Assessment of the volcanic hazard of Mt. Paektu explosion to international air traffic using South Korean airspace

Natural Hazards - A volcanic eruption is one of the most critical natural hazards in air transportation. In the European region, the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010 triggered extensive...     

Predictive landslide susceptibility mapping using spatial information in the Pechabun area of Thailand

For predictive landslide susceptibility mapping, this study applied and verified probability model, the frequency ratio and statistical model, logistic regression at Pechabun, Thailand, using a geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing. Landslide locations were identified in the study area from interpretation of aerial photographs and field surveys, and maps of the topography, geology and land cover were constructed to spatial database. The factors that influence landslide occurrence, such as slope gradient, slope aspect and curvature of topography and distance from drainage were calculated from the topographic database. Lithology and distance from fault were extracted and calculated from the geology database. Land cover was classified from Landsat TM satellite image. The frequency ratio and logistic regression coefficient were overlaid for landslide susceptibility mapping as each factor’s ratings. Then the landslide susceptibility map was verified and compared using the existing landslide location. As the verification results, the frequency ratio model showed 76.39% and logistic regression model showed 70.42% in prediction accuracy. The method can be used to reduce hazards associated with landslides and to plan land cover.     

Climatic regime shifts and their impacts on marine ecosystem and fisheries resources in Korean waters

There were climatic regime shifts over the North Pacific in 1976 and 1988 which affected the dynamics of the marine ecosystem and fisheries resources in Korean waters. Precipitation in Korean waters showed a decadal scale climatic jump, especially of Ullungdo Island, reflecting the regime shift that occurred in the North Pacific. The variation was also detected in East Asian atmospheric systems. The Aleutian Low and North Pacific High Pressure Systems showed substantial changes in 1976 and around 1987–89. 1976 was an unusually warm year for Korea; mean sea surface temperature (SST) was higher than ‘normal’ and was accompanied by a northward shift in the thermal front. Post 1976, the volume transport of the Kuroshio Current increased and higher seawater and air temperatures persisted until 1988. Other shifts occurred after 1976 such as an increase in mixed layer depth (MLD) and biological changes in the ecosystem of Korean waters including decreases in spring primary production and an increase in autumn primary production. Primary production increased again after 1988, and was followed by a significant increase in zooplankton biomass after 1991. The 1976 regime shift was manifested by a decreased biomass and production of saury, but an increase in biomass and production of sardine and filefish in Korean waters. After 1988, recruitment, biomass, and production of sardine collapsed while those of mackerel substantially increased. Based on these observations, hypotheses on the relationship between the climate-driven oceanic changes and changes in fisheries resources were developed and are discussed.     

Effective periods and seismic performance of steel moment resisting frames designed for risk categories I and IV according to IBC2009

In current seismic design, structures that are essential for post‐disaster recovery, and hazardous facilities are classified as risk category IV and are designed with higher importance factors and stringent drift limits. These structures are expected to perform better in an earthquake event because a larger base shear and more stringent drift limit are used. Although this provision has been in the seismic design code over the last three decades, few studies have investigated the performance of essential structures. The aim of this study is to quantify the impact of higher importance factors and stringent drift limits on the seismic performance of steel moment resisting frames. A total of 16 steel structures are designed for Los Angeles and Seattle. Different risk categories are used for the design. The effects of the risk categories on the structural periods, and thus on the seismic force demand, are investigated. A suite of inelastic time history analyses are carried out to understand the probability of exceeding a specified limit state when the structures are subjected to different levels of earthquake events. The results show that the periods of the structures in risk category IV decrease by a factor of 0.5 to 0.8, and the strengths increase by a factor of 1.5 to 3.2. Seismic fragility analysis shows that the structures in risk category IV generally satisfy the probabilistic performance objectives. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical models of RC elements and their impacts on seismic performance assessment

This paper aims to provide a guideline for numerical modeling of reinforced concrete (RC) frame elements for the seismic performance assessment of a structure. Several types of numerical models of RC frame elements are available in nonlinear structural analysis packages. Because the numerical models are formulated based on different assumptions and theories, the models' accuracy, computing time, and applicability vary, which poses a great difficulty to practicing engineers and limits their confidence in the analysis results. In this study, the applicability of five representative numerical models of RC frame elements is evaluated through comparison with 320 experimental results available from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research column database. The accuracy of a numerical model is evaluated according to its initial stiffness, peak strength, and energy dissipation capacity of the global responses. In addition, a parametric study of a cantilever RC column subjected to earthquake excitation is carried out to systematically evaluate the consequence of the adopted numerical models on the maximum inelastic structural responses. It is found from this study that the accuracy of the numerical models is sensitive to shear force demand–capacity ratio. If a structural period is short and the structure is shear critical, the use of numerical models that can explicitly capture the shear deformation and failure is suggested. If the structural period is long, the selection of a numerical model does not greatly influence the global response of the structure. The paper also presents statistical parameters of each numerical model, which can be used for probabilistic seismic performance assessment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of Artificial Neural Network for Gold–Silver Deposits Potential Mapping: A Case Study of Korea

The aim of this study is to analyze hydrothermal gold–silver mineral deposits potential in the Taebaeksan mineralized district, Korea, using an artificial neural network (ANN) and a geographic information system (GIS) environment. A spatial database considering 46 Au and Ag deposits, geophysical, geological, and geochemical data was constructed for the study area using the GIS. The geospatial factors were used with the ANN to analyze mineral potential. The Au and Ag mineral deposits were randomly divided into a training set (70%) to analyze mineral potential using ANN and a test set (30%) to validate predicted potential map. Four different training datasets determined from likelihood ratio and weight of evidence models were applied to analyze and validate the effect of training. Then, the mineral potential index (MPI) was calculated using the trained back-propagation weights, and mineral potential maps (MPMs) were constructed from GIS data for the four training cases. The MPMs were then validated by comparison with the test mineral occurrences. The validation results gave respective accuracies of 73.06, 73.52, 70.11, and 73.10% for the training cases. The comparison results of some training cases showed less sensitive to training data from likelihood ratio than weight of evidence. Overall, the training cases selected from 10% area with low and high index value of MPM_L and MPM_W gave higher accuracy (73.52 and 73.10%) for MPMs than those (73.06 and 70.11%, respectively) from known deposits and 10% area with low index value of MPI_L and MPI_W.     

Seasonal and spatial distribution of nonylphenol and IBP in Saemangeum Bay, Korea

In order to investigate spatial and temporal distribution of organic pollutants in the Saemangeum Bay, organophosphorus pesticides (10), alkylphenols (8), chlorophenols (2), bisphenol A were analyzed from the surface seawater taken in 2002–2003. Most of the analytes were not detected in all stations except nonylphenol and S-benzyl-O,O-di-isopropyl phosphorothioate (IBP). Concentrations of nonylphenol and IBP ranged from ND to 298 ng/l and from ND to 1840 ng/l, respectively. The high levels of nonylphenol and IBP were found in the estuary areas of Mangyeong and Dongjin River. The levels of nonylphenol and IBP in surface seawater varied through seasons and the high levels of nonylphenol and IBP were in summer season (August). Based on real time monitoring of IBP and on correlation between concentrations of target compounds and contents of salinity in seawater, physical mixing and diffusion of seawater were found to be the major factors that affect the spatial distribution of IBP and nonylphenol in the Saemangeum Bay environment.     

Design of a low-cost attitude determination GPS/INS integrated navigation system

Due to their complementary features of GPS and INS, the GPS/INS integrated navigation system is increasingly being used for a variety of commercial and military applications. An attitude determination GPS (ADGPS) receiver, with multiple antennas, can be more effectively integrated with a low-cost IMU since the receiver gives not only position and velocity data but also attitude data. This paper proposes a low-cost attitude determination GPS/INS integrated navigation system. The proposed navigation system comprises an ADGPS receiver, a navigation computer unit (NCU), and a low-cost commercial MEMS IMU. The navigation software includes a fault detection and isolation (FDI) algorithm for integrity. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed navigation system, two flight tests have been performed using a small aircraft. The first flight test confirmed the fundamental operation of the proposed navigation system and the effectiveness of the FDI algorithm. The second flight test evaluated the performance of the proposed navigation system and demonstrated the benefit of GPS attitude information in a high dynamic environment. The flight test results show that the proposed ADGPS/INS integrated navigation unit gives reliable navigation performance even when anomalous GPS data is provided and gives better navigation performance than a conventional GPS/INS unit.