Study of the flood control scheduling scheme for the Three Gorges Reservoir in a catastrophic flood

The Three Gorges Project is the world's largest water conservancy project. According to the design standards for the 1,000‐year flood, flood diversion areas in the Jingjiang reach of the Yangtze River must be utilized to ensure the safety of the Jingjiang area and the city of Wuhan. However, once these areas are used, the economic and life loss in these areas may be very great. Therefore, it is vital to reduce this loss by developing a scheme that reduces the use of the flood diversion areas through flood regulation by the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), under the premise of ensuring the safety of the Three Gorges Dam. For a 1,000‐year flood on the basis of a highly destructive flood in 1954, this paper evaluates scheduling schemes in which flood diversion areas are or are not used. The schemes are simulated based on 2.5‐m resolution reservoir topography and an optimized model of dynamic capacity flood regulation. The simulation results show the following. (a) In accord with the normal flood‐control regulation discharge, the maximum water level above the dam should be not more than 175 m, which ensures the safety of the dam and reservoir area. However, it is necessary to utilize the flood diversion areas within the Jingjiang area, and flood discharge can reach 2.81 billion m³. (b) In the case of relying on the TGR to impound floodwaters independently rather than using the flood diversion areas, the maximum water level above the dam reaches 177.35 m, which is less than the flood check level of 180.4 m to ensure the safety of the Three Gorges Dam. The average increase of the TGR water level in the Chongqing area is not more than 0.11 m, which indicates no significant effect on the upstream reservoir area. Comparing the various scheduling schemes, when the flood diversion areas are not used, it is believed that the TGR can execute safe flood control for a 1,000‐year flood, thereby greatly reducing flood damage.     

The Upper Devonian Kellwasser event recorded in a regressive sequence from inner shelf to lagoonal pond,Catalan Coastal Ranges,Spain

This study, conducted in the Catalan Coastal Ranges, north‐east Spain, describes the Upper Devonian Kellwasser event in a shallowing‐upward sequence of black shales, siltstones and quartz arenites. This sequence was deposited in a progradational and regressive coastal system where the sedimentary environment evolved from the inner shelf to a lagoonal pond located landward of the shoreline. Three anomalous succeeding steps have been identified by geochemical analysis. The first one, detected on the inner shelf, was characterized by oxygen depletion and high organic productivity. The second, detected in the nearshore, was caused by hydrothermal activity occurring under normal oxic conditions. The third and most intense step was identified in the muds of the lagoonal pond and has been linked to strong anoxic conditions, elevated clastic input derived from changes in the weathering regime at the source area and moderate hydrothermal activity. The Kellwasser event is thus defined in the study area as stepwise and multi‐causal. This is the first time that the Kellwasser event has been identified in a sedimentary environment behind the shoreline. It is also the first time that it has been reported in the Catalan Coastal Ranges.     

The Latest Research Progress on El Nino

Cold water in the deep Pacific can be drawn up to the surface (or west warm water drifts eastwards ) because strong tide increases the mixing of seawater both in vertical and horizontal. In this way greenhouse effect is decreased or increased by means of absorbing (or releasing) CO2. Therefore, La Nina cold event (or El Nino warm event) may occur,which is caused by wanning - up or cooling - down air above the ocean. Volcanic action at sea bottom is also controlled by strong tide.     

Decoupling of stalagmite-derived Asian summer monsoon records from North Atlantic temperature change during marine oxygen isotope stage 5d

The Asian monsoon is an important component of the global climate system. Seasonal variations in wind, rainfall, and temperature associated with the Asian monsoon systems affect a vast expanse of tropical and subtropical Asia. Speleothem-derived summer monsoon variation in East Asia was previously found to be closely associated with millennial-scale change in temperature in the North Atlantic region between 75 and 10 ka. New evidence recovered from East Asia, however, suggests that the teleconnection between summer monsoon in East Asia and temperature change in the North Atlantic region may have significantly reduced during 120 to ~ 110 ka, a period directly after the full last interglaciation and corresponding roughly to marine oxygen isotope stage 5d. This reduction may be due to the low ice volume in the North Hemisphere at that time, which makes the millennial-scale change in temperature in the North Atlantic region less effective in influencing the Asian summer monsoon. This is important for investigating the mechanisms controlling the Asian summer monsoon and the paleoclimatic teleconnection between East Asia and the North Atlantic region, and for predicting monsoon-associated precipitation in East Asia under a global-warming trend.     

Pervasive wetland flooding in the glacial drift prairie of North Dakota (USA)

This article describes a unique flood hazard, produced by the dramatic expansion of wetlands in Nelson County, located within the North American Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. There has been an unprecedented increase in the number, average size, and permanence of prairie wetlands, and a significant increase in the size of a closed lake (Stump Lake) due to a decade-long wet spell that began in 1993 following a prolonged drying trend. Base-line land cover information from the 1992 USGS National Land Cover Characterization dataset, and a Landsat TM scene acquired 9 July 2001 are used to assess the growth of the closed lake and wetland pond surface areas, and to analyze the type and area of various land cover classes inundated between 1992 and 2001. The open water profile in Nelson County changed from one marked by relatively comparable coverage of closed lake and wetland pond areas in 1992, to one in which wetland open water accounted for the vast majority of total open water in 2001. The bulk of the wetland pond area expansion occurred by displacing existing wetland vegetation and agricultural cropland. Producers responded to the flood hazard by filing Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) claims and enrolling cropland in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a federal land retirement program. Land taken out of agricultural production has had an enormous impact upon the agricultural sector that forms the economic base of the rural economy. In 2001 the land taken out of production due to CRP enrollment and preventive planting claims represented nearly 42% of Nelson County’s 205.2 K ha base agricultural land. The patterns obtained from this detailed study of Nelson County are likely to be the representative of the more publicized flood disaster occurring within the Devils Lake Basin of North Dakota.     

National flood discharge mapping in Austria

This article presents the approach and the results of a study in which 30, 100 and 200 year return period flood discharges were estimated for 26,000 km of Austrian streams. Three guiding principles were adopted: combination of automatic methods and manual assessments by hydrologists to allow speedy processing and account for the local hydrological situation; combination of various sources of information including flood peak samples, rainfall data, runoff coefficients and historical flood data; and involvement of the Hydrographic Services to increase the accuracy and enhance the acceptance of results. The flood discharges for ungauged catchments were estimated by the Top-kriging approach with manual adjustment to the local flood characteristics. The adopted combination approach proved to be very efficient both in terms of the project time required and in terms of the accuracy and acceptability of the estimated flood discharges of given return periods.     

东亚和东南亚第四系时间界面的建议

在东亚和东南亚第四系对比中,有关的几条界限,本文建议如后。采用Globorotalia truncatulinoides的初现位作为本区海相第四系的下界,其位置大致在古地磁Olduvai亚时的下界,时间约为距今1.9Ma。在南中国海、东海及沿岸地区,发现了以G.truncatulinoides的初现位为代表的一系列有意义的生物事件,如Pulleniatina finalis的初现位,Globigerinoides obliquus和Globoquadrina altispira的灭绝位,以及Globorotalia menardii和Pulleniatina obliquloculata壳体旋向的变化。此界限在东亚和东南亚也是相当稳定的。在陆相地层中,以泥河湾组为代表,狭义的泥河湾动物群(相当于晚维拉方动物群)所在地层的底界,其古地磁位置为Olduvai亚时的底界。以此作为陆相第四系的下界,与上述海相第四系底界一致。 以古地磁布容/松山界线作为中更新世和早更新世的界限,其年代为0.73MaB.P.。中国中更新世的标准地层周口店组,其底界恰为布容/松山的转换面,北京猿人的年代为0.60—0.23MaB.P.。在洛川黄土剖面上,布容/松山界线为古土壤S_7的底界。雷琼地区中更新统下部的北海组的底界也是布容/松山界线,所产的玻璃陨石的裂变径迹年龄为0.687—0.733MaB.P.。在黄海,布容/松山界线是第Ⅶ海侵层的顶界。通过岩石地层标志,以及动物群、古人     

人工鱼礁工程的风险评估

对台风暴潮影响下的嵊泗海域人工鱼礁工程做了风险评估,考虑了台风暴潮中出现的大浪和风暴潮减水对鱼礁联合作用的危害。风险评估分为危险灾害识别、失效概率计算、失效后果评估、风险准则评定和风险管理决策几个主要的步骤。在失效概率的计算中采用基于应用设计点的重点抽样法随机模拟的技术,这一随机模拟技术可以广泛的应用与海洋工程结构的风险评估当中。     

晚第四纪冲绳海槽北段CaCO3含量的时空变化及其控制因素

对取自冲绳海槽北段的6个沉积岩心进行了CaCO3含量、粒度和铀系同位素分析，结合氧同位素数据和海槽其他钻孔的相应结果，探讨了冲绳海槽北部晚第四纪以来CaCO3含量的垂向与横向变化特征。结果表明，冲绳海槽北段沉积总体上表现为全新世CaCO3含量高、晚更新世CaCO3含量低的“大西洋型”碳酸盐演化特征，但冲绳海槽北段和中部的碳酸盐演化特征并不一致，海槽内西坡、槽底和东坡的不同部位其演化特征也存在较大差异。碳酸盐含量的变化与沉积物粒度特征密切相关，晚第四纪冲绳海槽碳酸盐演化的时空差异是多种因素相互作用的结果。     

Anomalous change of the Antarctic sea ice and global sea level change

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