The use of soft shore protection measures in shallow lakes: Research methodology and case study

Shore protection in lakes is an issue of major importance in Switzerland where several big lakes in plains suffer from a pronounced bank erosion. For the moment, in shallow lakes, soft and biotechnical protection measures proved their reliability. Unfortunately, the scientific basis for the design of such techniques does not exist in some cases or not appropriate enough in order to have an optimized effect. Therefore, the aim of an on-going research project is to study, on the basis of physical and numerical modeling, the impact of such measures on the shores regarding bank erosion, and to establish the main basis for their dimensioning. A 2-D numerical model was used to simulate the eroded beach of Préverenges on the North coast of Lake Geneva. Hence, this case study allowed a better understanding of the numerical capacities of the program by modelling wave effect on bedload sediment transport and shore erosion as well as wind role in the generation of littoral currents.     

Drainage water temperature as a basis for verifying drainage runoff composition on slopes

Tile drainage water temperatures and discharge rates were measured in five highland watersheds of which most are underlain by acid crystalline rock. One of them, Dehtá?e in the Bohemo‐Moravian highland (Czech Republic), was studied in greater detail. The aim was to evaluate water temperature monitoring as a means of determining the source and pathway of drainage runoff during high‐flow events. Rapid increase in drainage discharge was accompanied by rapid change in water temperature. In winter, the rising limb of the hydrograph was accompanied by a decrease in temperature, and the falling limb was associated with a corresponding temperature increase. In summer, the trends were reversed. These data suggest that the water temperature changes are caused by the fastest component of drainage runoff, water from a precipitation event or snowmelt, which can be separated from the remainder of the hydrograph. Measurements of hydraulic conductivity, soil moisture content, soil temperature, and groundwater table level indicate that the major portion of the event water causing this effect infiltrates in the watershed recharge zone where soils are permeable, enters the weathered bedrock, flows preferentially and rapidly down the slope along disjoint fissures in the bedrock, finally emerging as ascending springs, and is, for the most part, intercepted by the tile drainage systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental Impact Assessment of High Pressure Water Scrubbing Biogas Upgrading Technology

The aim of this work was to assess the burdens of a process in terms of environmental and health impacts, resource depletion issues, and energy demand based on the ability of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology to link the environmental impacts with the mass and energy flows. The analysis was done in terms of process and environmental performances of high pressure water scrubbing (HPWS) system applied for biogas upgrading. The application of process simulation based on the Aspen Plus® software has been considered as supportive for the calculation of mass and energy balances. Data processed using GaBi 4: Software showed that global warming, acidification, and human toxicity potentials were the main impact categories associated with the HPWS process. These indicators are largely related to the exhaust gas from the desorption column and the indirect emissions generated during energy consumption. The life cycle inventory study resulted in the development of a database with a vast inventory of data regarding HPWS technology. A basis for assessing potential improvements in the environmental performance of the system is provided. Future studies in this area will address the economical evaluation of the HPWS technology, so as to maximize economic efficiency and minimize environmental impacts.     

A model for attenuation and scattering in the Earth's crust

The mechanisms contributing to the attenuation of earthquake ground motion in the distance range of 10 to 200 km are studied with the aid of laboratory data, coda wavesRg attenuation, strong motion attenuation measurements in the northeast United States and Canada, and theoretical models. The frequency range 1–10 Hz has been studied. The relative contributions to attenuation of anelasticity of crustal rocks (constantQ), fluid flow and scattering are evaluated. Scattering is found to be strong with an albedoB ₀=0.8–0.9 and a scattering extinction length of 17–32 km. The albedo is defined as the ratio of the total extinction length to the scattering extinction length. TheRg results indicate thatQ increases with depth in the upper kilometer or two of the crust, at least in New England. CodaQ appears to be equivalent to intrinsic (anelastic)Q and indicates that thisQ increases with frequency asQ=Q _o f ⁿ , wheren is in the range of 0.2–0.9. The intrinsic attenuation in the crust can be explained by a high constantQ (500Q _o2000) and a frequency dependent mechanism most likely due to fluid effects in rocks and cracks. A fluid-flow attenuation model gives a frequency dependence (QQ _o f ^0.5) similar to those determined from the analysis of coda waves of regional seismograms.Q is low near the surface and high in the body of the crust.     

A new conglomerate test in palaeomagnetism

The conglomerate test is widely used in palaeomagnetism to date components of natural remanent magnetization with respect to deposition of conglomerates. It has been demonstrated, however, that this test may be positive even if the data are strongly contaminated by a secondary remanence, especially for the commonly used small number of clasts Starkey & Palmer 1970). Here we show with the aid of numerical simulations that different statistical procedures employed in this test have similar low sensitivities to remagnetization. We suggest a new conglomerate test which incorporates additional information on the direction of a secondary palaeomagnetic component which is isolated from either clasts themselves or their host rocks. Numerical simulations show that this new test is about twice as sensitive to remagnetization as the previous procedures and is robust with respect to small errors in the direction of a secondary component.     

Proposal for International Agreement on Ca Notation Resulting from Discussions at Workshops on Stable Isotope Measurements Held in Davos (Goldschmidt 2002) and Nice (EGS-AGU-EUG 2003)

A proposal is made to standardise the reporting of Ca isotope data to the δ⁴⁴Ca/⁴⁰Ca notation (or δ⁴⁴Ca/42Ca) and to adopt NIST SRM 915a as the reference standard.     

Validation of Geant4 10.3 simulation of proton interaction for space radiation effects

Monte Carlo simulation of space radiation effects induced by protons is important for design of space missions. Geant4 is a well established toolkit for Monte Carlo simulation focused on high energy physics applications. In this work, a set of new validation results versus data for Geant4 electromagnetic and hadronic interaction of protons is presented and discussed. Optimal configuration of Geant4 physics for space applications is proposed.     

微波消解法测定磷矿石中的主次量组分

磷元素是植物和动物营养的必需元素,所以全世界绝大多数的磷被作为一个主要成分用于粮食作物的氮-磷-钾肥料中。磷矿石是全球磷元素的最重要来源。     

Studies of coda using array and three-component processing

The application of standard array processing techniques to the study of coda presents difficulties due to the design criteria of these techniques. Typically the techniques are designed to analyze isolated, short arrivals with definite phase velocity and azimuth and have been useful in the frequency range around 1 Hz. Coda is long in time and may contain waves of different types, phase velocities and azimuths. Nonetheless, it has proved possible to use or adapt array methods to answer two questions: what types of waves are present in coda and where are they scattered? Most work has been carried out on teleseismicP coda; work on local coda has lagged due to lack of suitable data and the difficulties of dealing with high frequencies. The time domain methods of beamforming and Vespagram analysis have shown that there is coherent energy with a high phase velocity comparable toP orPP in teleseismicP coda. These methods can detect this “coherent” coda because it has a fairly definite phase velocity and the same, or close to, azimuth as firstP orPP. This component must consist ofP waves and is either scattered near the source, or reflected in the mantle path as apdpP or precursorPP reflection. The Fourier transform method of the frequency-wavenumber spectrum has been adapted by integrating around circles of constant phase velocity (constant total wavenumber) to produce the wavenumber spectrum, which shows power as a function of wavenumber, or phase velocity. For teleseismicP coda, wavenumber spectra demonstrate that there is a “diffuse” coda of shear,Lg or surface waves scattered from teleseismicP near the receiver. Wavenumber spectra also suggest that the coherent coda is produced by near-source scattering in the crust, not mantle reflection, since it is absent or weak for deep-focus events. Crustal earthquakes have a very strong coherent component of teleseismic coda, suggesting scattering from shear to teleseismicP near the source. Three-component analysis of single-station data has shown the presence of off-azimuth arrivals and may lead to the identification of waves scattered from a single scatterer.