Investigating Landslides Caused by Earthquakes – A Historical Review

Post-earthquake field investigations of landslide occurrence have provided a basis for understanding, evaluating, and mapping the hazard and risk associated withearthquake-induced landslides. This paper traces thehistorical development of knowledge derived from these investigations. Before 1783, historical accounts of the occurrence of landslides in earthquakes are typically so incomplete and vague that conclusions based on these accounts are of limited usefulness. For example, the number of landslides triggered by a given event is almost always greatly underestimated. The first formal, scientific post-earthquake investigation that included systematic documentation of the landslides was undertaken in the Calabria region of Italy after the 1783 earthquake swarm. From then until the mid-twentieth century, the best information on earthquake-induced landslides came from a succession ofpost-earthquake investigations largely carried out by formal commissions that undertook extensive ground-based field studies. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, when the use of aerial photography became widespread, comprehensive inventories of landslide occurrence have been made for several earthquakes in the United States, Peru, Guatemala, Italy, El Salvador, Japan, and Taiwan. Techniques have also been developed for performing ``retrospective' analyses years or decades after an earthquake that attempt to reconstruct the distribution of landslides triggered by the event. The additional use of Geographic Information System (GIS) processing and digital mapping since about 1989 has greatly facilitated the level of analysis that can applied to mapped distributions of landslides. Beginning in 1984, syntheses of worldwide and national data on earthquake-induced landslides have defined their general characteristics and relations between their occurrence and various geologic and seismic parameters. However, the number of comprehensive post-earthquake studies of landslides is still relatively small, and one of the most pressing needs in this area of research is for the complete documentation of landslides triggered by many more earthquakes in a wider variety of environments.     

An automated approach to vertical road characterisation using mobile LiDAR systems: Longitudinal profiles and cross-sections

The characterisation the vertical profiles and cross-sections of roads is important for the verification of proper construction and road safety assessment. The goal of this paper is the extraction of geometric parameters through the automatic processing of mobile LiDAR system (MLS) point clouds. Massive and complex datasets provided by the MLS are processed using a hierarchical strategy that includes segmentation, principal component analysis (PCA)-based orthogonal regression, filtering and parameter extraction procedures. Best-fit geometric parameters act as a vertical road model for both linear parameters (slope and vertical curves) and cross-sections (superelevations). The proposed automatic processing approach gives satisfactory results for the analysed scenario.     

Trend and Interannual Variability of Chinese Air Pollution since 2000 in Association with Socioeconomic Development: A brief Overview

air pollution, trend and variability, socioeconomic development, satellite measurements, bottom-up emission inventories, top-down constraints     

Ambient biogenic hydrocarbons and isoprene emissions from a mixed deciduous forest

Experiments were conducted during the growing season of 1993 at a mixed deciduous forest in southern Ontario, Canada to investigate the atmospheric abundance of hydrocarbons from phytogenic origins, and to measure emission rates from foliage of deciduous trees. The most abundant phytogenic chemical species found in the ambient air were isoprene and the monoterpenes -pinene and -pinene. Prior to leaf-bud break during spring, ambient hydrocarbon mixing ratios above the forest remained barely above instrument detection limit (20 parts per trillion), but they became abundant during the latter part of the growing season. Peak isoprene mixing ratios reached nearly 10 parts per billion (ppbv) during mid-growing season while maximum monoterpene mixing ratios were close to 2 ppbv. Both isoprene and monoterpene mixing ratios exhibited marked diurnal variations. Typical isoprene mixing ratios were highest during mid-afternoon and were lowest during nighttime. Peak isoprene mixing ratios coincided with maximum canopy temperature. The diurnal pattern of ambient isoprene mixing ratio was closely linked to the local emissions from foliage. Isoprene emission rates from foliage were measured by enclosing branches of trees inside environment-controlled cuvette systems and measuring the gas mixing ratio difference between cuvette inlet and outlet airstream. Isoprene emissions depended on tree species, foliage ontogeny, and environmental factors such as foliage temperature and intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). For instance, young (<1 month old) aspen leaves released approximately 80 times less isoprene than mature (>3 months old) leaves. During the latter part of the growing season the amount of carbon released back to the atmosphere as isoprene by big-tooth and trembling aspen leaves accounted for approximately 2% of the photosynthetically fixed carbon. Significant isoprene mixing ratio gradients existed between the forest crown and at twice canopy height above the ground. The gradient diffusion approach coupled with similarity theory was used to estimate canopy isoprene flux densities. These canopy fluxes compared favorably with values obtained from a multilayered canopy model that utilized locally measured plant microclimate, biomass distribution and leaf isoprene emission rate data. Modeled isoprene fluxes were approximately 30% higher compared to measured fluxes. Further comparisons between measured and modeled canopy biogenic hydrocarbon flux densities are required to assess uncertainties in modeling systems that provide inventories of biogenic hydrocarbons.     

Use of Pb/Pb ratios to investigate the surface integrity of peat cores used to study the recent depositional history and geochemical behaviour of inorganic elements in peat bogs

The well characterised temporal trend in the ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb atom ratio of atmospheric lead deposition in Scotland during the 20th century was used to investigate the surface integrity of several cores collected by different methods from Flanders Moss ombrotrophic peat bog, central Scotland, during 1996–2001. Based on ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb profile comparisons, in conjunction with identified ²¹⁰Pb radionuclide inventory deficits for two of the cores, it was deduced that 25 ± 7 yrs worth of material was missing from the more seriously affected core. After allowing for an appropriate vertical offset based on ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb profile matching, the subsequent matching of profiles of titanium, lead, sulfur, arsenic, iron, phosphorus and manganese in three cores for which total concentration data were available was excellent. Without such offset correction, erroneous conclusions could have been drawn concerning the recent historical record of anthropogenic lead and arsenic deposition, the position of the redox boundary, which controls geochemical cycling and enrichment of iron, and the nutrient recycling status of manganese and phosphorus in the near-surface vegetation. Topographic, vegetative and coring (both device and operator) influences may have been responsible, thus endorsing the use of reliable, multiple core sampling and the use of lead isotope ratio profiles, supplemented by appropriate radionuclide data, in both assessing and ensuring the surface integrity of peat cores.     

GHG emission estimates for road transport in national GHG inventories

The annual reporting procedures of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have now produced greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventories from 40 so-called Annex I countries for 18 years. This article analyses a subset of these data: emissions from road transport. The article compares the reported data with the technical guidance on GHG emission inventories provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The analysis suggests that some countries use the IPCC's default emission factors, whereas other countries use country-specific values. In the case of diesel-fuelled road transport, the estimated emissions appear to be generally comparable between all countries for all years. For CO₂ emissions from gasoline-fuelled road transport, the picture is less clear. The results suggest that the default emission factor for CO₂ from motor gasoline as provided by the IPCC is about 3–5% too low. Countries that seem to apply this default value might therefore underestimate their emissions by the same percentage. The effect of this possible underestimate on trends is, however, very small. Despite the possible problem with the default emission factor, the quantification of the trend in emissions is only slightly influenced by this.     

Introducing top-down methods in assessing compliance with the Kyoto Protocol

Abstract

The Kyoto Protocol has an ambitious reporting and review system to assess Parties' compliance with their emission commitments. It is based on a ‘bottom-up’ approach; that is, each Party is required to submit detailed inventories of emissions and removals. This requires considerable resources and may still not detect all important cases of non-compliance. We consider the case for introducing ‘top-down’ methods; that is, independent inverse modelling methods that calculate probable emissions using measured concentrations of gases in the atmosphere and meteorological models. We argue that the top-down methods are at present too inaccurate, too cumbersome, and politically too problematic to serve as independent alternatives to the reported emission inventories for assessing compliance, although they could be useful in monitoring the global success of the protocol. We conclude that these top-down approaches may supplement the traditional emission inventories, in particular those dealing with fluorinated gases, thereby providing input for improving the emission inventory methods.     

中国生产型和消费型二氧化碳排放清单分析

中国作为最大的发展中国家,已经成为二氧化碳第一排放大国,因此,国际社会开始敦促中国在后京都时期承担更多减排责任。现阶段,《联合国气候变化框架条约》使用生产型二氧化碳排放清单,这就意味着它将减排责任分配给了污染制造者。本文比较并分析了中国的生产型和消费型二氧化碳排放清单,并认为消费型的二氧化碳排放清单更为公平合理,产品的消费者应该为他们所购买的产品中隐含的碳排放付费。此外,为了考虑公平问题,政府应采取全面的经济政策和行政手段扶持经济落后的省份进行减排。     

Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC): An Overview on Emission, Physiology and Ecology

This overview compiles the actual knowledge of the biogenic emissions of some volatile organic compounds (VOCs), i.e., isoprene, terpenes, alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, esters, carbonyls, and acids. We discuss VOC biosynthesis, emission inventories, relations between emission and plant physiology as well as temperature and radiation, and ecophysiological functions. For isoprene and monoterpenes, an extended summary of standard emission factors, with data related to the plant genus and species, is included. The data compilation shows that we have quite a substantial knowledge of the emission of isoprene and monoterpenes, including emission rates, emission regulation, and biosynthesis. The situation is worse in the case of numerous other compounds (other VOCs or OVOCs) being emitted by the biosphere. This is reflected in the insufficient knowledge of emission rates and biological functions. Except for the terpenoids, only a limited number of studies of OVOCs are available; data are summarized for alkanes, alkenes, carbonyls, alcohols, acids, and esters. In addition to closing these gaps of knowledge, one of the major objectives for future VOC research is improving our knowledge of the fate of organic carbon in the atmosphere, ending up in oxidation products and/or as aerosol particles.     

Development of Emission Models and Improvement of Emission Data for Germany

Measurements and model developments with the objective to improve the quality and resolution of estimations of anthropogenic emissions are described. Measurement results on a chassis dynamometer were used to determine VOC profiles for exhaust gas emissions of passenger cars for different vehicle and fuel types and different driving modes. Further measurements resulted in emission factors and VOC profiles for lignite burning in residential stoves. Using remote sensing techniques benzene emission factors of gas stations and the efficiency of gasoline vapour recovery systems were measured.To improve the quality and the spatial and temporal resolution of emission data, emission models were improved or modified. This was done by elaborating and applying new methods for important emission source categories (e.g., solvent use, road traffic, small combustion) as well as including new data sources in the calculation routines (e.g. emission statements, land use data, import/export indices of solvents). Simultaneously considerable progress was made improving temporal and spatial allocation functions and VOC profiles. With these improvements a large number of anthropogenic emission data sets for 14 different grid projections in Germany and Europe have been generated. An emission scenario for Germany for 2010 suggests that considering air quality directives from the EU and Germany which are in force or in pipeline, German emissions of VOC and NO_x will decrease, but still exceed the national emission ceilings of the EU-NEC directive.