Structural and geotechnical impacts of surface rupture on highway structures during recent earthquakes in Turkey

The most significant damage on highway bridges during the recent earthquakes in Turkey (Kocaeli and Duzce earthquakes) and Taiwan (Chi–Chi earthquake) was the result of fault ruptures traversing transportation infrastructure. This phenomenon and its consequences accentuate the need to examine surface rupture hazards and to identify those areas at risk. This understanding can help to develop remedial measures for both structural and geotechnical engineering. For that purpose, damage to highway bridges during the recent events was reviewed. The total collapse of the highway overpass in Arifiye, during the Kocaeli earthquake, was investigated. The major problems under consideration (in Arifiye) were: (i) dislodging of the bridge spans, and consequently, the total separation of the reinforced concrete girders from the piers; and (ii) the stability of a mechanically stabilized earth wall (MSEW) system under extreme loading conditions. The results of the structural and geotechnical investigations presented herein can be taken in consideration to improve transportation infrastructure against surface rupture hazards.     

Flood hazards in the upper and middle Odra River basin – A short review over the last century

During the 20th century many floods of different intensity and extent have occurred on the Odra River and its tributaries. On the basis of long-term water level observations five major floods, that affected the entire upper and middle Odra River basin, were chosen for further analysis: June 1902, July 1903, August 1977, August 1985 and July 1997. However, hazardous floods were not only those that covered the whole upper and middle Odra River basin, so several local floods were also studied. Detailed historical analysis was made of meteorological conditions, with special emphasis on precipitation patterns and amounts. Then, on the basis of flood peak time occurrence, the stages of flood wave formation were formulated. The natural flood wave of the Odra River is often modified by hydro-technical infrastructure, the development and improvement of which is briefly described in this paper. In conclusion, a comparison of flood wave characteristics such as rising time, falling time, duration, peak flow and volume is presented.     

Delayed geochemical hazard: Concept, digital model and case study

Delayed Geochemical Hazard (DGH briefly) presents the whole process of a kind of serious ecological and environmental hazard caused by sudden reactivation and sharp release of long-term accumulated pollutant from stable species to active ones in soil or sediment system due to the change of physical-chemical conditions (such as temperature, pH, Eh, moisture, the concentrations of organic matters, etc.) or the decrease of environment capacity. The characteristics of DGH are discussed. The process of a typical DGH can be expressed as a nonlinear polynomial. The points where the derivative functions of the first and second orders of the polynomial reach zero, minimum and maximum are keys for risk assessment and harzard pridication.The process and mechanism of the hazard is due to the transform of pollutant among different species principally. The concepts of "total releasable content of pollutant", TRCP, and "total concentration of active specie", TCAS, are necessarily defined to describe the mechanism of DGH. The possibility of the temporal and spatial propagation is discussed. Case study shows that there exists a transform mechanism of "gradual release" and "chain reaction" among the species of the exchangeable and the bounds to carbonate, iron and manganese oxides and organic matter, thus causing the delayed geochemical hazard.     

A large landslide on the urban fringe of metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona

A granitic rock avalanche, one of the largest Quaternary landslides in Arizona outside the Grand Canyon with a volume of approximately 5.25 M m³ and a width a little under 0.5 km, ran 1 km from the eastern McDowell Mountains. With lateral levees and pressure ridges, the rock avalanche deposit displays many features found on classic sturzstroms. Failure occurred along a major joint plane paralleling the slope with a dip of 44°, when a major base level lowering event in the Salt River system would have undermined the base of the failed slope, and probably during a period of more moisture than normally available in the present-day arid climate. Failure at the subsurface weathering front highlights the importance of the dramatic permeability change between grussified regolith and relatively fresh bedrock. Rock varnish microlaminations (VMLs) dating, in concert with other geomorphic evidence, suggests that the rock avalanche deposit is slightly older than 500 ka. The rock vanish results also have important implications for sampling strategies designed to use cosmogenic nuclide to date Quaternary landslide deposits. Discovery of a large landslide in close proximity to the extending urban fringe of metropolitan Phoenix argues for a more careful analysis of landslide hazards in the region, especially where rapid development excavates bedrock at the base of steep mountain slopes and where the subsurface weathering front is near the surface.     

厦门市海沧区北市花岗岩矿滑坡形成机制及治理设计

厦门市海沧区北市花岗岩矿滑坡发生于2004年10月30日14时。滑坡位于呆场的西端帮顶部的第四系填土和淤泥质土层中，滑体将该区域原设的抗滑桩剪断、拔出、推移，土石迅速越过矿区运输公路，塌落到采场工作面，将正在作业的2名工人和生产设备掩埋。滑坡宽度约60m，最大垂直厚度约14m，总体积约13000m^3。由于滑坡对原有防护体系的破坏，根据滑体调查和极限平衡计算结果，滑坡处于不稳定状态，直接威胁着整个采场设备和未来生产的安全。必须对北市花岗岩矿滑坡进行专项治理。滑坡宜采用治水、削坡减载和支挡相结合的综合治理措施。     

地震灾害预测和应急模拟系统的设计与应用——以永安市城市应急系统为例

城市防震减灾是地震潜在频发区提高自然灾害防治能力建设的重要方面。本文结合福建省永安市城市防震减灾信息管理系统的建设,探讨设计防震减灾数值模型,分析模型集成的关键技术,构建了地震风险评估、建筑物易损性评价、生命与财产损失估算、救援与救灾管理调度等模型和基于GIS开发的震害预测和应急模拟系统。该系统在福建省永安市的实际应用表明,通过对地震灾害预测结果的分析,可加强城市抗震中的薄弱环节,为灾区政府应急响应和制订对策提供决策支持辅助信息,从而显著提高城市防震减灾的综合能力。     

Critical rainfall statistics for predicting watershed flood responses: rethinking the design storm concept

Recent advances have been made to modernize estimates of probable precipitation scenarios; however, researchers and engineers often continue to assume that rainfall events can be described by a small set of event statistics, typically average intensity and event duration. Given the easy availability of precipitation data and advances in desk‐top computational tools, we suggest that it is time to rethink the ‘design storm’ concept. Design storms should include more holistic characteristics of flood‐inducing rain events, which, in addition to describing specific hydrologic responses, may also be watershed or regionally specific. We present a sensitivity analysis of nine precipitation event statistics from observed precipitation events within a 60‐year record for Tompkins County, NY, USA. We perform a two‐sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test to objectively identify precipitation event statistics of importance for two related hydrologic responses: (1) peak outflow from the Six Mile Creek watershed and (2) peak depth within the reservoir behind the Six Mile Creek Dam. We identify the total precipitation depth, peak hourly intensity, average intensity, event duration, interevent duration, and several statistics defining the temporal distribution of precipitation events to be important rainfall statistics to consider for predicting the watershed flood responses. We found that the two hydrologic responses had different sets of statistically significant parameters. We demonstrate through a stochastic precipitation generation analysis the effects of starting from a constrained parameter set (intensity and duration) when predicting hydrologic responses as opposed to utilizing an expanded suite of rainfall statistics. In particular, we note that the reduced precipitation parameter set may underestimate the probability of high stream flows and therefore underestimate flood hazard. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种简化的暴雨灾害风险及影响评估方法和应用研究 ——以京津冀“7·21”暴雨事件为例

文章综合考虑中国区域范围内降雨时空分布特征以及地理地貌等特征,将全国降雨区划分为4大类,在此基础上,得出不同降雨类区暴雨致灾因子的强度等级评定方法;同时,研究确定了与暴雨灾害密切相关的地形高程、高程标准差、河网密度、土壤类型等环境脆弱性影响要素,并对各类要素分别进行了分级评定;将各类环境脆弱性影响要素结合暴雨致灾因子要素,运用加权求和方法建立了暴雨灾害综合风险评估模型;并结合GIS技术,将城市、农村人口分布情况、用地等数据叠加到风险分布格局中,最终分析得出不同风险等级下影响的城市和农村人口数量、土地面积等内容。该评估模型相较于以往其他暴雨风险评估模型,其适用范围更广,可以适用于全国范围内的任意区域暴雨灾害风险评估;实时评估业务能力更强,将该模型结合降雨实况资料或预报资料可以对全国任意区域降雨灾害综合风险进行事后、跟踪评估或预评估;评估对象更有针对性,结合GIS技术,可以针对得出的风险分布结果分别给出不同风险等级范围内的承灾体受影响的定量评估结果。     

层次分析法的黄河上游滑坡易发性评价

针对黄河上游龙羊峡至积石峡段滑坡灾害分布易发性评价与区划成图问题,该文以ArcGIS为平台,联系评价区的实际特点,选取地貌类型、地层岩性、降雨、断层、坡度为评价因子,运用层次分析法(AHP)确定各评价因子的权重,建立研究区滑坡易发性评价模型,结合GIS的空间分析功能实现研究区内滑坡灾害的易发性区划。结果表明,滑坡灾害主要集中在龙羊峡库区右岸和群科-尖扎盆地。区划结果与野外实际调查基本吻合,为今后GIS应用于地质灾害区划提供了思路,同时可为区内地质单位进行灾害监测提供基础数据和依据。