾害分析及防治方法研究

近15年来,北京飞云瀑景点附近发生过2次大规模崩塌,崩塌堆积岩块体积累计达450 m3,崩塌岩块已滚落覆盖至景区小路。经勘查,确定了1处危岩体及1处危岩带,该危岩体及危岩带对本景点的正常观赏及过往游人构成极大威胁。本文对该景点的崩塌地质灾害地质特征进行了简要介绍;对地质灾害成因、自然发展趋势等进行了初步探讨;对危岩体(带)的稳定性进行了计算、分析及评价;对可能采用的治理方法进行了比选分析。为了最大程度地保护景观资源,最终选择了以避让为主的治理措施,并对选定的治理方案及计算进行了阐述。     

北京某山坡湿陷性土层地基处理可行性分析与建议

北京市密云区某拟建别墅工程,属于山体边坡地基基础工程,任务要求对湿陷性地基土层进行湿陷性消除,并将其地基土承载力特征值提高到fak≥130 kPa。此外,还需要考虑边坡稳定性及其永久性加固问题。对该项目进行了深入分析、研究,并采用概念设计方法,对其进行设计预演,发现该项目存在工序复杂、不易实施、在永久性使用方面存在一定隐患、并具有责任不当等问题。对该地基基础工程进行了重新分析,建议取消地基处理措施,改用嵌岩桩作为拟建物的基础。