Airports and Environment: Proposal of Wastewater Reclamation at São Paulo International Airport

One way to reduce water consumption in urban areas is by using alternative sources of supply that can be provided by collecting rainwater and reusing wastewater for less restricted purposes. Thus, this study evaluated the characteristics of effluents produced by the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of São Paulo International Airport (SPIA), Brazil, in order to reuse it in non‐potable situations. The results achieved, indicated high efficiency in the biological system utilized by SPIA. The removal rates is equal to or >90% for most of the parameters analyzed, among them, fluoride, salinity, nitrite, nitrate, ammonium nitrogen, total nitrogen, phosphorus, sedimentable solids, turbidity, conductivity, apparent color, chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, fecal coliforms, and oils and greases. Despite the final effluents were good enough to be launched in the local streams, they shall be submitted to a complementary treatment in order to fit some quality parameters to be reused for specific demands (landscape irrigation, toilet flushing, vehicle washing, fire fighting, and dust control).     

Pushbroom-Frame Imagery Co-Registration

More and more littoral surveys are conducted with aerial platform sensor suites that include a hyperspectral pushbroom sensor and a frame camera. However, in some cases, data from auxiliary sensors may contain errors or are not available. For many research groups, a high-accuracy registration of the multi-sensor data relative to each other is essential, while absolute geo-location of each individual measurement is not. A co-registration procedure was developed for pseudo ortho-rectification of the hyperspectral imagery and to remove spatial distortions caused by the aircraft's trajectory during the survey based on a flat-earth assumption. This image-processing approach utilizes the aerial frame imagery as a reference. Each hyperspectral scan line is co-registered into the frame imagery coordinate system. The performance of the procedure was evaluated using hyperspectral imagery collected over northern New Hampshire and southern Maine. The evaluation results showed that the procedure is robust enough to pseudo ortho-rectify hyperspectral imagery over coastal areas and to remove significant spatial distortions.     

Framework for probabilistic assessment of landslide: a case study of El Berrinche

Slope failure or landslide is a complex geological/geotechnical problem that involves much uncertainty. In this work, a framework for probabilistic assessment of landslide is presented with a focus on the El Berrinche landslide, Honduras. One unique feature of this case study involving the El Berrinche landslide is that the stability analysis has to be carried out with limited data. Another challenge in this study is to assess possible remedial measures in a way that can easily be communicated to the government and the public. A reliability-based framework for a probabilistic assessment is proposed. With this approach, different levels of risk for landslide are assessed and the associated costs are estimated; and all information is integrated into the decision-making process for choosing a remedial action.     

Comparing mixing-length models of the diabatic wind profile over homogeneous terrain

Models of the diabatic wind profile over homogeneous terrain for the entire atmospheric boundary layer are developed using mixing-length theory and are compared to wind speed observations up to 300 m at the National Test Station for Wind Turbines at Høvsøre, Denmark. The measurements are performed within a wide range of atmospheric stability conditions, which allows a comparison of the models with the average wind profile computed in seven stability classes, showing a better agreement than compared to the traditional surface-layer wind profile. The wind profile is measured by combining cup anemometer and lidar observations, showing good agreement at the overlapping heights. The height of the boundary layer, a parameter required for the wind profile models, is estimated under neutral and stable conditions using surface-layer turbulence measurements, and under unstable conditions based on the aerosol backscatter profile from ceilometer observations.     

A 16,000 C yr B.P. packrat midden series from the USA–Mexico Borderlands

A new packrat midden chronology from Playas Valley, southwestern New Mexico, is the first installment of an ongoing effort to reconstruct paleovegetation and paleoclimate in the U.S.A.–Mexico Borderlands. Playas Valley and neighboring basins supported pluvial lakes during full and/or late glacial times. Plant macrofossil and pollen assemblages from nine middens in the Playas Valley allow comparisons of two time intervals: 16,000–10,000 and 4000–0 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Vegetation along pluvial lake margins consisted of open pinyon–juniper communities dominated by Pinus edulis, Juniperus scopulorum, Juniperus cf. coahuilensis, and a rich understory of C₄ annuals and grasses. This summer-flowering understory is also characteristic of modern desert grassland in the Borderlands and indicates at least moderate summer precipitation. P. edulis and J. scopulorum disappeared or were rare in the midden record by 10,670 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The late Holocene is marked by the arrival of Chihuahuan desert scrub elements and few departures as the vegetation gradually became modern in character. Larrea tridentata appears as late as 2190 ¹⁴C yr B.P. based on macrofossils, but may have been present as early as 4095 ¹⁴C yr B.P. based on pollen. Fouquieria splendens, one of the dominant desert species present at the site today, makes its first appearance only in the last millennium. The midden pollen assemblages are difficult to interpret; they lack modern analogs in surface pollen assemblages from stock tanks at different elevations in the Borderlands.     

Using multiresolution and multitemporal satellite data for post-disaster landslide inventory in the Republic of Serbia

This paper focuses on a specific event-based landslide inventory compiled after the May 2014 heavy rainfall episode in Serbia as a part of the post-disaster recovery actions. The inventory was completed for a total of 23 affected municipalities, and the municipality of Krupanj was selected as the location for a more detailed study. Three sources of data collection and analysis were used: a visual analysis of the post-event very high and high (VHR-HR) resolution images (Pléiades, WorldView-2 and SPOT 6), semi-automatic landslide recognition in pre- and post-event coarse resolution images (Landsat 8) and a landslide mapping field campaign. The results suggest that the visual and semi-automated analyses significantly contributed to the quality of the final inventory, including the associated planning strategies for conducting future field campaigns (as a final stage of the inventorying process), all the more so because the field-based and image-based inventories were focused on different types of landslides. In the most affected municipalities that had very high resolution satellite image coverage (19.52% of the whole study area), the density of the recognized landslides was approximately three times higher than that in those municipalities without satellite image coverage (where only field data were available). The total number of field-mapped landslides for the 23 municipalities was 1785, while image-based inventories, which were available only for the municipalities with satellite image coverage (77.43% of the study area), showed 1298 landslide records. The semi-automated landslide inventory in the test area (Krupanj municipality), which was based on coarse resolution multitemporal images (Landsat 8), counted 490 landslide instances and was in agreement with the visual analysis of the higher resolution images, with an overlap of approximately 40%. These results justify the use of preliminary inventorying via satellite image analysis and suggest a considerable potential use for preliminary visual and semi-automated landslide inventorying as an important supplement to field mapping.     

A comparative analysis of two methodologies to estimate well protection zones for transport of viruses from septic tanks in volcanic aquifers in Costa Rica

High groundwater demand in the Great Metropolitan Area (GMA) of Costa Rica, combined with the presence of many septic systems, imposes the necessity to define adequate dimensions for setback distances or protection zones around wellheads to prevent contamination of aquifers by pathogenic organisms. Numerical 3-D simulations of transport of viruses under natural hydrogeological conditions of the northwest section of GMA were performed, considering both porous and fractured porous media with variable saturation. Based on the sensitivity analysis, principal transport parameters for the conditions in the study area are injection concentration, hydraulic conductivity, inactivation rate and attachment rate. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the arrival of viruses to the water table and the modeling domain’s boundary was carried out using two approaches: maximum permissible concentration criteria and travel time criteria (TT) of 100 days frequently applied in Costa Rica for fractured rocks aquifers. The analysis indicates that under conditions of low mobility and high removal rates (typical for soils of volcanic origin), the TT approach overestimates the dimension of the protection zone. On the other hand, when conditions of high mobility and low removal rate are considered, the TT approach usually underestimates that dimension. It is recommended to perform more field and laboratory studies to obtain better representative parameters for soils of volcanic origin.     

Implications of pore space characteristics on diffusive transport in basalts and granites

A detailed characterization of the pore space is crucial for understanding of transport and element transfer in rocks. Here, the effect of differences in texture and content of secondary minerals on transport in pore systems was determined for two rocks of widespread occurrence, mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) and granites. Pore space characteristics were analyzed by Hg-porosimetry, intrusion of a molten alloy, and synchrotron-based X-ray tomographic microscopy. For evaluating the role of pore space characteristics for the prediction of diffusive transport, data on porosity, and the effective diffusion coefficient (D _eff) were compared. Extended connective pore systems due to cracks and mineral dissolution are present in samples of both rocks, indicating high internal specific surface area. Uneven pore size distributions in altered MORB samples can be assigned to secondary minerals. Pore spaces determined by X-ray tomography, used to determine main direction of pores in the 3-D orthogonal system, suggest a slight anisotropy. In log–log plots, both rocks show roughly a linear dependence of D _eff for H₂O and compounds with comparable diffusivities (D₂O, monovalent cations, and anions) on porosity, but at same porosity D _eff is clearly higher in granitic than in basaltic samples. This difference is increasing with decreasing porosity, indicating that at low porosities the efficiency of element transport in basaltic samples is diminished, mainly inherited by the presence of small pores slowing down diffusion. The fact that diffusive transport in basaltic rocks is stronger dependent on porosity than in granitic rocks shows that also other rock characteristics such as pore size distribution and tortuosity of the pore network, highly affected by the alteration degree, can markedly affect transport and reactivity of pore solution.