Groundwater fluctuations and footslope ferricrete soils in the humid tropical zone of southern Cameroon

This paper discusses the relationship between the differentiation of ferruginous accumulations and the variable water saturation of footslope soil patterns. An analysis of the slope morphology of a typical hill in the forest zone of southern Cameroon and a seasonal survey of the levels of groundwaters, springs and rivers were considered in relation to the petrology of different soil patterns. The study site is a tabular hillock whose slopes present a progressive development from steep to gentle slopes. The variable residence time of water within the soil, creating an alternation of reducing and oxidizing conditions, affects soil chemistry, structure and lateral extension of the soil patterns. The ferruginous soil patterns, being formed on the footslopes, gradually increase in extent with decreasing slope angle and the relative rise of the groundwater level. The steep footslopes, where groundwater has a shorter residence time, show a soft mottled clay pattern, restricted to the bottom part of the slope. The moderate footslopes exhibit a deep permanent and a temporary perched groundwater table. The latter, with its regular capillary fringe, contributes to more reducing conditions within isolated domains in the soil patterns, and thus to the alternation with oxidizing conditions, generating a continuous hard soil pattern (massive carapace). The more gently dipping footslopes exhibit groundwater levels near the surface and also a significant amplitude of groundwater fluctuation. Iron, previously accumulated in moderate footslope patterns, is reduced, remobilized, and leached. The soil patterns formed develop into a variegated carapace, more extended along the slope, containing less iron, but nevertheless more hardened, due to the important fluctuations of the groundwater table. These patterns are limited to the zone of groundwater fluctuation and deteriorate as the water fluctuation zone recedes. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于Weierstrass-Mandelbrot函数的分形风速脉动仿真

实际风速脉动普遍具有自相似分形特征,而传统的谐波合成法和线性滤波法仿真的风速脉动均不具有自相似分形特征.因此,基于随机型Weierstrass-Mandelbrot函数,设计了一种能够仿真自相似风速脉动的方案.其中,表征风速脉动自相似特征的重要参数分形维度可与湍流惯性区能谱的幂指数建立联系.将该方案仿真的风速脉动与实际风速脉动一些重要的统计特征,如功率谱和概率密度函数等,进行了比较,结果表明提出的新方案能有效仿真风速脉动的中高频变化及其概率分布特征.     

A REVIEW OF THE PALEO-HYDROLOGICAL AND GEOMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF LAKE NAM CO,SOUTH-CENTRAL TIBET

The endorheic Lake Nam Co,south Eastern Tibetan Plateau,was selected to investigate the interrelation between drainage basin processes,especially post-glacial glacier decay,and lake level fluctuations.Landforms of the drainage basin are highly influenced by tectonics,superimposed by fluvial and periglacial processes,and locally by glacial and eolian processes.Thus,geomorphological features and hydrological characteristics were compiled for the lake-basin to provide an overview of the landscape character.Data show that during the Last Glacial Maximum melt water from the mountains accumulated fluvial deposits in the foreland.Concurrently,an increase of the lake level occurred which is presently shown by a cliff line all around Nam Co with its base approximately 29m above the present lake level.The Holocene decrease of the lake level is traced by beach ridges.As Nam Co is an endorheic lake post-glacial water loss has to be primarily explained by evaporation and moisture conditions.However,more detailed conclusions on quantitative and chronological patterns of both factors,melt-water input and evaporation output,still remain to be drawn.     

A Comparison Of The Detailed Structure In Dispersing Tracer Plumes Measured In Grid-Generated Turbulence With A Meandering Plume Model Incorporating Internal Fluctuations

A meandering plume model that explicitly incorporatesinternal fluctuations has been developed and used to model the evolutionof concentration fluctuations in point-source plumes in grid turbulenceobtained from a detailed water-channel simulation. This fluctuating plumemodel includes three physical parameters: the mean plume spread in fixedcoordinates, which represents the outer plume length scale; the meaninstantaneous plume spread in coordinates attached to the instantaneousplume centroid, which represents the inner plume length scale; and, theconcentration fluctuation intensity in the meandering reference frame,which represents the in-plume fluctuation scale. These parameters arespecified in terms of a set of coupled dynamical equations that modeltheir development with downstream distance from the source. Explicitexpressions for the concentration moments of arbitrary integral orderand the concentration probability density function have been obtainedfrom the fluctuating plume model. Detailed comparisons of model predictionsagainst water-channel measurements for the first four concentrationmoments and the concentration probability distributions generally showvery good overall quantitative agreement. Exact quantitative conditions,expressed in terms of the physical parameters of the fluctuating plumemodel, have been derived for the emergence of off-centreline peaks inthe concentration variance profile. These quantitative conditions havebeen illustrated in terms of a diagram of states of the dispersing plume,and the qualitatively different regimes of plume concentration variancebehaviour on this state diagram have been identified and characterized.     

降雨及库水位联合作用下秭归八字门滑坡稳定性预测

针对三峡库区库水位调控方案和极端降雨情况,对秭归县八字门滑坡稳定性分析设置了10种计算工况,采用SEEP/W软件模拟该滑坡在降雨入渗及库水位联合作用下的暂态渗流场,并利用SLOPE/W软件,将暂态孔隙水压力分布用于该滑坡的极限平衡分析中,确定不同工况下（不同降雨强度）的滑坡稳定性系数,据此采用降雨量对该滑坡进行失稳预测。研究认为：150 mm/d以上的降雨量对该滑坡影响较大,降雨入渗具有滞后性;在相同的降雨量情况下,1 d的降雨强度比5 d的连续降雨对滑坡体的稳定性影响更明显;在水位从175 m降至145 m的过程中,临界雨量为100 mm/d时,滑坡就可能失稳;水位从145 m升至175 m的过程中和175 mm稳定水位时,当临界雨量为200 mm/d时,滑坡才可能失稳,即水位骤降过程中滑坡失稳概率大。不同工况下的滑坡土体含水率分析结果表明,降雨影响的主要是上部土体,下部土体含水率受控于地下水位,即降雨更容易引起浅层滑坡与局部滑坡     

北京一次强降水过程的数值模拟

利用新一代中尺度数值预报模式WRF3.3和1°×1°的NCEP气象再分析资料,对2011年7月24日北京强降水天气过程进行数值模拟,并利用模式输出的高分辨率资料进行诊断分析。结果表明：WRF模式能较好地模拟出这次强降水过程。该过程不仅受到对流层中低层长波低槽和地面辐合区系统性的动力抬升作用,还受到对流层高层辐散的强迫作用。在这种配置下,中低层大尺度动力抬升与高层强辐散呈现出垂直耦合状态,有利于强降水区垂直环流和对流的发展。同时北京地区上空500 hPa以下相对湿度大于70 %,在降水区形成了深厚的高湿环境,为降水的产生、加强和维系提供了充沛的水汽条件。从大气稳定度方面看,北京市全境均处于K指数高值区,高峰值为42.5 ℃,反映了大气层结非常不稳定。从动力作用分析发现,高空辐散、低空辐合的流场特征促进了降水的产生,螺旋度低层正值、高层负值的耦合结构是触发并维持降水的动力机制。     

Analysis of regional labour market dynamics: In search of indications for self-organised criticality

Self-Organised Criticality (SOC) is a concept developed over the last decade from dynamic systems analysis that aims to investigate the transition trajectories of evolutionary systems. The main emphasis in SOC is on the analysis of the impact of slow exogenous forces in combination with strong localised interactions between single elements or components of the systems concerned, with particular regard to the attainment of a critical state at the macro-level. Against this background, SOC serves to identify the critical conditions from the internal dynamics of the systems that lead to major and significant transformations of their behaviour. The present paper aims to offer insights and reflections originating from the SOC concept, as well as to explore its potential contribution to understanding the evolution of regional economic patterns, in particular the functioning of regional labour markets. In our study, the evolutionary dynamics of employment at a district level in West Germany as well as in the combined West and East German setting will be investigated, in order to detect the possible existence of a power law distribution of growth rates, which may be seen as an indication for SOC at the macro-economic level. In this context, SOC may help to explain the presence of large socio-economic regional fluctuations in a country, and, in general, the dynamics inherent to regional development.