Characterisation of hydroclimatological trends and variability in the Lake Naivasha basin,Kenya

Recent hydro‐climatological trends and variability characteristics were investigated for the Lake Naivasha basin with the aim of understanding the changes in water balance components and their evolution over the past 50 years. Using a Bayesian change point analysis and modified Mann–Kendall tests, time series of annual mean, maximum, minimum, and seasonal precipitation and flow, as well as annual mean lake volumes, were analysed for the period 1960–2010 to uncover possible abrupt shifts and gradual trends. Double cumulative curve analysis was used to investigate the changes in hydrological response attributable to either human influence or climatic variability. The results indicate a significant decline in lake volumes at a mean rate of 9.35 × 10⁶ m³ year^?1. Most of the river gauging stations showed no evidence of trends in the annual mean and maximum flows as well as seasonal flows. Annual minimum flows, however, showed abrupt shifts and significant (upward/downward) trends at the main outlet stations. Precipitation in the basin showed no evidence of abrupt shifts, but a few stations showed gradual decline. The observed changes in precipitation could not explain the decline in both minimum flows and lake volumes. The findings show no evidence of any impact of climate change for the Lake Naivasha basin over the past 50 years. This implies that other factors, such as changes in land cover and infrastructure development, have been responsible for the observed changes in streamflow and lake volumes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A probabilistic approach for computing water retention of particulate systems from statistics of grain size and tessellated pore network

The paper offers an analytical determination of the hydraulic properties of an unsaturated soil with reference to its retention curve, which describes the relationship between the volumetric water content and capillarity through matric suction. The analysis combines a particulate approach focused on the physics at the pore scale, including microstructural aspects, with a probabilistic approach where the void space and grain size are considered as random variables. In the end, the soil water characteristic curve of an unsaturated granular medium along a drying path can be derived analytically based on the sole information of particle size distribution. The analysis hinges on the tessellation of a wet granular system into an assemblage of tetrahedral unit cells revealing a pore network upon which capillary physics are computed with respect to pore throat invasion by a non-wetting fluid with evolving pendular capillary bridges. The crux of the paper is to pass from particle size probability distribution to a matching void space distribution to eventually reveal key information such as void cell and solid volume statistics. Making reasonable statistically based assumptions to render calculations tractable, the water retention curve can be readily constructed. Model predictions compare quite favourably with experimental data available for actual soils, especially in the high saturation range. Having a sound scientific basis, the model can be made amenable to address a variety of soils with a wider range of particle sizes.     

Soil pipe flow tracer experiments: 1. Connectivity and transport characteristics

Much debate has occurred in catchment hydrology regarding the connectivity of flow paths from upslope areas to catchment outlets. This study was conducted in two catchments, one with three upper branches, in a loess soil with a fragipan that fosters lateral flow and exhibits an extensive distribution of soil pipe collapse features. The study aimed to determine the connectivity of multiple soil pipe networks as well as determine pipe flow velocities during storm events. Fluorescein dye was injected directly into soil pipes at the upper most pipe collapse feature of four different hillslopes. Breakthrough curves (BTC) were determined by sampling multiple pipe collapse features downslope. The BTCs were used to determine the ‘average’ (centre of mass) and ‘maximum’ (first arrival) flow velocities. This study confirmed that these catchments contain individual continuous soil pipe networks that extend over 190 m and connect the upper most hillslopes areas with the catchment outlet. While the flow paths are continuous, the individual pipe networks consist of alternating reaches of subsurface flow through soil pipes and reaches of surface flow through gullies formed by pipe collapses. In addition, flow can be occurring both through the subsurface soil pipes simultaneous with surface flow generated by artesian flow from the soil pipes. The pipe flow velocities were as high as 0.3 m/s, which was in the range of streamflow velocities. These pipe flow velocities were also in the range of velocities observed in pinhole erosion tests suggesting that these large, mature soil pipes are still actively eroding. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New graphical methods for estimating aquifer hydraulic parameters using pumping tests with exponentially decreasing rates

Actual pumping tests may involve continuously decreasing rates over a certain period of time, and the hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (S_s) of the tested confined aquifer cannot be interpreted from the classical constant‐rate test model. In this study, we revisit the aquifer drawdown characteristics of a pumping test with an exponentially decreasing rate using the dimensionless analytical solution for such a variable‐rate model. The drawdown may decrease with time for a short period of time at intermediate pumping times for such pumping tests. A larger ratio of initial to final pumping rate and a smaller radial distance of the observation well will enhance the decreasing feature. A larger decay constant results in an earlier decrease, but it weakens the extent of such a decrease. Based on the proposed dimensionless transformation, we have proposed two graphical methods for estimating K and S_s of the tested aquifer. The first is a new type curve method that does not employ the well function as commonly done in standard type curve analysis. Another is a new analytic method that takes advantage of the decreasing features of aquifer drawdown during the intermediate pumping stage. We have demonstrated the applicability and robustness of the two new graphical methods for aquifer characterization through a synthetic pumping test.     

Revised runoff curve number for runoff prediction in the Loess Plateau of China

The soil conservation service (now Natural Resources Conservation Service) Curve Number (SCS-CN), one of the most commonly used methods for surface runoff prediction. The runoff calculated by this method was very sensitive to CN values. In this study, CN values were calculated by both arithmetic mean (CN_C) and least square fit method (CN_F) using observed rainfall-runoff data from 43 sites in the Loess Plateau region, which are considerably different from the CN₂ values obtained from the USDA-SCS handbook table (CN_T). The results showed that using CN_C instead of CN_T for each watershed produce little improvement, while replacing CN_T with CN_F improves the performance of the original SCS-CN method, but still performs poorly in most study sites. This is mainly due to the SCS-CN method using a constant CN value and discounting of the temporal variation in rainfall-runoff process. Therefore, three factors—soil moisture, rainfall depth and intensity—affecting the surface runoff variability are considered to reflect the variation of CN in each watershed, and a new CN value was developed. The reliability of the proposed method was tested with data from 38 watersheds, and then applied to the remaining five typical watersheds using the optimized parameters. The results indicated that the proposed method, which boosted the model efficiencies to 81.83% and 74.23% during calibration and validation cases, respectively, performed better than the original SCS-CN and the Shi and Wang (2020b) method, a modified SCS-CN method based on tabulated CN value. Thus, the proposed method incorporating the influence of the temporal variability of soil moisture, rainfall depth, and intensity factors suggests an accurate runoff prediction for general applications under different hydrological and climatic conditions on the Loess Plateau region.     

Predicting the dependency of a degree of saturation on void ratio and suction using effective stress principle for unsaturated soils

The paper presents an approach to predicting variation of a degree of saturation in unsaturated soils with void ratio and suction. The approach is based on the effective stress principle for unsaturated soils and several underlying assumptions. It focuses on the main drying and wetting processes and does not incorporate the effects of hydraulic hysteresis. It leads to the dependency of water retention curve (WRC) on void ratio, which does not require any material parameters apart from the parameters specifying WRC for the reference void ratio. Its validity is demonstrated by comparing predictions with the experimental data on four different soils taken over from the literature. Good correlation between the measured and predicted behaviour indirectly supports applicability of the effective stress principle for unsaturated soils. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于光谱角匹配算法的水体信息提取研究

针对水体信息提取时,传统算法不能较好地解决山体阴影被误提为水体的问题,引入多用于高光谱数据处理的光谱角匹配算法,以Land-sat8 OLI(band1-band7)为数据源,以黄河小浪底水库周边区域为实验区,开展水体信息提取研究,结果显示:水体指数法和波段关系提取的结果中有大量的山体阴影信息,提取精度不超过30%,而光谱角匹配法提取结果受阴影的影响较小,提取精度在99%以上。     

基于Logistic和Gompertz曲线模型拟合的建筑物沉降分析

重大工程建设一般会有定期的沉降和变形监测,本研究利用具有规律变化的Logistic和Gompertz曲线模型进行拟合,并以某大型发电厂为研究对象,利用近15年的监测数据,建立预测模型并进行精度评估。研究结果表明,若监测数据具有一定程度的稳定性,并对计算时监测数据进行合理取舍,对采取的全区、分区平均值或单一点高度值的检测数据,运用Logistic和Gompertz曲线模型来预测大型建筑物的沉降情况是可行的。     

高分二号卫星影像融合方法探析

图像融合技术是卫星影像处理过程中的一个重要步骤,它可以将全色影像的高空间分辨率特点与多光谱影像的高光谱分辨率特点有机地结合起来,使得融合后的影像更利于后续解译。由于融合处理方法的原理以及获取影像的传感器特性不同,不同的卫星影像适合于不同的融合方法。针对高分二号卫星影像的特点,本文采用Gram-Schmidt融合法、FIHS变换方法、HPF方法、Pansharp方法进行试验。实验结果表明:HPF方法所得融合结果在光谱特性保持方法性能最优,而Pansharp方法融合结果在信息量的保持以及清晰度方面效果更优,因此,在实际应用中,应根据具体需求进行方法选择。     

Characterisation of carbonate minerals from hyperspectral TIR scanning using features at 14 000 and 11 300 nm

Rapid characterisation of carbonate phases in hyperspectral reflectance spectra acquired from drill core material has important implications for mineral exploration and resource modelling. Major infrared active features of carbonates lie in the thermal region around 6500 nm, 11 300 nm and 14 000 nm, with the latter two features being most useful for differentiating mineral species. A scatter diagram of the wavelength of the 14 000 nm feature vs that of the 11 300 nm feature, powerfully differentiates carbonates. Although the wavelength of the 11 300 nm peak is easily measured, the 14 000 nm trough and peak are commonly weak and their wavelengths can confidently be used only after filtering the spectra, e.g. selecting only those with the trough and peak separated by 175–230 nm, typical of common carbonates. The method is demonstrated with drillhole 120R from the Rosebery polymetallic VHMS deposit in western Tasmania, which has been scanned with the HyLogger-3 system. A 14 000–11 300 plot shows a high degree of clustering of the drillhole 120R data close to the library spectra of calcite, dolomite, Fe-dolomite, ankerite, kutnohorite, rhodochrosite, Fe-rhodochrosite and siderite. The interpreted compositions of the carbonate spectral populations strongly correlate with the chemical populations of 144 analysed carbonates and provide a highly resolved spatial framework for interpreting carbonate alteration.