Impact of climate change on stream discharge and sediment yield in Northern Viet Nam

The purpose of this paper is to apply “Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)” model to assess the impacts of climate change on stream discharge and sediment yield from Song Cau watershed in Northern Viet Nam. Three climate change scenarios B1, B2, and A2; representing low, medium, and high levels of greenhouse gas emission, respectively, were considered in this study. The highest changes in stream discharge (up to 11.4%) and sediment load (15.3%) can be expected in wet season in 2050s according to the high emission scenario (A2), while for the low emission scenario the corresponding changes equal to 8.8% and 12.6%. The results show that the stream discharge is likely to increase in the future during the wet season with increasing threats of sedimentation.     

Maximum Reduced Proper Motion method: Detection of new nearby ultracool dwarfs

In this paper, we describe how to use the Maximum Reduced Proper Motion method (Phan‐Bao et al. 2003) to detect 57 nearby L and late‐M dwarfs (d_phot ≤ 30 pc), 36 of them newly discovered. Spectroscopic observations of 43 of the 57 ultracool dwarfs were previously reported in Martín et al. (2010). These ultracool dwarfs were identified by color criteria in ∼5000 square degrees of the DENIS database and then further selected by the method for spectroscopic follow‐up to determine their spectral types and spectroscopic distances. We also report here our newly measured proper motions of these ultracool dwarfs from multi‐epoch images found in public archives (ALADIN, DSS, 2MASS, DENIS), with at least three distinct epochs and time baselines of 2 to 46 years (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Predicting water flow in fully and partially saturated porous media: a new fractal-based permeability model

Hydrogeology Journal - Predicting the permeability of porous media in saturated and partially saturated conditions is of crucial importance in many geo-engineering areas, from water resources to...     

The VLTI – A Status Report

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) Observatory on Cerro Paranal (2635 m) in Northern Chile is approaching completion. After the four 8-m Unit Telescopes (UT) individually saw first light in the last years, two of them were combined for the first time on October 30, 2001 to form a stellar interferometer, the VLT Interferometer. The combination in pairs of all four UTs was completed in September 2002. In this article, we will describe the subsystems of the VLTI and the planning for the following years. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Groundwater Potential Mapping Using GIS-Based Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Methods

Groundwater is one of the major valuable water resources for the use of communities, agriculture, and industries. In the present study, we have developed three novel hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) models which is a combination of modified RealAdaBoost (MRAB), bagging (BA), and rotation forest (RF) ensembles with functional tree (FT) base classifier for the groundwater potential mapping (GPM) in the basaltic terrain at DakLak province, Highland Centre, Vietnam. Based on the literature survey, these proposed hybrid AI models are new and have not been used in the GPM of an area. Geospatial techniques were used and geo-hydrological data of 130 groundwater wells and 12 topographical and geo-environmental factors were used in the model studies. One-R Attribute Evaluation feature selection method was used for the selection of relevant input parameters for the development of AI models. The performance of these models was evaluated using various statistical measures including area under the receiver operation curve (AUC). Results indicated that though all the hybrid models developed in this study enhanced the goodness-of-fit and prediction accuracy, but MRAB-FT (AUC = 0.742) model outperformed RF-FT (AUC = 0.736), BA-FT (AUC = 0.714), and single FT (AUC = 0.674) models. Therefore, the MRAB-FT model can be considered as a promising AI hybrid technique for the accurate GPM. Accurate mapping of the groundwater potential zones will help in adequately recharging the aquifer for optimum use of groundwater resources by maintaining the balance between consumption and exploitation.     

Stanniferrous granites of Vietnam: Rb-Sr and Ar-Ar isotope age,composition, sources,and geodynamic formation conditions

Doklady Earth Sciences - Stanniferrous granite-leucogranite massifs in Vietnam to which the bedrock and placer commercial deposits of cassiterite are associated (Timtuc etc.) are of late Cretaceous...     

Observation of a Complex Solar Wind Reconnection Exhaust from Spacecraft Separated by over 1800 R E

We analyze Wind, ACE, and STEREO (ST-A and ST-B) plasma and magnetic field data in the vicinity of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) crossed by all spacecraft between 22:15 UT on 31 March and 01:25 UT on 1 April 2007 corresponding to its observation at ST-A and ST-B, which were separated by over 1800 R _E (or over 1200 R _E across the Sun?–?Earth line). Although only Wind and ACE provided good ion flow data in accord with a solar wind magnetic reconnection exhaust at the HCS, the magnetic field bifurcation typical of such exhausts was clearly observed at all spacecraft. They also all observed unambiguous strahl mixing within the exhaust, consistent with the sunward flow deflection observed at Wind and ACE and thus with the formation of closed magnetic field lines within the exhaust with both ends attached to the Sun. The strong dawnward flow deflection in the exhaust is consistent with the exhaust and X-line orientations obtained from minimum variance analysis at each spacecraft so that the X-line is almost along the GSE Z-axis and duskward of all the spacecraft. The observation of strahl mixing in extended and intermittent layers outside the exhaust by ST-A and ST-B is consistent with the formation of electron separatrix layers surrounding the exhaust. This event also provides further evidence that balanced parallel and antiparallel suprathermal electron fluxes are not a necessary condition for identification of closed field lines in the solar wind. In the present case the origin of the imbalance simply is the mixing of strahls of substantially different strengths from a different solar source each side of the HCS. The inferred exhaust orientations and distances of each spacecraft relative to the X-line show that the exhaust was likely nonplanar, following the Parker spiral orientation. Finally, the separatrix layers and exhausts properties at each spacecraft suggest that the magnetic reconnection X-line location and/or reconnection rate were variable in both space and time at such large scales.

     

Improved flood susceptibility mapping using a best first decision tree integrated with ensemble learning techniques

Improving the accuracy of flood prediction and mapping is crucial for reducing damage resulting from flood events. In this study, we proposed and validated three ensemble models based on the Best First Decision Tree (BFT) and the Bagging (Bagging-BFT), Decorate (Bagging-BFT), and Random Subspace (RSS-BFT) ensemble learning techniques for an improved prediction of flood susceptibility in a spatially-explicit manner. A total number of 126 historical flood events from the Nghe An Province (Vietnam) were connected to a set of 10 flood influencing factors (slope, elevation, aspect, curvature, river density, distance from rivers, flow direction, geology, soil, and land use) for generating the training and validation datasets. The models were validated via several performance metrics that demonstrated the capability of all three ensemble models in elucidating the underlying pattern of flood occurrences within the research area and predicting the probability of future flood events. Based on the Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve (AUC), the ensemble Decorate-BFT model that achieved an AUC value of 0.989 was identified as the superior model over the RSS-BFT (AUC = 0.982) and Bagging-BFT (AUC = 0.967) models. A comparison between the performance of the models and the models previously reported in the literature confirmed that our ensemble models provided a reliable estimate of flood susceptibilities and their resulting susceptibility maps are trustful for flood early warning systems as well as development of mitigation plans.     

Siderite layers in the fresh-water Neogene sediments of Vietnam

Siderites forming beds and lenses in the Neogene lacustrine—swampy sediments of the Rinh Chua Formation (northern Vietnam) are considered in detail. Results of the mineralogical and chemical study of siderites and host terrigenous–clayey siltstones are reported. New analytical data characterize the composition and structure of microbiomorphic (bacterial) bodies in the siderites and terrigenous sediments. Microstructures (porosity) and compositional peculiarities (up to 18% P₂O₅) of individual horizons of the sediments testify to their lacustrine-swampy genesis. It is established that the siderites in association with the layer silicates were formed during the microbiochemogenic decomposition of terrigenous components, including quartz.