Trees, lateral shrinkage and building damage

This article presents the study conducted and the actions taken to stabilise the foundations of 25 low-rise (two/three-storey) buildings in Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real, central Spain). Owing to the immediate attention required, it was decided that the study would focus on procuring a synthetic model that would be able to provide a satisfactory explanation for the tendency of the movements, overlooking the detailed model of each building. This analysis pointed out that the mobilisation was probably due to both the shrinkage caused by the existing trees during the dry-growing seasons, and to the loss of lateral confinement caused by the excavation of a service trench adjacent to the footings of the buildings. In keeping with this mechanism, stabilization was carried out by transplanting the trees growing near the damaged buildings and installing a line of piles to provide lateral support to the footings. The evolution of the damage was therefore stopped.     

港珠澳大桥沉管隧道基槽异常回淤分析与数值模拟

港珠澳大桥沉管隧道E15管节基槽发生异常回淤,海底隧道沉管安装被迫中止。为查明E15管节基槽发生异常回淤的原因,先后开展了现场水文泥沙观测、遥感影像资料分析和数值模拟等多种技术手段。采用水沙数学模型反演了内伶仃岛上游采砂活动形成的浑水团在潮流作用下的扩散输移过程,沙源在数学模型中以面源形式模拟。模拟结果表明,采砂活动形成的浑水团在一个大潮期间的落潮过程中可输移扩散至基槽水域,其中E15—E27管节基槽日淤厚在采砂活动影响下将增加43.8%。数值模拟结果为查明E15管节基槽异常回淤的泥沙来源提供了佐证。E15管节以东基槽水域水沙环境复杂,天然淤积已经接近临界回淤允许值,基槽上游水域的采砂活动对沉管基槽回淤将带来不可控因素,采砂活动对周边水域产生的泥沙回淤影响应引起足够重视。     

肥槽回填土常见工程问题与处理方法

总结分析了建筑工程肥槽回填土质量不良引发的常见工程问题,以及肥槽回填土不易施工密实的几个主要原因,并总结提出了各种肥槽回填土处理方法,以及它们主要的适用条件。     

福建县域人口流动空间差异分析

针对当前国内对人口流动空间分布问题常采用的单一指标以及数理统计方法、忽略了空间效应、很难正确识别人口流动地域类型以及空间分布模式的问题,提出了一种以县域以人口净迁移率为横坐标和以人口总迁移率为纵坐标的复合指标法。首先对2010-2013年福建省85个县域的人口流动地域类型进行了测度和划分;随后,为进一步探索人口流动集聚程度,采用探索性空间数据分析方法进行了量化分析。结果表明:福建省县域人口流动空间分布差异显著;福建省县域人口流动的地理集聚特征显著且存在明显的正相关关系,并且"低-低"类型分布占据主要地位。研究结果为发现福建省县域人口流动空间模式,更好地为人口流动区域差异进行量化分析提供了强有力的支撑。     

广东省产业结构发展水平的空间格局研究

以广东省的市域为经济单元,利用空间自相关分析和密度分析法,对1994—2015年广东省产业结构发展水平空间格局进行了研究。结果表明:广东省逐渐形成了以广州、深圳、东莞为中心的第三产业圈,周边城市为第二产业外圈,并逐渐向四周扩散的圈层式空间格局。珠三角地区产业结构发展水平较高,其他地区相对落后。全省的全局空间自相关性比较高,产业发展水平的空间聚集特征明显,高-高区域集中在珠三角地区,低-低区域主要分布在其他地区,有较明显的两极分化异质性。     

Modelling of pile wave barriers by effective trenches and their screening effectiveness

The three-dimensional problem of isolation of vibration by a row of piles is studied numerically on the basis of a model replacing the row of piles by an effective trench in order to reduce the modelling complexity. The analysis is accomplished with the aid of an advanced frequency domain boundary element method, which is used for both the infilled trench and the soil medium in conjunction with a coupling procedure based on enforcement of equilibrium and compatibility at the trench–soil interface. Linear elastic or viscoelastic material behaviour is assumed for both the piles and the soil. The piles can be tubular or solid and have circular or square cross-section. The vibration source is a vertical force, harmonically varying with time, and the row of piles acts as a passive wave barrier. The effective trench model is constructed by invoking well known homogenization techniques used in the mechanics of fibre-reinforced composite materials, and its accuracy is compared against a rigorous boundary element analysis modelling each pile separately in full contact with the soil medium. On the basis of the effective trench model, the screening effectiveness of a row of piles is studied through parametric studies.     

THE APPLICATION OF IMAGE-BASED MODELING IN PALEOEARTHQUAKE TRENCH STUDY

The geological structure exposed by paleoearthquake trenches is the key material to the right cognition of fault activity and paleoearthquake. However, paleoearthquake trenching inevitably destroys active tectonic geomorphic evidence and trench exposures are usually difficult to reserve. The conventional process of recording the delicate geological information, manually constructing photomosaics by image-editing software, is time-consuming and produces undesirable artificial distortions. Herein, we explored the process of constructing trench orthophotomosaics and the 3D image model using the Image-based Modeling technology and applied it to the Liutiaohe trench across the Tianqiaogou-Huangyangchuan Fault, Gansu Province. Based on the 3D image modeling and orthophotomosaic, we firstly constructed the control points and scale bars on cleaned trench walls and collected photos of all sections of the trench with a digital camera in the field, and then reconstructed the 3D model of the trench through the Agisoft PhotoScan, an efficient image-based modeling software, and finally yielded the 3D image model of the trench and othophotomasaics of the trench exposures. The results show that the automated workflow can produce seamless, sub-millimeter-level high-resolution photomosaics more quickly, with precision in the centimeter range, and the 3D image model is of great help to identify strata and geological structures in trenches with much lower capital and labor costs and low expertise levels compared with LiDAR, meanwhile, the 3D archive benefits the share and communication and even allows future reinterpreting the site using new insights.     

Soil erosion in the Anthropocene: Research needs

Soil erosion is a geomorphological and, at the same time, a land degradation process that may cause environmental and property damage, loss of livelihoods and services as well as social and economic disruption. Erosion not only lowers soil quality on‐site, but causes also significant sediment‐related problems off‐site. Given the large number of research papers on this topic, one might therefore conclude that we know now almost everything about soil erosion and its control so that little new knowledge can be added. This conclusion can be refuted by pointing to some major research gaps. There is a need for more research attention to (1) improved understanding of both natural and anthropogenic soil erosion processes and their interactions, (2) scaling up soil erosion processes and rates in space and time, and (3) innovative techniques and strategies to prevent soil erosion or reduce erosion rates. This is illustrated with various case studies from around the world. If future research addresses these research gaps, we will (1) better understand processes and their interactions operating at a range of spatial and temporal scales, predict their rates as well as their on‐site and off‐site impacts, which is academically spoken rewarding but also crucial for better targeting erosion control measures, and (2) we will be in a better position to select the most appropriate and effective soil erosion control techniques and strategies which are highly necessary for a sustainable use of soils in the Anthropocene. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

LATE QUATERNARY PALEOEARTHQUAKES ON THE MIDDLE SEGMENT OF THE LIJIANG-XIAOJINHE FAULT,SOUTHEASTERN TIBET

More attention has been paid to the late Quaternary activity of the boundary fault of the Sichuan-Yunnan block in eastern Tibet. The Lijiang-Xiaojinhe Fault (LXF) locates along the boundary of the northwest Sichuan and central Yunnan sub-blocks in the Sichuan-Yunnan block. Clear displaced landforms show that the fault has undergone strong late-Quaternary activity. However there is no surface-rupturing earthquake occurring on the LXF in the historical record. The LXF crosses the city of Lijiang, one of the most important tourist cities in Southwest China. The rupture behavior on this fault remains unclear and it is hard to assess its seismic hazard in the future. In this study, on the base of the interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery, we chose the middle segment of the LXF and dug three trenches at Muzhuda, Hongxing, and Gantangzi sites to constrain the ages of paleoearthquakes combined with radiocarbon dating and OxCal modeling. The Muzhuda trench shows that at least three events occurred on the middle segment of the LXF at 7 940~6 540a BP, 4 740~4 050a BP and 1 830~420a BP, respectively. The Hongxing trench indicates that the LXF underwent two events at 5 120~3 200a BP and 2 100~1 220a BP. The Gantangzi trench reveals at least three paleoearthquakes at 44 980~17 660a BP, 7 210~3 810a BP and 2 540~1 540a BP, respectively. The events in the Gantangzi trench might be incomplete because of stratigraphic gap. These three trenches indicate that three events occurred on the middle segment of the LXF in the Holocene at 7 940~7 210a BP, 4 740~4 050a BP and 1 830~1 540a BP, respectively. Large earthquakes on the middle segment of the LXF appear to fit the quasi-periodic model with the mean recurrence interval of~3 000a and the estimated magnitude 7.5. Given the strong late-Quaternary activity of the middle segment of the LXF and a long elapsed time, we propose that the middle segment of the LXF might have a high seismic hazard potential in the near future.