Prediction of tension crack location and riverbank erosion hazards along destabilized channels

Riverbank erosion, associated sedimentation and land loss hazards are a land management problem of global significance and many attempts to predict the onset of riverbank instability have been made. Recently, Osman and Thorne (1988) have presented a Culmann-type analysis of the stability of steep, cohesive riverbanks; this has the potential to be a considerable improvement over previous bank stability theories, which do not account for bank geometry changes due to toe scour and lateral erosion. However, in this paper it is shown that the existing Osman-Thorne model does not properly incorporate the influence of tension cracking on bank stability since the location of the tension crack on the floodplain is indirectly determined via calculation or arbitrary specification of the tension crack depth. Furthermore, accurate determination of tension crack location is essential to the calculation of the geometry of riverbank failure blocks and hence prediction of land loss and bank sediment yield associated with riverbank instability and channel widening. In this paper, a rational, physically based method to predict the location of tension cracks on the floodplain behind the eroding bank face is presented and tested. A case study is used to illustrate the computational procedure required to apply the model. Improved estimates of failure block geometry using the new method may potentially be applied to improve predictions of bank retreat and floodplain land loss along river channels destabilized as a result of environmental change.     

Rill erosion along the thalweg of a hillslope hollow: A case study from the cotswold hills,Central England

Rill erosion is an important erosional form on agricultural soils in England, causing large losses of soil, particularly on cultivated slopes. This paper describes a rill system that developed in a small agricultural catchment in north Oxfordshire during the winter of 1992–93. The rill system comprised two components: a system of ‘feeder rills’ along the valley-side slopes, which were the result of flow concentration and erosion along wheelings, and a thalweg rill, which formed along a dry valley bottom as a result of surface runoff concentration from the feeder rills. Total volumetric soil loss from the rill system was 32·28 m³, equivalent to 3·01 m³, ha^?1 for the rill catchment area, or 3·91 t ha^?1. Mean discharge for the thalweg rill and feeder rills, calculated during a storm event, was 31·101s^?1 and 1·171s^?1, respectively. All flows were fully turbulent and supercritical. We emphasize the need for a spatially distributed approach to the study of runoff and erosion at the catchment scale.     

江汉平原渍涝灾害遥感的初步研究

提出了采用遥感技术与地理信息系统结合研究渍涝灾害的方案,其内容包括:(1)信息源选择与信息处理1(2)清访机理与灾情分析;(3)灾情预报与防治决策.讨论了实施技术系统的基本功能:(1)图像与数据处理1(2)基本信息的提取与分析,(3)损失分析模型与预报模型.作为本方案论证的一部分,还介绍了笔者近期在这一领域中的部分研究成果.     

Estimation of soil loss at a regional scale based on plot measurements—some critical considerations

The paper is prompted by apparent deficiencies in the design of plot studies in regional erosion surveys. The principal shortcomings of observational erosion research have been poor sampling design and inadequate analyses of data. The paper identifies various sources of bias which must be taken into account before plot data can be extrapolated to land units in a regional survey. Judging from soil loss data of a case-study in the Ardèche rangelands one may conclude that even accurate plot measurements can still be rather a rough basis for regional erosion assessment. Finally, the paper highlights strategies that might be used to improve erosion sampling.     

Surface runoff and sediment yield in the Ardèche rangelands

This paper presents a case study of runoff and sediment generation under Submediterranean rangeland conditions (Ardèche drainage basin, France). Measurements indicate that on a rough hillslope interrill runoff and sediment are not produced uniformly over the slope surface. It is observed that runoff concentrates immediately in non-permanent interrill flow paths, which under average storm conditions vary in length from 1.0 to 12.5 m. Long interrill flow paths may eventually become permanent. These permanent flow paths, called pre-rills, are introduced as a new source area, and are considered to be the initial stage in the development of rills. Along pre-rills considerable quantities of runoff and sediment are carried away. This study also shows that calculations based on interrill, pre-rill, and rill runoff will only have significance if storm and soil conditions are specified in detail. It is concluded from a correlation analysis between the runoff volume and the amount of soil loss on a storm-by-storm basis that the runoff volume alone cannot explain the amount of sediment that is generated in each source area; soil availability is an additional factor that must be taken into account.     

Expected loss‐based alarm threshold set for earthquake early warning systems

Earthquake early warning systems (EEWS) seem to have potential as tools for real‐time seismic risk management and mitigation. In fact, although the evacuation of buildings requires warning time not available in many urbanized areas threatened by seismic hazard, they may still be used for the real‐time protection of critical facilities using automatic systems in order to reduce the losses subsequent to a catastrophic event. This is possible due to the real‐time seismology, which consists of methods and procedures for the rapid estimation of earthquake features, as magnitude and location, based on measurements made on the first seconds of the P‐waves. An earthquake engineering application of earthquake early warning (EEW) may be intended as a system able to issue the alarm, if some recorded parameter exceeds a given threshold, to activate risk mitigation actions before the quake strikes at a site of interest. Feasibility analysis and design of such EEWS require the assessment of the expected loss reduction due to the security action and set of the alarm threshold. In this paper a procedure to carry out these tasks in the performance‐based earthquake engineering probabilistic framework is proposed. A merely illustrative example refers to a simple structure assumed to be a classroom. Structural damage and non‐structural collapses are considered; the security action is to shelter occupants below the desks. The cost due to a false alarm is assumed to be related to the interruption of didactic activities. Results show how the comparison of the expected losses, for the alarm‐issuance and non‐issuance cases, allows setting the alarm threshold on a quantitative and consistent basis, and how it may be a tool for the design of engineering applications of EEW. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

斯堪的那维亚臭氧亏损和地面加热

对ＮＡＳＡ的ＴＯＭＳ臭氧资料进行分析后指出：冬季在北极的斯堪的那维亚地区存在一个明显的臭氧亏损区，亏损区的中心值达－５０ ＤＵ，相当于该区域平均值的 １５％。对臭氧亏损和北大西洋海温的东西向差异作相关分析得到：其季节变化的相关系数为－０．９６，逐月（ １６８个月）变化的相关系数为－０．７０。同样对臭氧亏损与地面加热进行相关分析后指出：斯堪的那维亚地区的臭氧亏损和该地区地面的热通量关系极其密切，其相关系数均在－０．８７以上。由此我们认为：北大西洋暖流向北输送能量，引起斯堪的纳维亚地区地面加热，由此造成了冬季该地区的臭氧亏损。     

塔里木河水资源利用的效益与生态损失

针对塔里木河流域水资源利用引起的下游水量减少，进而导致生态退化，分析了近30年该河源流区地表水引用和河流水量变化关系，用分摊法估算了水资源利用的直接效益和恢复下游地表径流的恢复费用。     

永城煤电集团滤波装置改造的技术经济分析

根据对永城煤电集团供电系统中存在的主要谐波情况，翔实分析了其所造成的附加损耗和经济损失。针对永城煤电集团用电负荷造成的谐波现状及现有的固定LC滤波装置的特点，经综合分析最后确定选用TCR型静止动态无功补偿装置与两矿现有的LC滤波装置并联，组成TCR＋FC结构。从技术、经济两方面看，具有重大意义。     

用FY85－Ⅲ型立体定向仪和PHOENIX计算器实行颅内异物定位

本文阐述了应用ＦＹ８５－Ⅲ型立体定向仪辅以ＥＬ－５０６Ｈ计算器对颅内异物的三维空间坐标值进行逻辑编程处理实行颅内异物定位的方法。