场地黄土扰动前后的湿陷性与其物性指标的关系

黄土物性指标可以近似但较为简便快速地评价其湿陷性。原状黄土在不同荷载和浸水的扰动下,随着其物性指标的改变,湿陷性也随之变化,故为了更好地评价这类扰动性黄土的湿陷性,在兰州东岗某场地上进行的两次相隔四十多年室内试验的基础上,采用相关分析的方法,研究扰动前后湿陷性系数与干密度、含水率、孔隙比、饱和度和塑性指数之间的关系。结果表明:(1)扰动前后湿陷性系数和干密度、含水率、饱和度和塑性均呈负相关,和孔隙比呈正相关,且扰动后湿陷性系数整体上低于扰动前,各指标对湿陷性系数的影响减弱。(2)以干密度、含水率、孔隙比、饱和度和塑性指数作为反映扰动前后黄土湿陷性的因子进行多元线性回归和因子权重分析,得出用以评价扰动前后黄土湿陷性的回归公式和影响湿陷性的因子排序。研究结果对于研判扰动黄土的湿陷性并选择合适的地基处理方法具有一定参考价值。     

三种养殖模式下日本鳗鲡(Anguilla japonica)养成品血清生化指标和脏器消化酶、抗氧化酶活力的差异

随机选取池塘专养(M1)、日本沼虾套养(M2)以及水库放养(M3)三种养殖模式养成的肛长(25.91±3.26)cm的日本鳗鲡(Anguilla japonica)作为研究材料,采用生物化学方法测定并比较了不同养殖模式日本鳗鲡养成品血清生化指标和脏器消化酶与抗氧化酶活力。结果表明:(1)在所测16项血清生化指标中,三者间均无显著差异的为TP、ALB、GLB、ALT和CHE(P>0.05),均具显著差异的为CK、CREA和α-HBDH,它们的测定值依次呈M3>M2>M1(P<0.05)、M3>M1>M2(P<0.05)和M2>M1>M3(P<0.05);(2)所测消化酶中,三者均具显著差异的为肝脏蛋白酶、胃蛋白酶、肝脂肪酶及胰腺脂肪酶,它们的测定值均呈M1>M2>M3(P<0.05);(3)所测抗氧化酶中,三者间均无显著差异的为心脏SOD、CAT、POD和肝脏CAT活力(P>0.05),均具显著差异的仅为肝脏POD活力,其测定值呈M1>M3>M2(P<0.05)。     

Analysis of indices of extreme temperature events at Apizaco,Tlaxcala, Mexico: 1952-2003

In recent years in Mexico and around the world, the scientific community has shown great interest in acquiring knowledge regarding the behavior of extreme climate events due to their increasing number and intensity. The objective of this research was to analyze variations in extreme temperature events using extreme climate indices. We conducted a case study for the municipality of Apizaco, Tlaxcala, Mexico, using data sets of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures for the period from 1952 to 2003. Six indices related to maximum and minimum temperatures were calculated: frost days, summer days, warm days, cool days, warm nights and cool nights. All of the index results were evaluated annually and only four of the indices were analyzed according to the seasons. A trend based on a linear least squares regression model was fit to the indices to determine their behavior. The index results showed that extreme events related to maximum temperatures corresponded to greater changes and an increased number of summer days and decreased cool days. Additionally, there was an increase of frost days, associated with a greater number of days with minimum temperatures below 0 °C. In general, the results indicated that warmer and colder extreme temperatures are occurring. The detection of those trends in the extreme events can be seen as a first step in any study of the attribution of those observed changes (e.g., land use change, regional climate change, etc.). This attribution aspect will not be discussed in the present study.     

Coupling two radar backscattering models to assess soil roughness and surface water content at farm scale

Abstract

Remote sensing techniques are useful for agro-hydrological monitoring at the farm scale because the availability of spatially and temporally distributed data improves agricultural models for irrigation and crop yield optimization under water scarcity conditions. This research focuses on the surface water content retrieval using active microwave data. Two semi-empirical models were chosen as these showed the best performances in simulating cross and co-polarized backscatter. Thus, these models were coupled to obtain reliable assessments of both soil water content and soil roughness. The use of the coupled model enables one to avoid using roughness measured in situ. Remote sensing images and in situ data were collected between April and July 2006 within the European Space Agency-funded project AgriSAR 2006. The images data set includes L-band in HH, VV and VH polarizations acquired from the airborne E-SAR sensor, operated by the German Aerospace Centre. Results were validated using in situ soil water content and roughness measurements. The results show that reliable assessment of both soil roughness (r ² up to ?0.8) and soil water content (r ² ? 0.9) can be retrieved in fields characterized by low fractional coverage.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor C. Onof

Citation Capodici, F., Maltese, A., Ciraolo, G., La Loggia, G., and D’Urso, G., 2013. Coupling two radar backscattering models to assess soil roughness and surface water content at the farm scale. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (8), 1677–1689.     

Seismic capacity of irregular unreinforced masonry walls with openings

Masonry buildings are often characterized by geometric irregularities. In many cases, such buildings meet global regularity requirements provided by seismic codes, but they are composed by irregular walls with openings. The latter are masonry walls characterized by (i) openings of different sizes, (ii) openings misaligned in the horizontal and/or vertical direction, or (iii) a variable number of openings per story. An irregular layout of openings can induce not only a nonuniform distribution of gravity loads among masonry piers but also unfavorable damage localizations resulting in a premature collapse of the wall and hence a higher seismic vulnerability. This paper is aimed at providing a simplified methodology to assess the effects of irregularities on the in‐plane seismic capacity of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls with openings. To this end, a macroelement method was developed and validated through experimental results available in the literature. The proposed methodology was based on the quantification of wall irregularities by means of geometric indices and their effects on seismic capacity of URM walls with openings through both sensitivity and regression analyses. Sensitivity analysis was based on a high number of static pushover analyses and allowed to assess variations in key seismic capacity parameters. Regression analysis let to describe each capacity parameter under varying irregularity index, providing empirical models for seismic assessment of irregular URM walls with openings. The in‐plane seismic capacity was found to be significantly affected by wall irregularities, especially in the case of openings with different heights. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

View-illumination effects on hyperspectral vegetation indices in the Amazonian tropical forest

Because of the pointing capability of the Hyperion/Earth Observing-One (EO-1) to improve the revisit time of the scene, temporal series of narrowband vegetation indices (VIs) can be generated to study the phenology of the Amazonian tropical forests. In this study, 10 selected narrowband VIs calculated from Hyperion nadir and off-nadir data and from different view directions (forward scattering and backscattering) were analyzed for their sensitivity to view-illumination effects along the dry season on the Seasonal Semi-deciduous Forest. Data analysis was also supported by PROSAIL modeling to simulate the spectral response of this forest type in both directions. Hyperion and PROSAIL results showed that the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) were the two more anisotropic VIs, whereas the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Structure Insensitive Pigment Index (SIPI) and the Vogelmann Red Edge Index (VOG) were comparatively less sensitive to view-illumination effects. When compared to the other VIs and because of the greater dependence on the near-infrared (NIR) reflectance, EVI showed a different spectral behavior. EVI increased from forward scattering to backscattering and with decreasing solar zenith angle (SZA) towards the end of the local dry season, due to reduction in shading and enhancement of the illumination effects. On the other hand, PRI was higher with increasing shading in the forward scattering direction, as deduced from the PROSAIL simulation. Results emphasized the importance of taking into account bidirectional effects when analyzing temporal series of VIs collected over tropical forests by imaging spectrometers with pointing capability or even by multispectral sensors with large field-of-view (FOV).     

Establishing and assessing the Integrated Surface Drought Index (ISDI) for agricultural drought monitoring in mid-eastern China

Accurately monitoring the temporal, spatial distribution and severity of agricultural drought is an effective means to reduce the farmers’ losses. Based on the concept of the new drought index called VegDRI, this paper established a new method, named the Integrated Surface Drought Index (ISDI). In this method, the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) was selected as the dependent variable; for the independent variables, 12 different combinations of 14 factors were examined, including the traditional climate-based drought indicators, satellite-derived vegetation indices, and other biophysical variables. The final model was established by fully describing drought properties with the smaller average error (relative error) and larger correlation coefficients. The ISDI can be used not only to monitor the main drought features, including precipitation anomalies and vegetation growth conditions but also to indicate the earth surface thermal and water content properties by incorporating temperature information. Then, the ISDI was used for drought monitoring from 2000 to 2009 in mid-eastern China. The results for 2006 (a typical dry year) demonstrate the effectiveness and capability of the ISDI for monitoring drought on both the large and the local scales. Additionally, the multiyear ISDI monitoring results were compared with the actual drought intensity using the agro-meteorological disaster data recorded at the agro-meteorological sites. The investigation results indicated that the ISDI confers advantages in the accuracy and spatial resolution for monitoring drought and has significant potential for drought identification in China.     

Remote estimation of crop and grass chlorophyll and nitrogen content using red-edge bands on Sentinel-2 and -3

Sentinel-2 is planned for launch in 2014 by the European Space Agency and it is equipped with the Multi Spectral Instrument (MSI), which will provide images with high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution. It covers the VNIR/SWIR spectral region in 13 bands and incorporates two new spectral bands in the red-edge region, which can be used to derive vegetation indices using red-edge bands in their formulation. These are particularly suitable for estimating canopy chlorophyll and nitrogen (N) content. This band setting is important for vegetation studies and is very similar to the ones of the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) on the planned Sentinel-3 satellite and the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on Envisat, which operated from 2002 to early 2012. This paper focuses on the potential of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 in estimating total crop and grass chlorophyll and N content by studying in situ crop variables and spectroradiometer measurements obtained for four different test sites. In particular, the red-edge chlorophyll index (CI_red-edge), the green chlorophyll index (CI_green) and the MERIS terrestrial chlorophyll index (MTCI) were found to be accurate and linear estimators of canopy chlorophyll and N content and the Sentinel-2 and -3 bands are well positioned for deriving these indices. Results confirm the importance of the red-edge bands on particularly Sentinel-2 for agricultural applications, because of the combination with its high spatial resolution of 20 m.     

云南会泽东北部地区重金属环境污染评价

按照多目标地球化学填图计划,云南省地质调查院开展了"云南省滇中-滇东北地区1:25万土地质量地球化学调查"工作,获得了54项元素或氧化物的含量数据.本文基于此次调查中云南会泽东北部地区的182件表层土壤样品,参照《土壤环境质量农用地土壤污染风险管制标准(试行)》(GB15618—2018),基于新标准本文提出农用地重金...     

Environmental “Education”: The Last Measure Of Man

Promotion of nonacademic geography is a logical response to curtailment of opportunity for new teaching careers. Yet this necessary redirection of effort must be accompanied by renewed dedication to education and especially to nonprofessional undergraduate education. The case for geography in the liberal arts curriculum may well be a strong one, but questions about what we can offer need to be raised more frequently among ourselves if we are to respond effectively when such questions are asked by outsiders.