Permanent Scatterers for landslide investigations: outcomes from the ESA-SLAM project

Within the SLAM project (Service for Landslide Monitoring), launched in 2003 by the European Space Agency (ESA) the Permanent Scatterers (PS) technique, a multi-image interferometric approach, coupled with the interpretation of aerial-photos and optical satellite images, was carried out for landslide investigations. The PS analysis was applied at a regional scale as support for landslide inventory mapping and at local scale for the monitoring of single well-known slope movements. For the integration of the PS measurements within a landslide inventory the Arno river basin (Italy) was chosen as test site for the presence of a high number of mass movements (to date about 300 areas at high landslide risk and more than 27,000 individual landslides mapped by the institutional authorities). About 350 SAR images have been interferometrically processed by means of the PS technique, with the detection of about 600,000 PS. The use of optical images contributed spatial meaning to the point-wise information provided by the PS, making it easier to identify terrain features related to slope instability and the landslide boundaries. Here we describe the employed methodology and its impact in the updating of a preexisting landslide inventory. 6.8% of the total number of landslides were characterized by ground displacement measurements from the PS: 6.1% of already mapped landslides and 0.8% of new unstable areas detected through the PS analysis. Moreover, most of the PS are located in urban areas, showing that the proposed methodology is suitable for landslide mapping in areas with a quite high density of urbanization, but that over vegetated areas it still suffers from the limitations induced by the current space-borne SAR missions (e.g. temporal de-correlation). On the other hand, the use of InSAR for the monitoring of single slow landslides threatening built-up areas has provided satisfactory results, allowing the measurement of superficial deformations with high accuracy on the landslide sectors characterized by a good radar reflectivity and coherence.     

Dynamic theory of rigid-plasticity

This paper deals with an analysis method for the response and motion of soil-like rigid-plastic bodies under seismic loading conditions. A continuity condition to determine the acceleration distribution within the rigid-plastic body when the failure occurs during seismic motions is proposed. Combining this continuity condition of acceleration and the ‘Generalized Limit Equilibrium Method (GLEM)’, the responses of the earth structure during seismic motions as well as the permanent displacements can be obtained, where GLEM is one of the limit equilibrium methods proposed by the authors for static problems and providing the approximate solution for Kötter's equation. The theoretical formulation of the method, the illustrative examples, and some comparisons between the analytical and experimental results are demonstrated.     

近30年来耕地养老保障功能的时空演变及政策启示

厘清耕地养老保障功能的时空演变,为新时代农村土地保障功能提供科学判断。把拥有承包权的耕地看作农户的一项资产,利用1986—2015年农村固定观察点中近61万份农户资料,分别从全国和省级尺度揭示耕地养老保障功能的演变规律,为完善农村养老保障体系提供参考。结果显示：按1986年不变价,全国层面上,人均耕地养老保障价值从550元/年降至150元/年,研究期内降幅达到72%。20世纪80年代,农民依靠承包耕地能够满足家庭老年居民的养老支出;1994年其价值已无法支撑老年居民消费,此后养老需求的缺口不断扩大。省际层面上,研究期内各省份耕地的养老保障价值均呈现下降趋势,且省际间存在明显差异;养老需求的缺口不断扩大,其中东南沿海、长江沿线地区尤为突出。耕地养老假说已失去其基本论据,依靠耕地无法满足农村老年居民的养老支出。农村养老保障必须建立在公共社会保障体系的基础上,而不能再指望农户家庭拥有的少量耕地,政府应加强农村养老服务的建设。     

Determination of vertical displacements over the coastal area of Korea due to the ocean tide loading using GPS observations

This paper describes the GPS applicability for detecting the vertical displacements of ground stations caused by ocean tide loading effects. An experiment was carried out using 12 permanent GPS stations located in the coastal area of Korea using data in the period 1 July until 26 August 2003. The relative height differences were calculated from hourly DGPS data processing based on the carrier-phase observation. The power spectra of the M₂ and N₂ constituents of ocean tide loading were derived using the CLEAN algorithm. The differential vertical displacements generated by the ocean tide loading effect are typically 3–25 mm in coastal area of the Korea. We compared the results from GPS with those of the ocean tide models, NAO.99Jb regional model and GOT00.2, FES99 global models. The M₂ (N₂) amplitude differences of vertical displacements between GPS and GOT00.2 is 1.22 ± 3.61 mm (1.01 ± 1.48 mm), and that of the M₂ (N₂) amplitude difference between GPS and FES99 is 0.04 ± 4.64 mm (0.64 ± 1.75 mm), whereas the M₂ (N₂) amplitude difference between GPS and NAO.99Jb are 0.05 ± 1.03 mm (0.86 ± 1.18 mm). The highest vertical displacements at the PALM station are found for 24.5 ± 0.7 mm from GPS observation, and 22.9 mm from the regional model NAO.99Jb and 13.17 and 10.00 mm from the global models GOT00.2 and FES99, respectively. These values show that the vertical displacements derived from GPS are in good agreement with those of the regional model NAO.99Jb around Korea, more than with the global models. This result indicated that GPS is an effective tool to measure the vertical displacement caused by the ocean tide loading effect in the coastal area, and we need to use the NAO.99Jb ocean tide model rather than the global ocean tide models in and around the Korean peninsula for position determination with permanent GPS installations. This work demonstrates that vertical displacement caused by the M₂ and N₂ constituents of ocean tide loading can be measured by carrier-phase DGPS.     

Recent applications of sliding block theory to geotechnical design

The sliding block theory was proposed by Newmark for determining the permanent displacement of embankments and dams under earthquake loading. This paper highlights recent applications of sliding block theory to different geotechnical structures. The equations to determine seismic factor of safety, yield acceleration and permanent displacement are given for rock block, soil slope, landfill cover, geosynthetic-reinforced soil retaining wall, and composite breakwater. The presented equations for seismic stability degenerate to that of static stability in the absence of earthquake. The permanent displacement for various structures can be obtained from that of a horizontal sliding block through a correction factor. A simplified procedure is included for the permanent displacement under vertical acceleration. The sliding block approach is rational for design under high seismic load.     

A note on the useable dynamic range of accelerographs recording translation

Since the late 1970s, the dynamic range and resolution of strong motion digital recorders have leaped from 65 to 135 dB, opening new possibilities for advanced data processing and interpretation. One of these new possibilities is the calculation of permanent displacement of the ground or of structures, associated with faulting or with non-linear response. Proposals on how permanent displacements could be recovered from recorded strong motion have been published since 1976. The analysis in this paper concludes that permanent displacements of the ground and of structures in the near-field can be calculated provided all six components of strong motion (three translations and three rotations) have been recorded, and the records are corrected for transducer rotation, misalignment and cross-axis sensitivity.     

Evolution of accelerographs, data processing, strong motion arrays and amplitude and spatial resolution in recording strong earthquake motion

This paper presents a review of the advances in strong motion recording since the early 1930s, based mostly on the experiences in the United States. A particular emphasis is placed on the amplitude and spatial resolution of recording, which both must be ‘adequate’ to capture the nature of strong earthquake ground motion and response of structures. The first strong motion accelerographs had optical recording system, dynamic range of about 50 dB and useful life longer than 30 years. Digital strong motion accelerographs started to become available in the late 1970s. Their dynamic range has been increasing progressively, and at present is about 135 dB. Most models have had useful life shorter than 5–10 years. One benefit from a high dynamic range is early trigger and anticipated ability to compute permanent displacements. Another benefit is higher sensitivity and hence a possibility to record smaller amplitude motions (aftershocks, smaller local earthquakes and distant large earthquakes), which would augment significantly the strong motion databases. The present trend of upgrading existing and adding new stations with high dynamic range accelerographs has lead to deployment of relatively small number of new stations (the new high dynamic range digital instruments are 2–3 times more expensive than the old analog instruments or new digital instruments with dynamic range of 60 dB or less). Consequently, the spatial resolution of recording, both of ground motion and structural response, has increased only slowly during the past 20 years, by at most a factor of two. A major (and necessary) future increase in the spatial resolution of recording will require orders of magnitude larger funding, for purchase of new instruments, their maintenance, and for data retrieval, processing, management and dissemination. This will become possible only with an order of magnitude cheaper and ‘maintenance-free’ strong motion accelerographs. In view of the rapid growth of computer technology this does not seem to be (and should not be) out of our reach.     

Crust and upper mantle heterogeneities in the southwest Pacific from surface wave phase velocity analysis

Direct earthquake-to-station Rayleigh and Love wave data observed on high gain broadband records are analyzed in order to improve the lateral resolution of the uppermost mantle in the southwest Pacific region. We used data of nine permanent Geoscope and Iris stations located in the southern hemisphere and nine other stations as part of two temporary networks, the first one installed in New Caledonia and Vanuatu (hereafter named Cavascope network) by ORSTOM and the EOST from Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg (France) and the second one installed in the Fiji, Tonga and Niue islands (hereafter named Spase network) by Washington University in St. Louis (USA). In order to collect more significant details on the surficial structures, we included the analysis of short period waves down to 8 s. A multiple frequency filtering technique has been used to recover phase velocities of Rayleigh and Love waves for selected earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5.5 and with known centroid moment tensor (CMT). About 1100 well-distributed seismograms have been processed in the period range 8–100 s and corrections for topography and water depth have been applied to the observed phase velocities. The geographical distribution of phase velocity anomalies have then been computed using the tomographic method developed by Montagner [Montagner, J.P., 1986a. Regional three-dimensional structures using long-period surface waves. Ann. Geophys. 4 (B3), 283–294]. Due to a poor knowledge of dense, well-distributed, crustal thickness values and corresponding velocity models, we did not perform or speculate on the construction of an S-wave 3D velocity model; therefore, we limited this study to the interpretation of the phase velocity distribution. The location of phase velocity anomalies are well determined and the deviations are discussed within the framework of the geological context and compared with other tomographic models. At long periods, from 40 s to 100 s, our results agree well with most of previous studies: the tomographic imaging shows a large contrast between low and high phase velocities along the Solomon, New Hebrides and Fiji–Tonga trenches. The lowest phase velocity anomalies are distributed beneath northern and southern Fiji basins and the Lau basin (corresponding to the volume situated just above the dipping slabs), whereas the highest values are displayed beneath the Pacific plate and the eastern part of Indian plate downgoing under the North Fiji basin. At shorter periods, our results show that the phase velocity distributions are well correlated with the large structural crustal domains. The use of local temporary broadband stations in the central part of the studied area gives us the opportunity to observe surface waves showing well-dispersed trains, allowing extended velocity measurements down to 8 s although aliasing due to multipaths become important. The continental regions (Eastern Australia, New Guinea, Fiji islands and New Zealand) show low velocities which are likely due to thick continental crust, whereas the Tasmanian, D'Entrecasteaux, and the Northern and Southern Fiji basins are characterized by higher velocities suggesting thinner oceanic crust. Additional analysis including the anisotropic case and S-wave velocity inversion with depth is in progress.     

Environmental determinants of species turnover of aquatic Heteroptera in freshwater ecosystems of the Western Ghats,India

Partitioning beta diversity into its two components of spatial turnover and nestedness is a more robust method for checking spatial variability in biological communities than calculating the total beta diversity alone. The relative contribution of spatial turnover and nestedness has been used to test the effects of climatic, environmental, spatial and temporal variables on community composition. In this study, we tested the effects of environmental factors and microhabitat features on total beta diversity and its spatial turnover and nestedness components using a comprehensive dataset of aquatic Heteroptera collected from four types of permanent freshwater habitats (i.e. streams, ponds, rock tanks and reservoirs) in the Western Ghats of India. We observed that communities in all four types of habitats were predominantly shaped by dissimilarity caused due to spatial turnover (>85 %). Each type of habitat showed the presence of one or more species uniquely associated with it, which might contribute to the turnover between communities. The abiotic environment (climatic factors, topological factors, soil characteristics and microhabitat features) as well as assemblage structure differed significantly between habitat types. Communities in each type of habitat were affected by different environmental factors, such as precipitation and temperature patterns for streams, altitude and rocky substrate for rock tanks, and soil characteristics and the presence of aquatic macrophytes for ponds and reservoirs. Assemblages observed in the four types of permanent habitats are thus compositionally distinct due to species replacements between local communities, which in turn are strongly influenced by environmental variables. Similar to previous studies, our results show that spatial turnover largely measures the same phenomenon as total beta diversity on a regional scale.