A discrete particle representation of hillslope hydrology: hypothesis testing in reproducing a tracer experiment at Gårdsjön,Sweden

Despite the long history of the continuum equation approach in hydrology, it is not a necessary approach to the formulation of a physically based representation of hillslope hydrology. The Multiple Interacting Pathways (MIPs) model is a discrete realization that allows hillslope response and transport to be simultaneously explored in a way that reflects the potential occurrence of preferential flows and lengths of pathways. The MIPs model uses random particle tracking methods to represent the flow of water within the subsurface alongside velocity distributions that acknowledge preferential flows and transition probability matrices, which control flow pathways. An initial realization of this model is presented here in application to a tracer experiment carried out in Gårdsjön, Sweden. The model is used as an exploratory tool, testing several hypotheses in relation to this experiment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Drag force on a circular cylinder in unseparated laminar high Reynolds number nonlinear random oscillatory flow

The stochastic properties of the drag force maxima on a circular cylinder subjected to nonlinear random waves are investigated. Unseparated laminar high Reynolds number flow is considered. A simplified approach based on second order Stokes waves is presented, including the sum-frequency effect only. It is demonstrated how a drag force formula valid for regular linear waves can be used to find the cumulative distribution function of individual drag force maxima for nonlinear irregular waves. Here the [Wang, 1968] drag force coefficient is used.     

Industrial minerals and rocks, aggregates and natural stones in the Nordic countries

The Nordic countries, including Greenland, have a long tradition in mining. The industrial minerals sector is expanding in most Nordic countries and extensive development has taken place during the last few years. The main commodities mined are carbonate rocks, quartz, feldspar, apatite, olivine and talc.
A number of diferent types of dimension stones are quarried in all countries. Rock aggregates are increasingly important, replacing sand and gravel aggregate as construction materials in some countries due to the need to protect ground water supplies.     

Glacial stratigraphy of East and Central Jutland

Glaciostratigraphic investigations at one key locality (Haldum), 9 major and about 160 minor localities in East and Central Jutland, Denmark, together with laboratory work, have led to the establishment of a stratigraphy consisting of 10 till units, usually separated by meltwater deposits. The stratigraphy is in some degree supported by thermoluminescence datings. The complete sequence includes one till unit with associated meltwater deposits of Menapian age, three till units with intercalated meltwater deposits of Elsterian age, marine sediments deposited during the Holsteininan, and three till units with intercalated of Elsterian age, marine sediments deposited during the Holsteinian, and three till units with intercalated glaciofluvial sedimants of Saalian age. Eemian deposits are present above this level, and the whole sequence is capped by till and meltwater deposits related to three glacial advances during the Weichselian.     

Buried pockmarks on the Top Chalk surface of the Danish North Sea and their potential significance for interpreting palaeocirculation patterns

Three-dimensional (3D) seismic data from the southern Danish North Sea were used to analyse the morphology and spatial distribution of depressions in the Danian Chalk deposit. Previously, these depressions were either interpreted as karst structures or pockmarks. The observed depressions occur in an interval from 25 ms below to 12 ms above the Top Chalk surface. Three types of depressions were differentiated based on their plan-view geometry and their degree of symmetry: Type 1, comprising sub-circular and symmetrical depressions, is the dominant group (ca. 70 %). Type 2, elongated and symmetrical depressions, represents only a small fraction (ca. 5 %). The elongated and asymmetrical depressions of Type 3 compose ca. 25 %. In cross section, each depression type can be either characterised by a V- or a U-shape. The maximum size of the depressions ranges from 50 to 580 m, with an average internal depth of 10 m. We interpret the depressions as pockmarks formed by the expulsion of biogenic or thermogenic fluids at the Danian seafloor. Likely, the initial form of the pockmarks has been circular (Type 1) and was subsequently modified for Types 2 and 3 to an elongated form by currents. The long axis of the pockmarks is interpreted to represent the effective current direction. The inferred direction is sub-parallel to the palaeobathymetric contours. The 3D seismic interpretation of pockmarks presented in this paper contributes to the understanding of fluid migration and palaeocirculation patterns during the sedimentation of the terminal Chalk Group in the southern Danish North Sea.     

Reservoir description using dynamic parameterisation selection with a combined stochastic and gradient search

There is a correspondence between flow in a reservoir and large scale permeability trends. This correspondence can be derived by constraining reservoir models using observed production data. One of the challenges in deriving the permeability distribution of a field using production data involves determination of the scale of resolution of the permeability. The Adaptive Multiscale Estimation (AME) seeks to overcome the problems related to choosing the resolution of the permeability field by a dynamic parameterisation selection. The standard AME uses a gradient algorithm in solving several optimisation problems with increasing permeability resolution. This paper presents a hybrid algorithm which combines a gradient search and a stochastic algorithm to improve the robustness of the dynamic parameterisation selection. At low dimension, we use the stochastic algorithm to generate several optimised models. We use information from all these produced models to find new optimal refinements, and start out new optimisations with several unequally suggested parameterisations. At higher dimensions we change to a gradient-type optimiser, where the initial solution is chosen from the ensemble of models suggested by the stochastic algorithm. The selection is based on a predefined criterion. We demonstrate the robustness of the hybrid algorithm on sample synthetic cases, which most of them were considered insolvable using the standard AME algorithm.     

Nonlinear random wave-induced drag force on a vegetation field

This paper provides a practical method by which the drag force on a vegetation field beneath nonlinear random waves can be estimated. This is achieved by using a simple drag formula together with an empirical drag coefficient given by Mendez et al. (Mendez, F.J., Losada, I.J., Losada, M.A., 1999. Hydrodynamics induced by wind waves in a vegetation field. J. Geophys. Res. 104 (C8), 18383–18396). Effects of nonlinear waves are included by using Stokes second order wave theory where the basic harmonic motion is assumed to be a stationary Gaussian narrow–band random process. An example of calculation is also presented.     

Analysis of nonstationarity in low flow in the Loess Plateau of China

An approach for nonstationary low‐flow frequency analysis is developed and demonstrated on a dataset from the rivers on the Loess Plateau of China. Nonstationary low‐flow frequency analysis has drawn significant attention in recent years by establishing relationships between low‐flow series and explanatory variables series, but few studies have tested whether the time‐varying moments of low flow can be fully described by the time‐varying moments of the explanatory variables. In this research, the low‐flow distributions are analytically derived from the 2 basic explanatory variables—the recession duration and the recession coefficient—with the assumption that the recession duration and recession coefficient variables follow exponential and gamma distributions, respectively; the derived low‐flow distributions are applied to test whether the time‐varying moments of explanatory variables can explain the nonstationarities found in the low‐flow variable. The effects of ecosystem construction measures, that is, check dam, terrace, forest, and grassland, on the recession duration and recession coefficient are further discussed. Daily flow series from 11 hydrological stations from the Loess Plateau are used and processed with a moving average technique. Low‐flow data are extracted following the pit under threshold approach. Six of the 11 low‐flow series show significant nonstationarities at the 5% significance level, and the trend curves of the moments of low flow are in close agreement with the curves estimated from the derived distribution with time‐dependent moments of the recession duration and time‐constant moments of the recession coefficient. It is indicated that the nonstationarity in the low‐flow distribution results from the nonstationarity in the recession duration in all 6 cases, and the increase in the recession duration is resulted from large‐scale ecosystem constructions rather than climate change. The large‐scale ecosystem constructions are found to have more influence on the decrease in streamflow than on the increase in watershed storage, thus resulting in the reduction of low flow. A high return period for the initial fixed design value decreases dramatically with an increasing recession duration.