The impact of resolution on the accuracy of hydrologic data derived from DEMs

Hydrologic data derived from digital elevation models (DEM) has been regarded as an effective method in the spatial analysis of geographical information systems (GIS). However, both DEM resolution and terrain complexity has impacts on the accuracy of hydrologic derivatives. In this study, a multi-resolution and multi-relief comparative approach was used as a major methodology to investigate the accuracy of hydrologic data derived from DEMs. The experiment reveals that DEM terrain representation error affects the accuracy of DEM hydrological derivatives (drainage networks and watershed etc.). Coarser DEM resolutions can usually cause worse results. However, uncertain result commonly exists in this calculation. The derivative errors can be found closely related with DEM vertical resolution and terrain roughness. DEM vertical resolution can be found closely related with the accuracy of DEM hydrological derivatives, especially in the smooth plain area. If the mean slope is less than 4 degrees, the derived hydrologic data are usually unreliable. This result may be helpful in estimating the accuracy of the hydrologic derivatives and determining the DEM resolution that is appropriate to the accuracy requirement of a particular user. By applying a threshold value to subset the cells of a higher accumulation flow, a stream network of a specific network density can be extracted. Some very important geomorphologic characteristics, e.g., shallow and deep gullies, can be separately extracted by means of adjusting the threshold value. However, such a flow accumulationbased processing method can not correctly derive those streams that pass through the working area because it is hard to accumulate enough flow direction values to express the stream channels at the stream's entrance area. Consequently, errors will definitely occur at the stream’s entrance area. In addition, erroneous derivatives can also be found in deriving some particular rivers, e.g., perched (hanging up) rivers, anastomosing rivers and braided rivers. Therefore, more work should be done to develop and perfect the algorithms.     

Consequences of climate change for the soil climate in Central Europe and the central plains of the United States

This study aims to evaluate soil climate quantitatively under present and projected climatic conditions across Central Europe (12.1°–18.9° E and 46.8°–51.1° N) and the U.S. Central Plains (90°–104° W and 37°–49° N), with a special focus on soil temperature, hydric regime, drought risk and potential productivity (assessed as a period suitable for crop growth). The analysis was completed for the baselines (1961–1990 for Europe and 1985–2005 for the U.S.) and time horizons of 2025, 2050 and 2100 based on the outputs of three global circulation models using two levels of climate sensitivity. The results indicate that the soil climate (soil temperature and hydric soil regimes) will change dramatically in both regions, with significant consequences for soil genesis. However, the predicted changes of the pathways are very uncertain because of the range of future climate systems predicted by climate models. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that the risk of unfavourable dry years will increase, resulting in greater risk of soil erosion and lower productivity. The projected increase in the variability of dry and wet events combined with the uncertainty (particularly in the U.S.) poses a challenge for selecting the most appropriate adaptation strategies and for setting adequate policies. The results also suggest that the soil resources are likely be under increased pressure from changes in climate.     

Stress Analyses in the Epicentral Area of Nový Kostel (Western Bohemia)

The focal mechanisms of events from three micro-earthquake swarms (swarm in the years 1985/86, swarm of December 1994, and swarm of January 1997) in the epicentral area of Nový Kostel (West Bohemia region) were used as input data for stress analyses. The simple graphical method of Angelier and Mechler (1977) and inversion by the program BRUTE3 (Hardcastle and Hills, 1993) were applied to the data collections. The results of the stress analyses for the 1985/86 swarm and for the swarm of December 1994 are similar. For the January 1997 swarm, the results of the analyses differ from those for older swarms. The axis of maximum extension is oriented in the NE-SW direction and is subhorizontal, the axis of maximum compression is oriented in the NW-SE direction and perspicuously dips towards SE. These results are similar to older results of stress analyses carried out for the 1985/86 swarm (Antonini, 1988; Sonnleitner,1993). They are also consistent with most of other published results of stress analyses conducted at different sites in the western part of the Bohemian Massif. The orientation of the principal stresses confirms the sinistral strike-slip movement along the Nový Kostel-Poátky-Zwota line (the trend is about 355°) defined by the epicentres of the micro-earthquakes. The eastern tectonic limit of the Cheb Basin (and other respective parallel faults ) could be characterised by normal rather than strike-slip faulting.     

On the solution of the reverse problem of geodesics with the help of the chord

Резюме Дается вывод формул для вычислений длины хорды, длины и азимутов нормаляных сечений и длины геодезической линии эллипсоида. Применяются тригонометрические функции данных величин и постоянные принятого ргфгргнц-эллипсоида, что является целесообразным при использовании вычислителQjных машин, особенно автоматов. Рабочие формулы рекомендуются в форме (8–11).

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Dedicated to Professor František Fiala on His 85th Birthday

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Address: Veveři 95, Brno.     

Potential of time‐lapse photography of snow for hydrological purposes at the small catchment scale

Time‐lapse photography provides an attractive source of information about snow cover characteristics, especially at the small catchment scale. The objective of this study was to design and test a monitoring system, which allows multi‐resolution observations of snow cover characteristics. The main aim was to simultaneously investigate the spatio‐temporal patterns of snow cover, snow depth and snowfall interception in the area very close to the camera, and the spatio‐temporal patterns of snow cover in the far range. The multi‐resolution design was tested at three sites in the eastern part of the Austrian Alps (Hochschwab‐Rax region). Digital photographs were taken at hourly time steps between 6:00 and 18:00 in the period November, 2004 to December, 2006. The results showed that the time‐lapse photography allows effective mapping of the snow depths at high temporal resolution in the region close to the digital camera at many snow stake locations. It is possible to process a large number of photos by using an automatic procedure for accurate snow depth readings. The digital photographs can also be used to infer the settling characteristics of the snow pack and snow interception during the day. Although it is not possible to directly estimate the snow interception mass, the photos may indeed give very useful information on the snow processes on and beneath the forest canopy. The main advantage of using time‐lapse photography in the far range of the digital camera is to observe the spatio‐temporal patterns of snow cover over different landscape configurations. The results illustrate that digital photographs can be very useful for parameterising processes such as sloughing on steep slopes, snow deposition in gullies and snow erosion on mountain ridges in a distributed snow model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scratch hardness–strength solutions for cohesive‐frictional materials

In this paper we develop analytical solutions for scratch hardness–strength relations for cohesive‐frictional materials of the Mohr–Coulomb and Drucker–Prager type. Based on the lower bound yield design approach, closed‐form solutions are derived for frictionless scratch devices, and validated against computational upper bound and elastoplastic finite element solutions. The influence of friction at the blade–material interface is also investigated, for which a simple computational optimization is proposed. Illustrated for scratch tests on cement paste, we show that the proposed solutions provide a convenient way to determine estimates of cohesion and friction parameters from scratch data, and may serve as a benchmark to identify the relevance of strength models for scratch test analysis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical analysis of synthetic granulate deposition in a physical model study

The current study focuses on the application of a three-dimensional numerical model for the prediction of morphological bed changes. The sediment deposition in a reservoir during a 10-year-flood was investigated and the results of the simulation were validated with data derived from a physical model study. Because of the small grain sizes in the prototype, synthetic granulate was used in the physical model. The numerical computation domain was a reproduction of the physical model, including the grain sizes and the density of the particles, in order to ensure comparability. The CFD code SSIIM, which solves the RANS-equations in three-dimensions, was used for the simulations. The sediment transport in SSIIM is divided into suspended sediment transport, computed by solving the convection-diffusion equation, and bed-load transport, calculated by an empirical formula. The results of the numerical simulation correspond well to the results of the physical model study. The simulated location and the pattern of the sediment deposition in the reservoir are an accurate representation of the observed distribution in the physical model.     

Role of single-domain magnetic particles in creation of inverse magnetic fabrics in volcanic rocks: A mathematical model study

The role of single-domain (SD) magnetic particles in creation of inverse magnetic fabrics is investigated on simple mathematical models using a realistic estimate for SD intrinsic susceptibility. In contrast to the fraction created by multi-domain (MD) particles, in which the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) is controlled by both the grain AMS and intensity of the preferred orientation of the particles, the AMS of the SD fraction is controlled solely by the intensity of the preferred orientation. The degree of AMS of ensemble of SD grains with a preferred orientation is therefore much higher than that of the same ensemble of MD particles implying the existence of frequent inverse magnetic fabrics. However, the occurrence of inverse magnetic fabrics due to SD particles is more the exception than the rule. Consequently, the amounts of SD particles is probably in general low. Nevertheless, the presence of SD particles in amounts insufficient to create inverse magnetic fabrics may diminish the whole rock AMS substantially. This can be one of the reasons for relatively low AMS in volcanic rocks whose magnetic particles may be really small obeying the conditions for the existence of SD particles.