Structure and stratigraphy of Rumbli and Panjar areas of Kashmir and Pakistan with the aid of GIS

The project area lies in the southern part of the Hazara Kashmir syntaxis. The Hazara Kashmir syntaxis is an antiformal structure. The project area includes Rumbli, Namb, Chatrora, Chachan, Panjar, Barathian and Utrinna areas of Rawalpindi and Sudhnoti districts. The southeastern limb of the Hazara Kashmir syntaxis is imbricated along Punjal thrust, Main Boundary thrust and Riasi fault. The Jhelum fault truncates the western limb of Hazara Kashmir syntaxis. The core of syntaxis comprises of Himalayan molasse deposits. These molasse deposits represent the part of cover sequence of Indian plate. These Himalayan molasse deposits include the Early to Middle Miocene Kamlial Formation, Middle to Late Miocene Chinji Formation, Late Miocene Nagri Formation and Late Miocene Dhok Pathan Formation. The area is highly deformed resulting folds and faults. The major folds in the project area are the Panjar anticline, Barathian syncline, Barathian anticline, Rumbli anticline, Chatrora antiformal syncline and Namb syncline. The folds are either northwest-southeast trending or southwestnortheast trending. The folds are asymmetric, open, and gentle and close in nature. The folds are southwest, northeast or southeast vergent. The Jhelum fault truncates the northeast and northwest trending structures. The folds and faults are the result of northeastsouthwest or northwest-southeast Himalayan compression.     

Delineating of groundwater potential zones based on remote sensing,GIS and analytical hierarchical process: a case of Waddai,eastern Chad

GeoJournal - The delineation of favourable areas of water potentials and their management must be based on rigorous scientific studies. Thus, geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing...     

Animal burrowing and associated formation of large desiccation cracks as factors of a rapid restoration of soil cover in flooded farmlands

The burrowing activity of annelids controls the spatial pattern and rapid formation of large desiccation cracks in the river flood-derived mud cover in recently inundated farmland areas in northwestern Anatolia, Turkey. The phenomenon is confirmed by laboratory experiments imitating the natural floodplain conditions.     

Automated Analysis of Light Curves of OGLE LMC Binaries: The Period distribution

We present a new algorithm, the Eclipsing Binary Automated Solver (EBAS) to analyse lightcurves of eclipsing binaries. To replace human visual assessment, we introduce a new ‘alarm’ goodness-of-fit statistic that takes into account correlation between neighbouring residuals. We apply the new algorithm to the whole sample of 2580 binaries found in the OGLE photometric survey of the LMC and derive the photometric elements for 1931 systems. To obtain the statistical properties of the short-period binaries of the LMC we construct a well defined subsample of 938 eclipsing binaries with main-sequence B-type primaries. Correcting for observational selection effects, we derive the distributions of the fractional radii of the two components and their sum, the brightness ratios and the periods of the short-period binaries. Somewhat surprisingly, the results are consistent with a flat distribution in log P between 2 and 10 days.     

Regional intensity–duration–frequency analysis in the Eastern Black Sea Basin,Turkey, by using L-moments and regression analysis

The analysis of rainfall frequency is an important step in hydrology and water resources engineering. However, a lack of measuring stations, short duration of statistical periods, and unreliable outliers are among the most important problems when designing hydrology projects. In this study, regional rainfall analysis based on L-moments was used to overcome these problems in the Eastern Black Sea Basin (EBSB) of Turkey. The L-moments technique was applied at all stages of the regional analysis, including determining homogeneous regions, in addition to fitting and estimating parameters from appropriate distribution functions in each homogeneous region. We studied annual maximum rainfall height values of various durations (5 min to 24 h) from seven rain gauge stations located in the EBSB in Turkey, which have gauging periods of 39 to 70 years. Homogeneity of the region was evaluated by using L-moments. The goodness-of-fit criterion for each distribution was defined as the Z^DIST statistics, depending on various distributions, including generalized logistic (GLO), generalized extreme value (GEV), generalized normal (GNO), Pearson type 3 (PE3), and generalized Pareto (GPA). GLO and GEV determined the best distributions for short (5 to 30 min) and long (1 to 24 h) period data, respectively. Based on the distribution functions, the governing equations were extracted for calculation of intensities of 2, 5, 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 years return periods (T). Subsequently, the T values for different rainfall intensities were estimated using data quantifying maximum amount of rainfall at different times. Using these T values, duration, altitude, latitude, and longitude values were used as independent variables in a regression model of the data. The determination coefficient (R ²) value indicated that the model yields suitable results for the regional relationship of intensity–duration–frequency (IDF), which is necessary for the design of hydraulic structures in small and medium sized catchments.     

Spatial patterns of retail activity and street network structure in new and traditional Israeli cities

The association between spatial patterns of retail activity and the spatial configuration of street networks was examined by means of the space syntax methodology in eight Israeli cities that represent two city types, characterized by different planning approaches and urban growth: (i) new towns, which were established according to a comprehensive city plan and modern planning concepts of “tree-like” hierarchical street networks and “neighborhood units”; (ii) older cities, where street networks and the spatial patterns of retail activity were formed incrementally during their growth. Unlike in older cities, retail activity in new towns concentrates in relatively less-accessible and intermediate locations. This is indicated by a weak correlation between retail activity and the street network’s Integration and Choice centrality measures. The comparison between Israeli cities illustrates the influence of urban growth and planning approaches on the formation of retail activity and its interaction with the structure of the street network.     

Wireless technologies for the monitoring of strategic civil infrastructures: an ambient vibration test on the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Suspension Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey

Rapid improvements in telemetry technology and the general decrease in communication costs have raised a growing interest in low-cost wireless sensing units. This is especially the case for structural monitoring purposes, where they are becoming a more valuable alternative to conventional wired monitoring system. The main advantages associated with the use of wireless sensing unit include a considerable decrease in installation costs, decentralization of data analysis, and the possibility of broadening the functional capabilities by exploiting the use, at the same time and place, of different sensors. In this work, the design of a low-cost wireless sensing unit able both to collect, analyze, store, and communicate data and estimated parameters is presented. The suitability of a network of these low-cost wireless instruments for monitoring the vibration characteristics and dynamic properties of strategic civil infrastructures is validated during a ambient vibration recording field test on the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey.     

Operation analysis of Eleviyan irrigation reservoir dam by optimization and stochastic simulation

Rainfall distributions in Iran are spatially and temporally heterogeneous, a fact probably linked to the mostly arid and semi-arid climate of the country. On the other hand, water demand is increasing with increasing population and improving life style. At present, the optimal utilization of water resources and irrigation dams is the primary concern of water resource managers. The Eleviyan dam (with a capacity of 60 hm³) was constructed to meet the irrigation and municipal water needs of the Maraghan region (Northwestern Iran). In this study, the efficiency of the Eleviyan irrigation dam system was investigated in three phases by setting up the optimization model that maximized the water release for irrigation purposes after municipal water need were met. In the first phase, the inflows measured in the 21 years prior to the construction of the reservoir, and in the second, the inflows generated by the Monte Carlo simulation method, and in the third phase, the inflows after the construction of the reservoir were used. The results demonstrate that the capacity determined during the preliminary studies was accurate and the operation carried out in the recent periods of operation life was up to a satisfactory standard.