Progress and Prospect of Statistics and Assessment of Large-scale Natural Disaster Damage and Losses

In June 2014, the "Statistics System for the Damage and Loss of Large-scale Natural Disasters" (SSDLLND) was issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Office of National Disaster Reduction Committee, which marked that the statistics and assessment of China's catastrophic natural disaster damage and losses formally entered a new stage of institutionalization. On the basis of analyzing the five major international disaster damage and loss assessment systems, including HAZUS-MH, ECLAC, DaLA, EMA-DLA and PDNA, the differences between the “SSDLLND” of China and five major international systems were compared from the statistics and assessment contents and indicators. Combined with the statistics and assessment practices of China’s large-scale disaster damage and losses and the characteristics of international systems in recent years, the future development of the SSDLLND were proposed in three aspects: Enriching and improving the framework of damage and loss statistics content, stepwise improvement of disaster impact assessment methods (such as the ecological capital loss assessment, tourism industry loss assessment due to the disasters, etc.), and improving indicators and parameters of loss statistics. The study has an important practical significance for improving the statistics and assessment system of the damage and loss of major natural disasters and better serving the post-disaster recovery and reconstruction decision-making.     

A novel approach to leveraging social media for rapid flood mapping: a case study of the 2015 South Carolina floods

Rapid flood mapping is critical for local authorities and emergency responders to identify areas in need of immediate attention. However, traditional data collection practices such as remote sensing and field surveying often fail to offer timely information during or right after a flooding event. Social media such as Twitter have emerged as a new data source for disaster management and flood mapping. Using the 2015 South Carolina floods as the study case, this paper introduces a novel approach to mapping the flood in near real time by leveraging Twitter data in geospatial processes. Specifically, in this study, we first analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of flood-related tweets using quantitative methods to better understand how Twitter activity is related to flood phenomena. Then, a kernel-based flood mapping model was developed to map the flooding possibility for the study area based on the water height points derived from tweets and stream gauges. The identified patterns of Twitter activity were used to assign the weights of flood model parameters. The feasibility and accuracy of the model was evaluated by comparing the model output with official inundation maps. Results show that the proposed approach could provide a consistent and comparable estimation of the flood situation in near real time, which is essential for improving the situational awareness during a flooding event to support decision-making.     

基于珠海实证的城市旅游增长极限分析框架

城市旅游是城市的一个开放、高流动的子系统,在一定时期内是相对稳定,有增长极限的。城市旅游增长极限受到供需极限影响,当旅游需求超过供给时,出现过度旅游;而当供给超过需求,就会导致过度旅游化。城市旅游需求增长极限呈现阶梯式,只有当影响城市旅游需求增长的长期因素发生持续重大变化时,城市旅游需求增长才可能突破原有的极限,进入一个新的阶段。城市旅游需求极限规定了城市旅游供给极限,决定了城市在一定时期内适合开发的景区、酒店、餐饮、购物等旅游设施规模。本文基于珠海的实证分析表明,过去十几年,由于旅游供需两方面影响因素缺乏持续重大的变化,城市功能和地位、城市主题和特色等因素相对稳定,加之受到区域其他城市的激烈竞争,珠海中高端旅游需求相对稳定,星级酒店等中高端旅游产品面临增长极限。此时,新增旅游景区和星级酒店并不会带来过夜旅游需求的实质增长,反而可能加剧现阶段旅游供需的失衡,造成过度旅游化。本文也讨论了超越旅游极限的条件以及旅游增长与旅游发展的关系,并进一步建议了旅游统计的改革举措。     

香坊老工业区搬迁改造监测分析

利用地理信息技术及遥感监测方法,监测香坊老工业区搬迁改造试点进展情况,主要针对搬迁改造过程中地表覆盖、用地性质、空气质量变化情况,开展综合统计分析,客观评价香坊老工业搬迁改造实施成效。     

Photographic photometry for stellar statistics with Tautenburg Schmidt telescope

Photometric properties of deep Tautenburg Schmidt plates in the UBV system over the whole field and over a wide range of stellar magnitudes are discussed. Different reduction models based on the calibration curve alone and with additional terms containing colour and plate coordinates are considered. With the filter-emulsion combinations used the Johnson UBV system can be reproduced quite well by the Tautenburg telescope. The accuracy of photometric data can be improved if geometrical terms are taken into account. For deep plates with a significant effect of background nebulosity a supplementary term is to be included in the reduction model. The polynomial coefficients vary in dependence on spectral bands and individual properties of each plate.     

黄岛电厂取水工程潮流泥沙数值模拟

建立了基于不规则三角形网格的考虑波浪及其破碎作用的二维潮流场和泥沙场数学模型,对黄岛电厂取水海域的潮流场、泥沙场进行了数值模拟和分析,对电厂取水口的泥淤积强度进行了计算。计算结果表明,电厂取水口附近海区流弱水清,取水口泥沙淤积轻微,对电厂取水基本没有影响。     

车载移动测量系统在大比例尺地形图数学精度检测中的应用

研究了车载移动测量系统在大比例尺地形图数学精度检测中的应用。首先在小范围内对其进行了相关试验,得到其有效性后,对某市全市域的地形图进行了抽样检测;对车载移动测量检验与常规方法检验在外业数据采集、内业数据处理及存储量等几方面进行了比较,分析了车载移动测量检验方法的优劣性,为提高测绘质检效率提供了一种新方案。     

Detecting arbitrarily shaped clusters in origin-destination flows using ant colony optimization

An origin-destination (OD) flow can be defined as the movement of objects between two locations. These movements must be determined for a range of purposes, and strong interactions can be visually represented via clustering of OD flows. Identification of such clusters may be useful in urban planning, traffic planning and logistics management research. However, few methods can identify arbitrarily shaped flow clusters. Here, we present a spatial scan statistical approach based on ant colony optimization (ACO) for detecting arbitrarily shaped clusters of OD flows (AntScan_flow). In this study, an OD flow cluster is defined as a regional pair with significant log likelihood ratio (LLR), and the ACO is employed to detect the clusters with maximum LLRs in the search space. Simulation experiments based on AntScan_flow and SaTScan_flow show that AntScan_flow yields better performance based on accuracy but requires a large computational demand. Finally, a case study of the morning commuting flows of Beijing residents was conducted. The AntScan_flow results show that the regions associated with moderate- and long-distance commuting OD flow clusters are highly consistent with subway lines and highways in the city. Additionally, the regions of short-distance commuting OD flow clusters are more likely to exhibit ‘residential-area to work-area’ patterns.     

Improving the prediction of extreme FPSO hawser tension,using another highly correlated hawser tension with a longer time record

The floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO) is an offshore vessel that produces and stores crude oil prior to tanker transport. Robust prediction of extreme hawser tensions during the FPSO offloading operation is an important safety concern. Excessive hawser tension may occur during certain sea conditions, posing an operational risk. In this paper, the finite element method (FEM) software ANSYS AQWA has been employed to analyze vessel response due to hydrodynamic wave loads, acting on a specific FPSO vessel under actual sea conditions.In some practical situations, it would be useful to improve the accuracy of some statistical predictions based on a certain stochastic random process, given another synchronous highly correlated stochastic process that has been measured for a longer time, than the process of interest. In this paper, the issue of improving extreme value prediction has been addressed. In other words, an efficient transfer of information is necessary between two synchronous, highly correlated stochastic processes. Two such highly correlated FPSO hawser tension processes were simulated in order to test the efficiency of the proposed technique.     

Analysis of the extreme wave elevation due to second-order diffraction around a vertical cylinder

Statistical analysis of nonlinear random waves is important in coastal and ocean engineering. One approach for modeling nonlinear waves is second-order random wave theory, which involves sum- and difference-frequency interactions between wave components. The probability distribution of the non-Gaussian surface elevation can be solved using a technique developed by Kac and Siegert [21]. The wave field can be significantly modified by wave diffraction due to a structure, and the nonlinear diffracted wave elevation can be of interest in certain applications, such as the airgap prediction for an offshore structure. This paper investigates the wave statistics due to second-order diffraction, motivated by the scarcity of prior research. The crossing rate approach is used to evaluate the extreme wave elevation over a specified duration. The application is a bottom-supported cylindrical structure, for which semi-analytical solutions for the second-order transfer functions are available. A new efficient statistical method is developed to allow the distribution of the diffracted wave elevation to be obtained exactly, accounting for the statistical dependency between the linear, sum-frequency and difference-frequency components. Moreover, refinements are proposed to improve the efficiency for computing the free surface integral. The case study yields insights into the problem. In particular, the second-order nonlinearity is found to significantly amplify the extreme wave elevation, especially in the upstream region; conversely, the extreme elevation at an oblique location downstream is attenuated due to sheltering effects. The statistical dependency between the linear and sum-frequency components is also shown to be important for the extreme wave statistics.