Assessing the extent of induced leakage to an urban aquifer using environmental tracers: an example from Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia

A groundwater residence time study of the deep fluvioglacial aquifer supplying Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, has found evidence of deep infiltration of recent recharge both in the main periurban wellfield and below the city. Commonly-employed hydrochemical markers detected urban influence in the city-centre to depths of 65–100 m, but gave no indication of the important role of induced river/canal bed leakage, either upgradient in the periurban wellfield or within the city. This was revealed by O and H stable isotope measurements, which showed that local rainfall/snowfall play little part in the aquifer water balance. More remarkably, the universal detection of CFCs and SF₆, including in boreholes with 140–220 m deep upper screens, demonstrated that induced leakage of water just a few decades old had penetrated much deeper into the aquifer system than other hydrochemical markers indicated. A two-dimensional flow model set up to test whether such deep pumping-induced leakage could occur below the periurban wellfield confirmed its feasibility. The results imply vertical infiltration rates of 5–10 m/year and demonstrate that in this not-uncommon intergranular aquifer setting, deep boreholes with deep screen settings do not necessarily abstract old water. Hence, there are major implications for urban groundwater management and protection in such settings.

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Resumen Un estudio sobre el tiempo de residencia del agua subterránea, en un acuífero fluvioglacial profundo que abastece a Bishkek, capital de Kyrgyzstan, ha encontrado evidencias de infiltración profunda a partir de recarga reciente, tanto en el campo de pozos de las afueras de la ciudad, como también por debajo de la ciudad. Los indicadores hidroquímicos comúnmente usados, detectaron influencia urbana en el centro de la ciudad hasta profundidades de 65–100 m, pero no dieron indicación del papel importante del goteo inducido en el lecho del canal/río, tanto aguas arriba en el campo de pozos de los suburbios, como también dentro de la ciudad. Esto se reveló mediante mediciones de isótopos estables de O y H, las cuales mostraron que las precipitaciones/nevadas de tipo local, tienen una pequeña contribución en el balance de agua del acuífero. De manera más notoria, la detección universal de CFCs y SF6, incluidos en las rejillas superiores de pozos profundos con 140–220 m de profundidad, demostraron que un goteo inducido de agua, de solo unas pocas décadas de antigüedad, ha penetrado mucho más profundo dentro del sistema acuífero, de lo que los otros marcadores hidroquímicos indicaban. Un modelo bidimensional de flujo, realizado para probar si el goteo inducido—bombeo profundo podía suceder debajo del campo de pozos suburbano, confirmó su factibilidad. Los resultados implican tasas de infiltración vertical de 5 a 10 m/año, y demuestran que los pozos profundos con tramos de rejilla también profundos, no necesariamente extraen aguas antiguas, en estos ambientes acuíferos con porosidad intergranular. Por lo tanto, hay implicaciones importantes para la gestión y protección en zonas urbanas, y para esos ambientes de las aguas subterráneas.

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Résumé Lanalyse du temps de résidence des eaux souterraines dans un aquifère fluvial profond, dorigine glaciaire, qui alimente en eau Bishek, la capitale de Kyrgyzstan a mis en évidence une recharge récente tant dans le captage en eau que sous la ville même. Les traceurs chimiques ont indiqué linfluence urbaine dans le centre de la ville, à une profondeur de 65–100 m, mais ils nont pas mis en évidence le rôle important de lalimentation induite par la couche du fleuve, tant en amont, dans le captage que en aval, dans la ville. Ces effets ont été relevés par des isotopes stables, comme O et h qui ont montré linfluence récente des précipitations dans le bilan hydrique de laquifère. De plus, la détection universelle de CFC et de SF6, y compris dans les forages ayant une profondeur de 140–220 m, montre que lalimentation en eau induite de plusieurs décennies a pénétré à des profondeurs plus grandes que celles indiqués par des traceurs chimiques. Les possibilités dune drainance verticale induite par les pompages dans le puits profonds du captage ont été vérifiées par un modèle bidimensionnel découlement. Les résultats de la modélisation ont conduit à une infiltration verticale de 5–10 m/an et ont démontré aussi que leau extraite par des puits profonds dans un aquifère granulaire nest pas nécessairement dage ancienne. Il sagit donc des implications majeures concernant la gestion et la protection des captages urbaines en eaux souterraines

     

Characterization of the ecological quality of the coastal Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean). A comparative approach based on three biotic indices

The ecological quality of the Gulf of Lions coast was assessed using three biotic indices (H', AMBI and BQI). The three indices correlated positively. The positive correlation between AMBI and BQI was surprising and was mostly due to the fact that the dominant species Ditrupa arietina featured a low ES50(0.05) but was classified in GI by AMBI. Both H' and BQI were efficient in distinguishing impacted from un-impacted sites but AMBI was not. Differences between H' and BQI were mainly due to the scale used to translate indices in terms of EcoQ. The three indices were able to detect the major changes in macrofauna composition, which occurred in the Bay of Banyuls-sur-Mer during the last 40years. However, the interpretations of such changes in terms of EcoQ differed between indices. These results are discussed relative to the characteristics of the tested indices.     

Field Survey of the 27 February 2010 Chile Tsunami

On 27 February 2010, a magnitude M _w?=?8.8 earthquake occurred off the coast of Chile??s Maule region causing substantial damage and loss of life. Ancestral tsunami knowledge from the 1960 event combined with education and evacuation exercises prompted most coastal residents to spontaneously evacuate after the earthquake. Many of the tsunami victims were tourists in coastal campgrounds. The international tsunami survey team (ITST) was deployed within days of the event and surveyed 800?km of coastline from Quintero to Mehuín and the Pacific Islands of Santa María, Mocha, Juan Fernández Archipelago, and Rapa Nui (Easter). The collected survey data include more than 400 tsunami flow depth, runup and coastal uplift measurements. The tsunami peaked with a localized runup of 29?m on a coastal bluff at Constitución. The observed runup distributions exhibit significant variations on local and regional scales. Observations from the 2010 and 1960 Chile tsunamis are compared.     

An urban geomonumental route focusing on the petrological and decay features of traditional building stones used in Madrid, Spain

The stone traditionally used to build cities contributes to their personality and attests to the geological substrate on which they stand. While stone decay in the built heritage can be attributed to a number of causes, anthropic activity has a particularly significant impact. The geomonumental routes project is one of the initiatives proposed in recent years for urban routes that convey geological fundamentals by observing the rocks present in heritage structures. Its innovative approach addresses traditional stone properties, original quarrying sites and mechanisms of decay. Madrid’s Royal Palace is a fine example of the use of traditional building stone in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. In the geomonumental route proposed, the building doubles as an in situ laboratory that affords an overview of the main petrological properties of the two traditional stones most commonly used in the city’s built heritage, the forms of decay they are subject and the factors underlying such alterations. This route constitutes a tool for showing the main petrological features and decay forms in traditional building stones found in urban heritage façades, with a special focus on anthropic impact, primarily air pollution and the use of conservation treatments that time has proven to be unsuitable.     

Non-stationary frequency response function

Using the Duhamel’s integral concept, a non-stationary frequency response function (complete-FRF) for the dynamic response of a single degree of freedom system initially at rest has been developed. Although the procedure is devised to be applied in the frequency domain, this new function is time dependent and can be employed to calculate the transient response of a system in a forced vibration case. The method has been successfully checked with two different cases of loading in the time domain which have either analytical solution or accurate numerical solution using Newmark’s algorithm. The method has been compared with the solution obtained from the commonly used steady frequency response function, and a detailed analysis of the four parameters that appear in the complete-FRF function: time, damping ratio, natural period and input frequency is presented. Finally, the proposed non-steady FRF has been applied to the calculation of an elastic displacement response spectrum to confirm the great influence of the natural period of the system and the frequency content of the solicitation in frequency-domain spectral analysis.     

The potential for the use of Open Source Software and Open Specifications in creating Web‐based cross‐border health spatial information systems

Globalization is contributing to the blurring of borders making irrelevant the distinctions between domestic and international health problems. Cross‐border and global health spatial information systems (CBHSIS) are required to address the new global health challenges. There is a need to build and document alternatives for addressing the technological, economic, and sociocultural–political challenges encountered in the creation and deployment of these systems. This paper documents the building of a prototype Web‐based multimedia GIS system for use in a public health context using Open Source Software and Open Specifications and its deployment across the US–Mexico border. These technologies offer advantages in addressing several of the challenges previously mentioned. We highlight the technological and sociocultural–political issues important in successful collaboration across borders and cultures and in the creation of interoperable CBHSIS.     

An analytic solution to the alibi query in the space–time prisms model for moving object data

Moving objects produce trajectories, which are stored in databases by means of finite samples of time-stamped locations. When speed limitations in these sample points are also known, space–time prisms (also called beads) (Pfoser and Jensen 1999 Pfoser, D. and Jensen, C.S. 1999. “Capturing the uncertainty of moving-object representations”. In Advances in spatial databases (SSD’99), Hong Kong, China, July 20–23, 1999, Vol. 1651, 111–132. Lecture notes in Computer Science.  [Google Scholar], Egenhofer 2003 Egenhofer, M. 2003. “Approximation of geopatial lifelines”. In SpadaGIS, workshop on spatial data and geographic information systsems, 4SpaDaGIS–Workshop on Spatial Data and Geographic Information Systems, Milano, Italy, March 2003. University of Genova.  [Google Scholar], Miller 2005 Miller, H. 2005. A measurement theory for time geography. Geographical Analysis, 37(1): 17–45. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) can be used to model the uncertainty about an object's location in between sample points. In this setting, a query of particular interest that has been studied in the literature of geographic information systems (GIS) is the alibi query. This boolean query asks whether two moving objects could have physically met. This adds up to deciding whether the chains of space–time prisms (also called necklaces of beads) of these objects intersect. This problem can be reduced to deciding whether two space–time prisms intersect.

The alibi query can be seen as a constraint database query. In the constraint database model, spatial and spatiotemporal data are stored by boolean combinations of polynomial equalities and inequalities over the real numbers. The relational calculus augmented with polynomial constraints is the standard first-order query language for constraint databases and the alibi query can be expressed in it. The evaluation of the alibi query in the constraint database model relies on the elimination of a block of three exªistential quantifiers. Implementations of general purpose elimination algorithms, such as those provided by QEPCAD, Redlog, and Mathematica, are, for practical purposes, too slow in answering the alibi query for two specific space–time prisms. These software packages completely fail to answer the alibi query in the parametric case (i.e., when it is formulated in terms of parameters representing the sample points and speed constraints).

The main contribution of this article is an analytical solution to the parametric alibi query, which can be used to answer the alibi query on two specific space–time prisms in constant time (a matter of milliseconds in our implementation). It solves the alibi query for chains of space–time prisms in time proportional to the sum of the lengths of the chains. To back this claim up, we implemented our method in Mathematica alongside the traditional quantifier elimination method. The solutions we propose are based on the geometric argumentation and they illustrate the fact that some practical problems require creative solutions, where at least in theory, existing systems could provide a solution.     

Spectro-Polarimetric Observations and Non-Lte Modeling of Ellerman Bombs

Ellerman bombs are bright emission features observed in the wings of Hα, usually in the vicinity of magnetic concentrations. Here we show that they can also be detected in the Ca II infrared triplet lines, which are easier to interpret and therefore allow for more detailed diagnostics. We present full Stokes observations of the 849.8 and 854.2 nm lines acquired with the new spectro-polarimeter SPINOR. The data show no significant linear polarization at the level of 3 × 10⁻⁴. The circular polarization profiles exhibit measureable signals with a very intricate pattern of peaks. A non-LTE analysis of the spectral profiles emerging from these features reveals the presence of strong downflows (∼10 {km s⁻¹}) in a hot layer between the upper photosphere and the lower chromosphere. Visiting Astronomers, National Solar Observatory, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, USA.