Hydrologic responses to land cover change: the case of Jedeb mesoscale catchment,Abay/Upper Blue Nile basin,Ethiopia

The objective of this study was to quantify the impacts of land use/land cover (LULC) change on the hydrology of the Jedeb, an agricultural dominated mesoscale catchment, in the Abay/Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia. Two methods have been used. First, the trends of certain daily flow variability parameters were evaluated to detect statistical significance of the change of the hydrologic response. Second, a conceptual monthly hydrological model was used to detect changes in the model parameters over different periods to infer LULC change. The results from the statistical analysis of the daily flows between 1973 and 2010 reveal a significant change in the response of the catchment. Peak flow is enhanced, i.e. response appears to be flashier. There is a significant increase in the rise and fall rates of the flow hydrograph, as well as the number of low‐flow pulses below a threshold level. The discharge pulses show a declining duration with time. The model result depicts a change in model parameters over different periods, which could be attributed to an LULC change. The model parameters representing soil moisture conditions indicated a gradual decreasing trend, implying limited storage capacity likely attributed to increasing agricultural farming practices in the catchment. This resulted in more surface runoff and less infiltration into the soil layers. The results of the monthly flow duration curve analysis indicated large changes of the flow regime. The high flow has increased by 45% between the 1990s and 2000s, whereas the reduction in low flows was larger: a 15% decrease between 1970s and 1980s, 39% between 1980s and 1990s and up to 71% between 1990s and 2000s. These results, could guide informed catchment management practices to reduce surface runoff and augment soil moisture level in the Jedeb catchment. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A microscale model for air pollutant dispersion simulation in urban areas: Presentation of the model and performance over a single building

A microscale air pollutant dispersion model system is developed for emergency response purposes. The model includes a diagnostic wind field model to simulate the wind field and a random-walk air pollutant dispersion model to simulate the pollutant concentration through consideration of the influence of urban buildings. Numerical experiments are designed to evaluate the model's performance, using CEDVAL(Compilation of Experimental Data for Validation of Microscale Dispersion Models) wind tunnel experiment data, including wind fields and air pollutant dispersion around a single building. The results show that the wind model can reproduce the vortexes triggered by urban buildings and the dispersion model simulates the pollutant concentration around buildings well. Typically, the simulation errors come from the determination of the key zones around a building or building cluster. This model has the potential for multiple applications; for example, the prediction of air pollutant dispersion and the evaluation of environmental impacts in emergency situations; urban planning scenarios;and the assessment of microscale air quality in urban areas.     

A note on “Origin of components in Chilean thermal waters” by

Risacher et al. (2011) have presented voluminous data on thermal waters of Chile that is quite appreciable; however, their work still falls short on several counts. The most notable shortcoming of the work is the presentation and treatment of data. The interpretations are based on questionable premises (viz., extent of seawater intrusion) and considerations (viz., using average chemical composition of rock types for geochemical modeling, considering volcanic rocks as the only rock type in contact with the geothermal fluids) and assumptions not always substantiated by facts (with proper references) could have been corroborated. Use of Cl/Br ratio for discrimination purpose is unconvincing, considering the uncertainty in the measurement of low (<1 mg/L) Br concentration.     

川西龙门山前陆盆地晚新生代沉积记录与构造响应

龙门山前陆盆地位于青藏高原东缘,夹于龙门山推覆造山带与龙泉山褶断带之间。自4.6 Ma以来,逆冲推覆构造运动使龙门山造山带强烈隆升,古河流的侵蚀、搬运和堆积作用使盆地沉积了1套巨厚的半固结—松散堆积物。通过对沉积特征和沉积结构的综合研究,认为龙门山前陆盆地是由自东向西的深部多级俯冲潜滑而引起的浅部由西向东的多层次推覆作用形成的,其晚新生代逆冲推覆构造所产生的构造负载是龙门山前陆盆地的成盆动力。岩浆物质的循环过程表明成都盆地在形成过程中遵循物质循环与能量守恒定律。龙门山前陆盆地地质构造的沉积响应表现为:沉积基底整体上向西倾斜,盆地剖面明显不对称;沉积地层与下伏地层均为不整合接触;盆内发育了一系列相间排列的次级凹陷和凸起,并呈雁斜式展布;砾质粗碎屑楔状体的周期性发育。从盆地动力学的角度初步分析了龙门山前陆盆地盆-山耦合关系,龙门山冲断带及其前陆盆地的研究对于大地构造位置、成矿作用以及油气聚集地的勘探等具有重要意义。     

Effects of linear and exponential heterogeneity on the dynamic response of a moving load in an irregular isotropic half-space: a comparative study

Heterogeneity, being a trivial feature inside the earth or in a geostructure, makes a strong basis for its consideration in the study of geomechanics. Inclusion of the concept of heterogeneity along with irregularity in the medium brings a novelty to the existing literature related to the study of the moving load. The present study investigates the effects of linear and exponential heterogeneity on the dynamic response due to a normal load moving with constant velocity on a rough irregular heterogeneous isotropic half-space in a comparative approach. Expressions for both normal and shear stresses for either case of heterogeneity have been established in closed form. Substantial effects of the affecting parameters such as depth, irregularity factor, maximum depth of irregularity, frictional coefficient, linear heterogeneity parameter and exponential heterogeneity parameter on normal and shear stresses for both the cases of heterogeneity have been observed. Numerical computation has been carried out and the effects of said parameters have been meticulously examined by means of graphs. Moreover, different cases of heterogeneity and homogeneity along with various types of irregularity namely rectangular, parabolic and no irregularity are compared which serve as a focal theme of the study.     

An Analytical Solution for Dynamic Response of the Plate with Different Impedances Subjected to Underwater Explosion

In this paper, the transmitted part of the incident wave is considered to revise Taylor’s solution, which is used to extend its application for analytical models to predict the response of the plate with different material properties. The influence of the material properties and the boundary condition of the plate on fluid and structural dynamics is systematically investigated. The analytical results are compared with those of detailed dynamic FE simulations and the two are in good agreement. The results indicate that the analytical method is valid and suitable for the plates with different material properties subjected to underwater explosion. It is found that Taylor’s results of the plate with small impedance are invalid, which indicates a potential application field for the analytical method.     

温室气体排放的环境库兹涅茨曲线检验与减排路径的冲击动态——基于黑龙江省统计核算数据

基于2001-2015年黑龙江省温室气体排放统计核算数据,对地区GDP与温室气体排放的环境库兹涅茨曲线关系检验呈现倒U型,预期2019年达到理论拐点;通过偏最小二乘回归模型得到4个减排路径的年平均减排效果顺序依次为单位GDP化石能源消费量减少、经济结构调整、人均GDP增长、贸易结构变化;减排路径对应脉冲响应函数的动态冲击效果分别为波动性增排、收敛性减排、发散性减排、转变的排放作用;推动黑龙江省温室气体减排的路径顺序为控制化石能源消费量、优化经济结构、发展低碳经济、调整贸易结构。     

PROPERTY MATRICES IDENTIFICATION OF UNBOUNDED MEDIUM FROM UNIT-IMPULSE RESPONSE FUNCTIONS USING LEGENDRE POLYNOMIALS: FORMULATION

A systematic procedure to construct the (symmetric) static-stiffness, damping and mass matrices representing the unbounded medium is presented addressing the unit-impulse response matrix corresponding to the degrees of freedom on the structure–medium interface. The unit-impulse response matrix is first diagonalized which then permits each term to be modelled independently from the others using expansions in a series of Legendre polynomials in the time domain. This leads to a rational approximation in the frequency domain of the dynamic-stiffness coefficient. Using a lumped-parameter model which provides physical insight the property matrices are constructed.     

ANALYSIS OF PILES USED FOR SLOPE STABILIZATION

Piles used for the stabilization of slopes have to be adequately designed to resist the induced lateral loads due to the movement of the unstable slope. In this paper, a numerical method is presented for the analysis of this problem. In this approach, the piles are modelled using beam finite elements. The soil response at the individual piles is modelled using the modulus of subgrade reaction and pile–soil–pile interaction considered using the theory of elasticity. Two case histories, one for single pile and the other for pile group, are analysed which show that the numerical model can predict the general characteristics of the piles reasonably well. The study suggests that the design of the piles based on the computed response from single pile analysis, ignoring group effects, may be unduly conservative.     

APPLICATION OF A GROUPED RESPONSE UNIT HYDROLOGICAL MODEL TO A NORTHERN WETLAND REGION

Applications of hydrological models to northern wetland-dominated regions have been limited in the past to a few case studies on small basins employing ‘lumped’ models. Only recently have there been attempts to apply the grouped response unit (GRU) distributed modelling approach using terrain classifications to these same basins. This study summarizes recent efforts in applying such a model. For the purposes of implementing the GRU approach, terrain types that are hydrologically significant and characteristic to the wetland-dominated regime were successfully discriminated using a principal component analysis and a hybrid unsupervised/supervised classification technique on Landsat–Thematic Mapper imagery. The terrain classifications were then used as input into a distributed hydrological model for calibration and validation using recorded spring runoff events. Preliminary model applications and results are described. Calibration to a historic spring runoff event yielded an r² value of 0.86. Model validation, however, yielded much poorer results. The problems of model applicability to this region and limitations of sparse data networks are highlighted. The need for more field research in this type of hydrological regime, and associated improvements to the model parameter set are also identified.