bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Signal contribution of the polar and the inclined pairs in a Bender configuration
Authors: Devaraju Balaji , Yadav Anshul , Weigelt Matthias
Published: March 2020

The Bender configuration comprises of two GRACE-like pairs, one in a polar orbit and the other in an inclined orbit. While the polar pair covers the entire globe, the inclined pair does not cover the higher latitudes. Similarly, the polar orbit due to its north-south orientation is able to capture features that are predominantly oriented in the east-west direction, but the inclined pair does not have any such issues. In this scenario, we would like to know the signal contribution of the polar and inclined pairs to the different spherical harmonic coefficients. Furthermore, this contribution analysis will enable us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the GRACE(-FO) mission. In this study we use simulated data for analysing the signal contribution of the two pairs of satellites.
Constraining strain and magmatism patterns between the Ethiopian and East African plateaux from new seismic and geodetic data
Authors: Ebinger Cynthia , Harding Weston , Kakonkwe Christian , Knappe Ellen , Bastow Ian , Bendick Rebecca , Muthoni Mary , Kianji Gladys , Mariita Nicholas , Ayele Atalay
Published: March 2020

Lateral heterogeneities in crust and mantle structure influence the distribution of strain and magmatism in continental rift zones.  Sutures between Archaean cratons and younger orogenic belts represent some of Earth’s largest lateral heterogeneities:  > 170 km-thick, buoyant and relatively dry lithosphere juxtaposed to ~120 km-thick, more volatile-rich mantle lithosphere.  The seismically and volcanically active Turkana Depression between the Ethiopian and East African plateau magma-rich Eastern rift formed near the eastern edge of the Archaean Tanzania craton. This area was affected by rifting in Mesozoic and Paleogene time, and may have been a thin zone when magmatism started at ~40 Ma.  Several hypotheses had been proposed to explain the unusual ~300 km-breadth of the Turkana Depression.  We use new data from the Turkana Rift Arrays to Investigate Lithospheric Structure (TRAILS) is to evaluate spatial variations in the location of strain, and in the direction and magnitude of seismic anisotropy, which is strongly influenced by mantle flow patterns along lithosphere-asthenosphere topography, fluid-filled cracks (e.g., dikes), and pre-existing mantle lithosphere strain fabrics.  Complementary data sets provide a strong contextual framework.  Our results and those of regional studies show that strain is currently localized to ~100 km-wide section of the Depression, and the western sectors are inactive.  We suggest that the original location of strain and magmatism was near the eastern edge of the Tanzania craton above a steep lithosphere-asthenosphere gradient, and that rifting has migrated eastward to form a more contiguous zone between the Main Ethiopian and Eastern rift zones.    
Severe convective storms and wind damage assessment over northwestern Poland
Authors: Castet Christelle
Published: March 2020

Severe convective storms (SCS) cause widespread damages over Europe each year and can be responsible for billions of euros in losses. In addition, the expected increase in their frequency and intensity over the century represents a primary concern for insurers.

Parametric insurance, which compensates customers when an index reaches a predefined threshold, is a fast and transparent insurance solution, that requires a careful analysis of the risk and a correlation of the index with potential damages. For instance, to protect customers against wind related damages from SCS, an index based on wind speed could be used. Unfortunately, the modeling of precise surface wind fields associated with SCS remains a challenge and sources of observation are often patchy or not reliable. The goal is then to define a parameter that can be used to estimate the potential wind damage from SCS.

Relying on a 10-year climatology of lightning activity over Poland, our approach consists first in determining large scale environmental variables in the ERA5 reanalysis favorable to the occurrence of SCS. Then, a combination of variable is tested in correlation with wind related damages. Preliminary results suggest that lightning density is a good proxy to the intensity of convective cells, and to a lesser extent to wind related damages.
Hydrogeological characteristics of candidate sites for high-level waste disposal in South Korea
Authors: Park Jinyoung , Ko Kyoungtae , Lee Minhee , Yang Minjune
Published: March 2020

Geological disposal of High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLRW) is considered to be one of the best disposal methods that can stably and semi-permanently isolate high-level radioactive waste from the biosphere. In this study, three types of potential host rocks for HLRW disposal were selected and the hydrogeological characteristics were investigated using deep drilling cores collected at about 50 m intervals in the borehole of a depth of 1 km. The rocks used in this study were granites and gneiss which are crystalline rock, and mudstone which is a sedimentary rock. The results of the study showed that the average porosity of granite was 0.48% and the permeability ranged from 7.87 × 10-19 m2 to 1.39 × 10-21 m2 except for samples outside the measurement limit (4.04 × 10-22 m2). The average porosity of gneiss was 0.49% and the permeability ranged from 3.62 × 10-18 m2 to 4.58 × 10-22 m2. The average porosity of mudstones was 3.62% and the values of permeability for most mudstone samples were lower than the measurement limit. For SEM-EDS analysis, many microcracks were observed in the crystalline rock samples having high permeability. On the other hand, there were almost no microcracks in crystalline rock samples having low permeability, and even if there were cracks, the cracks were filled with fillers such as clay minerals. These results indicate that the presence of microcracks or the filling of cracks in crystalline rocks has a significant effect on the flow of groundwater through the host rock.
Automated Multi-Sensor Near-Real Time Flood Monitoring in the Lower Mekong
Authors: Markert Amanda , Markert Kel , Mayer Timothy , Chisthie Farrukh , Bhandari Biplov Bhandari , Kunlamai Thannarot , Haag Arjen , Kwant Martijn , van Verseveld Willem , Phongsapan Kittiphong , Saah David , Nauman Claire
Published: March 2020

Floods and water-related disasters impact local populations across many regions in Southeast Asia during the annual monsoon season.  Satellite remote sensing serves as a critical resource for generating flood maps used in disaster efforts to evaluate flood extent and monitor recovery in remote and isolated regions where information is limited.  However, these data are retrieved by multiple sensors, have varying latencies, spatial, temporal, and radiometric resolutions, are distributed in different formats, and require different processing methods making it difficult for end-users to use the data.  SERVIR-Mekong has developed a near real-time flood service, HYDRAFloods, in partnership with Myanmar’s Department of Disaster Management that leverages Google Earth Engine and cloud computing to generate automated multi-sensor flood maps using the most recent imagery available of affected areas. The HYDRAFloods application increases the spatiotemporal monitoring of hydrologic events across large areas by leveraging optical, SAR, and microwave remote sensing data to generate flood water extent maps.  Beta testing of HYDRFloods conducted during the 2019 Southeast Asia monsoon season emphasized the importance of multi-sensor observations as frequent cloud cover limited useable imagery for flood event monitoring. Given HYDRAFloods’ multi-sensor approach, cloud-based resources offer a means to consolidate and streamline the process of accessing, processing, and visualizing flood maps in a more cost effective and computationally efficient way. The HYDRAFlood’s cloud-based approach enables a consistent, automated methodology for generating flood extent maps that are made available through a single, tailored, mapviewer that has been customized based on end-user feedback, allowing users to switch their focus to using data for disaster response.
Reconstructing Root Water Uptake from isotopic data and physically-based models: looking at recent effort and proposing a path forward
Authors: Rothfuss Youri , Couvreur Valentin , Meunier Félicien , De Deurwaerder Hannes , Visser Marco D. , Javaux Mathieu
Published: March 2020

In the past decade, plant root water uptake (RWU) has been a major focus of ecohydrological studies employing water stable isotopes. The interest of the isotopic community for RWU rose concomitantly to the development of open-access multi-source mixing models based on Bayesian inference. Another more general reason was certainly the decrease in analytical cost with the advent of isotope-specific laser absorption spectrometry. The isotopic methodology used to determine relative profiles of RWU works on the premises that (i) RWU does not fractionate stable isotopes in water and (ii) the isotopic composition of water inside the xylem vessel of the last non-evaporating part of the plant (typically the stem) is that of RWU. Following a simple mass balance approach, the isotopic composition of RWU can be linked back by inversion to contributions to RWU (i.e., relative RWU) of a set of potential water sources (of known isotopic compositions) originating from the soil profile.

In recent research, the preferred tool for inverting water isotope data was Bayesian models and the literature shows that only a handful of studies complemented isotope analysis with observation of plant water status and flow. Consequently, most of the gathered information on RWU cannot be used to test hypotheses on which are built physically-based soil-root water flow models. The authors have on the other hand initiated an effort within the framework of dual experimental-modeling approaches, where tightly-controlled experiments are thought and prepared in order to validate, parameterize models, or test hypotheses. The present contribution gives an overview of the different attempts at integrating both water and isotope observations types and confronting them to model simulations explicitly accounting for root system architecture and hydraulic properties. It addresses the meaningfulness and limitations of isotope data, especially in the context of labeling experiments when treated with statistical (e.g. Bayesian) models. We finally propose a way forward and present improvements to be achieved on both experimental and modeling sides to increase the reliability and precision of isotope-derived estimates of RWU.
Role of DIN and DON in nitrogen cycle in a humid subtropical forest catchment in northeast Taiwan
Authors: Yu Yu-Lin , Huang Jr-Chuan , Hsu Ting-Chang , Lin Teng-Chiu
Published: March 2020

Although global models of nitrogen (N) cycling typically focus on nitrate of ecosystem N saturation, dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is the dominant form of nitrogen export from many watersheds. In previous hypotheses, DON dynamics in the watersheds was treated as being functionally equivalent to inorganic N forms. However, unlike inorganic N, the dynamics of N contained within organic molecules is controlled not only by direct biological demand for N, but also by heterotrophic demand for the reduced C, to which N is attached. During 2016-2018, we evaluated the DON release hypothesis and the passive carbon vehicle hypothesis by comparing streamwater DON, DOC, and DIN concentrations across Fushan experimental forested watershed in the northeast Taiwan. We found that (1) the export of the Fushan Experimental Forest (FEF) is N saturated and (2) the altering nature of the DON release hypothesis and passive carbon vehicle hypothesis between non-event days and typhoon events. Results show that DON concentrations change systematically with increasing nitrate concentrations in all surveys. Among which, DON concentration correlates negatively with nitrate concentration in non-event days but positively during typhoon events. Our results support the coupling between DIN, DON, and DOC concentrations in forested watersheds that are subject to high rates of anthropogenic N loading. In non-event days, the N-containing dissolved organic matter may be in a labile form of carbon. Thus, alleviating heterotrophic N limitation may result in a decrease in DON export (passive carbon vehicle hypothesis), while during typhoon events, DON losses increase as demand for labile N forms attenuates (DON release hypothesis). These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive but represent the potentially contrasting roles of DON within C and N cycles. Our study suggests that bioavailability assays and addition experiments will present variations in the direct biological demand for N and heterotrophic demand for the reduced C, which is informative and necessary for characterizing the processes controlling DON export.

Keywords: DON, DIN, N saturation, DON release hypothesis, passive carbon vehicle hypothesis
Distribution of schist villages according to water availability in a Portuguese mountain range
Authors: Mendes Cássia
Published: March 2020

Distribution of schist villages according to water availability in a Portuguese mountain range

Autor: Cássia Callebaut Mendes

cassiacmendes@gmail.com

 

The Serra da Lousã, together with the Serra do Açor and Serra da Estrela, constitute the most imposing of the mountainous alignments of Portugal: the Central Cordillera. It consists mainly of shales of pre-Cambrian origin, with steep slopes to the northwest, and quite grooved by the water lines.

In Serra da Lousã we can find villages whose schist-built houses were once shelters from the weather, from wild animals like the wolf, and other threats.

One of the topics I will address with my students this year is construction and architecture. Thus, it will be pertinent to relate the geological past of the region with the the construction materials used in the villages; get to know the water network and the strategies that residents developed to store and obtain water in the dry months.

In this working period, students

- will visit 2 or 3 villages and the nearest streams. We will relate the geological materials available in the region with the housebuilding; correlate the location of the villages with the distance to the watercourses and observe how the management of this resource took place (reservoir / tank construction, levadas, source ...)

- They will collect water from different points, analyze their mineralogical composition, compare, and draw conclusions.

 

In the classroom, students will build a model of one of these villages, using shale used as housebuilding materials, and they will represent all the characteristics of this village based on the observations and studies the performed.

 

On the poster we will include:

- Summary of the geological past of Serra da Lousã, and its current framing;

- Map with the distribution of the villages in Serra da Lousã, indicating those we visited (with photos);

Map of the Serra da Lousã water distribution and its relationship with the location of the schist villages;

- Stages of the construction of the model made by the students, of a village model, with the houses in schist, water reservoir, waterfall, brook, levadas, and the final photograph.

 

 

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Influence of initial concentrations and pH conditions on uranium adsorption in clays
Authors: Kim Subeen , Yang Minjune
Published: March 2020

Batch adsorption experiments were performed to investigate influences of experimental conditions such as initial uranium concentrations (0, 1 x 10-3, 1 x 10-2, 0.1, 0.5, 1 mg/L) and pHs of solution (4, 7 and 9.5) on uranium adsorption in three types of clay (kaolinite, montmorillonite, and bentonite). For all experiments, the adsorption of uranium could be described by the linear isotherm model at solution concentrations less than 1 mg/L, showing high values of correlation coefficient (R2 > 0.98). The adsorption efficiencies of montmorillonite and kaolinite for all pHs are more than 91% and 87%, respectively. The effect of pH on the adsorption of uranium was not found in kaolinite and montmorillonite for all initial concentrations. However, the adsorption efficiency of bentonite was lower than other clay types (< 75%). Solutions with low initial concentrations (< 1 x 10-2 mg/L) achieved high efficiencies for adsorption of uranium (> 99%) at all pHs, while low efficiencies were observed in solutions with high initial concentrations (> 0.1 mg/L) at pH 4 (47%), pH 7 (59%) and pH 9.5 (43%). It is concluded that montmorillonite and kaolinite can be used as an effective adsorbent for removing uranium from aqueous solutions.
Comparison of observed rainfall characteristics by using Multi-Parameter Weather Radars and Single parameter Weather Radars for the typhoon Hagibis in 2019
Authors: hoshiba Kino , shimizu Keita , terai Shiori , yamada Tadashi
Published: March 2020

In recent years, due to global climate change, flood disaster has become more frequent and intense. Along with this, many researchers in different fields are working on researches to reduce the damage caused by these severe water-related disasters. This study focusses on weather radars, which are mainly used for a countermeasure against flood damage in Japan. Our purpose is to examine the validity of weather radars currently set such as X band multi-parameter radars and C band radars in flood disasters which may cause serious damage in Japan.

The targeted flood disaster is one of the largest water-related disasters which caused severe damages to Japan, the typhoon Hagibis in 2019. It caused floods in more than 140 rivers. We used the observed data from weather radars of Chikuma and Abukuma river which are severely damaged in this disaster. Also, the Tama River in the Tokyo metropolitan area was flooded because of the heavy rainfall caused by Hagibis. we compared the accuracy of the multi-parameter radar and the single-parameter radar. thus, the issues of the current weather radar were extracted.

As a result, the accumulated rainfall of the single-parameter radars was larger than that of the multi-parameter radars. This may cause by the fact that radio wave of the multi-parameter radars will get attenuated when it passesthrough areas with strong rainfall so that it is difficult to observe some area if there is strong rainfall area between the radar and targeted area. In addition, the values observed by multi-parameter weather radars are fitted with the values by the ground rain gauges.

In conclusion, it was found that the multi-parameter weather radars have better accuracy of precipitation observation than that of the single parameter weather radars. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider the optimal position of multi-parameter weather radars to improve accuracy of the observation.
A generalized slip-rate function for kinematic modeling
Authors: von Specht Sebastian , Ma Kuo-Fong , Lin Yen-Yu , Cotton Fabrice
Published: March 2020

Over the last decades, many types of slip-rate functions (SRFs) have been introduced into kinematic rupture modeling. Commonly used SRFs are the Haskell-type rectangular pulse, cosine and trapezoidal windows and the Kostrov-/Yoffe functions. All these functions and many functional shapes inferred from multiwindow inversion techniques can be well described or are even identical to the functional form of the generalized beta distribution—a widely used and well studied probability density function (pdf) in statistics. The generalized beta pdf has three parameters, where one parameter relates to the SRF duration and two describe the shape of the pulse. The shape parameters have simple analytic expressions for their estimators. Using the generalized beta pdf with free shape parameters as SRF can effectively reduce the number of required free parameters in the inversion when compared to multiwindow SRF techniques. The generalized beta pdf provides us not only with analytic solutions of the derivative (slip-rate change) and antiderivative (slip) of the slip-rate function but also analytic expressions for their Fourier spectra. We apply the beta SRF for rupture modeling of two well studied earthquakes in Taiwan—the 2016 MW 6.4 Meinong earthquake and the MW 6.3 2018 Hualien earthquake—and compare results in terms of slip distribution and model uncertainties.
Variability of trends observed in Atmospheric Aerosol optical properties over Pune, India
Authors: Das Sudeep , Pandithurai Govindan
Published: March 2020

Long term trends of various aerosol optical properties are observed over the city of Pune, the ninth most populated city in India using ground and satellite based instruments such as AERONET, MODIS (Aqua and Terra), MISR, CALIOP and reanalysis tool MERRA. Annually, the Aerosol Optical Depth is observed to be increasing over all the types of instruments (2004-17) with values of 0.01 to 0.006 yr-1, whereas the Angstrom exponent has a negative slope (AERONET) which suggests that the fine aerosols are decreasing. Single scattering albedo (SSA) is also increasing (0.00657 yr-1), which means the emission of smaller darker particles like soot has decreased over the years. MISR shows that the Absorbing AOD trend is decreasing in the overall study period (-0.0001237 yr-1). All these annual trends are related to anthropogenic activities and show differing trends before and after 2008, the year when various pollution counter measures were introduced mainly in Pune and also in various nearby areas. After 2008, the AOD increasing slope reduces, and the AAOD reverses the trend from positive to a negative slope. The average height till various kinds of aerosols reach and their vertical profile is studied using CALIOP data. Monthly variations of AOD and their vertical distribution also observed and discussed. Aerosol characterization is done using the MERRA tool into dust, sea salt, sulfates, elementary carbon, and organic carbon. Their monthly variations are explained by source characterizations using the HySplit model. In summer, air from the Arabian sea brings in dust and sea salt into the city and in winter, aerosols come from central India dominantly as carbon and sulfates changing the air quality over there. This study lays its stress on the fact that even though aerosols cover over a city is mostly non-local, anthropogenic activities of that area do play a significant role and here the city of Pune is a role model to show how measures can be taken to improve air quality over any urban area.
Evaluating Resilience of Infrastructures Towards Endogenous Events by Non-Destructive High-Performance Techniques and Machine Learning Regression Algorithms
Authors: Fiorentini Nicholas , Leandri Pietro , Losa Massimo
Published: March 2020

In order to plan infrastructure maintenance strategies, Non-Destructive Techniques (NDT) have been largely employed in recent years, achieving outstanding results in the identification of infrastructural deficiencies. Nevertheless, the extensive combination of different NDT that can cover various factors affecting infrastructure durability has not yet been thoroughly investigated.

This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the resilience of infrastructures towards endogenous factors by combining different NDT outcomes. Machine Learning (ML) Regression algorithms have been used to predict the pavement surface roughness connected to a set of potential endogenous conditioning factors. The development, application, and comparison of two different regression algorithms, specifically Regression Tree (RT) and Random Forest (RF) have been carried out.

The study area involves 4 testing sites, both in the rural and urban context, for a total length of 11400 m. In addition to the International Roughness Index (IRI) calculated by profilometric measurements, a set of endogenous features of the infrastructure were collected by using NDT such as Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD), and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). Moreover, a set of topographical data of roadside areas, information on properties of materials composing the subgrade and the pavement structure, traffic flow, rainfall, temperature, and age of infrastructure were gathered.

The database was randomly split into a Training (70%) and Test sets (30%). With the Training set, through a 10-Fold Cross-Validation (CV), the models have been trained and validated. A set of three performance metrics, namely Correlation Coefficient (R2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Mean Absolute Error (MSE), has been used for the Goodness-of-Fit (GoF) assessment. Also, with the Test set, the Predictive Performance (PP) of the models has been evaluated.

Results indicate that the suggested methodology is satisfactory for supporting processes on planning road maintenance by National Road Authorities (NRA) and allows decision-makers to pursue better solutions.
Major palaeoenvironmental upheavals in both marine and terrestrial realms during the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event: a multi-proxy approach
Authors: Galasso Francesca , Feist­Burkhardt Susanne , Schmid- Röhl Annette , Benasconi Stefano , Schneebeli-Hermann Elke
Published: March 2020

The Toarcian oceanic anoxic event (TOAE) ~183 Ma is not only associated with oceanic anoxia and rapid seawater temperature increase but also with a marine mass extinction event. These biotic and environmental upheavals are linked to the emplacement of the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous province. Negative carbon excursions and widespread deposition of black shales are typical for Toarcian sedimentary successions.

The occurrence and growth of dinoflagellates is influenced by environmental factors like oxygen content, salinity, temperature and nutrient availability. For land plants, changes in dominance structure of ecosystems reflected in spore pollen assemblages can be indicative of ecological disturbance. Thus species composition (and morphology) of dinoflagellates and land plants can be used to understand major environmental perturbations.

An extensively studied TOAE section is the former Rohrbach Zement quarry at Dotternhausen (today Larfarge-Holcim) with comprehensive data of carbon isotope analyses, total organic and inorganic carbon content and rock eval analysis.
The Dotternhausen quarry is not accessible anymore but a new open pit in Dormettingen ~2 km NW of Dotternhausen offers excellent outcrop conditions. Litho- and biostratigraphy of the new section is well documented and calibrated to the old Dotternhausen section on subzone levels. Comparison of the two sites showed that sedimentology, geochemistry and faunal data are laterally constant.
Palynological analysis of 59 outcrop samples from the Dormettingen section yielded an excellent quantitative data set of the Early Toarcian Posidonienschiefer sediments. Here we provide a high-resolution, multi-proxy study of this section including chemostratigraphy, particulate organic matter and palynology in order to understand the environmental conditions during the TOAE.

Carbon isotopic study reveals a negative excursion during the TOAE, varying between -33.49‰ and -26.5‰, with a negative shift in the Falciferum Zone (Elengatum, Exeratum and Elegans Subzone) concurrent with the dinoflagellate "blackout".  The vegetation shows significant changes from a mixed assemblage of pollen and spores in the lower part of the section, to exclusively spore-bearing during the negative carbon isotope excursion. The isotopic signal, the marine dinoflagellate “blackout” and the changes in terrestrial vegetation indicate/document major palaeoenvironmental upheavals in both the marine and terrestrial realms.
Multidecadal simulation of the tropical and subtropical South Atlantic Ocean with a high resolution ocean model forced by ERA-5 reanalysis data
Authors: Schmidt Martin , Bordbar Hadi , Nascimento Fernanda , Frauen Claudia
Published: March 2020

High resolution regional ocean circulation models are needed to investigate regional ecosystem dynamics. However, these models may suffer from biases due to shortcomings in reanalysis datasets like NCEP or ERA-Interin, that have traditionally been used as atmospheric forcing. More realistic results can be achieved by replacing the reanalysed wind with scatterometer based winds. However, inconsistencies between different scatterometers like ASCAT and QuikSCAT introduce new uncertainty, which prevents a discussion of long-term trends in these models. The ERA-5 reanalysis offers a new consistent data set to force highly resolving regional ocean models. Based on such a simulation we analyse trends and anomalies in poleward currents in the Eastern Boundary Current off Southern Africa and Northern Benguela upwelling intensity due to changing wind stress and wind stress curl. Model results are validated with remote sensing as well as shipborne and mooring data. Further, variability of oxygen conditions in the Northern Benguela and the Angola Gyre oxygen minimum zone is discussed. 
Approximate Convection-Diffusion Wave Application to Compute Discharge Using only Stage Data
Authors: Perumal Muthiah , Adhikari Kirtan
Published: March 2020

Measuring discharge in a river system involves tedious procedures. Over the last few decades, innovations in technology has improved discharge estimation methods in rivers due to the use of improved velocity measurement equipment, such as the ADCP and thereby easing   and improving the discharge estimation at the river sites. However, adopting these technologies prove to be expensive for its use in very many sites. To overcome this expensive approach of river discharge estimation, a new approach of discharge estimation based on the use of hydrodynamic principle to estimate discharge using only the observed stage data at a river site is proposed in this study.  This method is derived in this study using the Approximate Convection-Diffusion equation combined with the Diffusive Wave model. This method can be considered as a more generalized approach ideally suited for field applications.  Due to its simplicity, easy applicability, versatility and accuracy of estimating discharge for a wide range of roughness and channel bed slope conditions, this method can be considered ideal for field applications. Moreover, the method can be applied to estimate discharge in a channel characterized by varying cross-section or the roughness parameter along the river reach The proposed method has been tested for a number of hypothetical flood scenarios in hypothetical channels. Further its accuracy, and its applicability has been evaluated using the well-established evaluation criteria. After its evaluation using hypothetical flood scenarios in hypothetical channels, the field applicability of the method is evaluated by applying the method for the real data to estimate discharge using only the observed stage data at the desired site. The limitation of the method arises due to uncertainty of the used Manning’s roughness coefficient(s) at the desired station and, therefore, to avoid this problem it may be prudent to carry out the sporadic velocity measurements at the desired river site during the passage of a flood wave, for the confident use of the proposed model or formula for estimating discharge using only the stage data.
Comprehensive urban environment quality assessment using remote sensing satellite data for Bhopal city, India
Authors: Singh Srashti , Jain Kamal
Published: March 2020

KEYWORDS: Urbanisation, Remote sensing, Comprehensive environmental quality, Bhopal, India

ABSTRACT

A tremendous increase in the global human population has become a major threat to the environment mainly these situations are existing in developing nations. A higher population poses higher demands as well as pressure on the environment directly or indirectly, which is an issue for the sustainable development of the country. Most of the Indian cities are facing challenges in environmental sustainability. Bhopal the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, India is presently going through rapid urbanization and industrialization which leads to environmental degradation of the city. The study aims at analyzing the environmental sustainability of the city. The study is performed using satellite-based remote sensing data integrated with the census data. Initially, Landsat TM satellite data of the years 2001 and 2011 are utilized for extracting the land use land cover (LULC) transformations. Further, MODIS data products at 1 km resolution are used for estimating the biophysical indicators (BI) which are normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST). A comprehensive environmental quality index (CEQI) is obtained by integrating BI with census data and transformations in CEQI are studied for the urban environment. The results depicted an increase in urban built-up with a phenomenal decay in the greenness of the city. The results from CEQI reveals significant changes in the different zones of the city which are highly affected due to change in urbanization and greenness pattern of the city. The study highlights the critical zones of the city and suggests measures to improve the environmental quality for the critical zones which can help the policy-makers in sustainable planning of the city.
TCE and PCE plume persistence based on different clay types
Authors: Jang Seonggan , Yang Minjune
Published: March 2020

This study was performed to understand dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) persistence by the back diffusion from the three types of clay using one-dimensional analytical solutions. The conceptual model was designed with 5 m thickness of an aquifer underlain by 0.7 m thickness of an aquitard. The aquitard was considered to be a finite domain boundary at the bottom of bentonite (B), kaolinite (K), and montmorillonite (M) layers. The tortuosity of each clay was assumed to be 0.95 (B), 0.55 (K), and 0.05 (M). A diffusion model scenario assumed a step change in concentration boundary condition representing complete removal of trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) at the source zone, after 10 years of source loading. Total accumulated mass in the aquitard during the forward diffusion showed that PCE was 57.3 (B), 44.3 (K), 13.3 (M) g/m2, and TCE was 329.2 (B), 256.2 (K), 76.8 (M) g/m2. The calculated tailing concentration of PCE at the aquifer during the back diffusion maintained higher concentrations than the maximum contaminant level (MCL, PCE = 5 μg/L) for 22 (B), 16 (K), and 11 (M) years, respectively, in the same order as the tortuosity of clays. The calculated tailing concentration of TCE above MCL (TCE = 5 μg/L) was maintained for 38 (B), 43 (K), and 19 (M) years. These results showed that the total accumulated mass of TCE was higher in the bentonite layer than the kaolinite layer, but the TCE tailing concentrations caused by back diffusion from the kaolinite layer maintained 5 years longer above MCL than those caused by back diffusion from the bentonite layer due to different values of tortuosity for bentonite and kaolinite. The results of this study indicate that the tortuosity of clays has a significant influence on plume persistence caused by back diffusion.
Study on the influence of different aerosol mixing states on lidar ratio
Authors: zhang zhijie
Published: March 2020

             After years of development, Mie lidar has become an important technical means to explore aerosol particles in the atmosphere, and has been widely used to explore the optical and physical properties of aerosols in atmosphere. By Using backscatter signal collecting by lidar, optical characteristics of aerosols can be qualitatively analyzed. However, in order to get the actual value of optical parameters, the accurate lidar ratio (LR) (the ratio of extinction coefficient to back-scattering coefficient) is needed in inversion.

            Using the Mie scattering theory, the key parameter of inversion: LR, can be measured out. The value of LR has been discussed in detail by changing complex refractive index, size parameter  and field angle of a single particle. It is found that when the scale parameter is greater than 0.6, the value of LR increases first and then decreases with the increasing scale parameter, and there are several extremums; the value of LR decreases with the increasing imaginary part of the complex refractive index; the value of LR increases with the increasing filed angle.

            To study the influence of different mixing states on optical parameters of aerosol clusters, a three-component optical equilibrium spherical aerosol model is assumed. The results shows that when the mixing states of aerosol are complete external mixture, complete uniform internal mixture and complete coated mixture, the value of LR appears to be: complete uniform internal mixture > complete external mixture > complete coated mixture.

            Assuming that the hygroscopic growth factor of aerosol is a constant which does not increase with the particle size and its value is GF = 1.5[p2] , the value of LR after hygroscopic growing is discussed. It is found that the value of LR will increase after hygroscopic growing, but it still follows the law that: complete uniform internal mixture > complete external mixture > complete coated mixture.

            By correcting the value of LR, accurate extinction coefficient and back-scattering coefficient can be measured out with inversion. The production of lidar will be quantified instead of qualitative after doing this.
The use of methods of compositional data analysis for the separation of geochemical signals in fluvial sediments
Authors: Fačevicová Kamila , Grygar Tomáš Matys , Hron Karel , Elznicová Jitka
Published: March 2020

Fluvial sediments datasets, similarly as other types of a concentration based data, are typical by their relative nature and therefore they need preprocessing or normalization prior to the main statistical analysis. In the geochemical practice, several normalization methods are used, like a simple normalization of the target element concentration with the concentration of the reference (conservative, lithogenic) one, double normalization or concentration conversion to local enrichment factor. As an alternative to these methods, the approach using the principles of compositional data analysis (CoDA) can be considered.  Instead of the standard statistical analytical methods, like ordinary least squares regression, correlation of principal component analysis (PCA), applied on the raw or the target element normalized concentrations, the CoDA methods consider the relative structure of the whole dataset. CoDA together with the use of robust statistical methods, which are down weighting the influence of the outlying observations, have a potential to provide more accurate results. This property is demonstrated and discussed on the base of dataset from mapping the sediments from the Skalka Reservoir in the Ohře River, Czech Republic, and its tributaries. Mainly the performance of the robust versions of regression, correlation and principal components analysis, respecting the CoDA principles, will be presented and the way to them will be explained. 
Integrated Modeling of Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the Yangtze River Delta: Status Quo and Sustainability Challenges
Authors: Yan Yuhan , Zhang Rui , Zhou Yifan , Zhu Tingju
Published: March 2020

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is a major economic engine of China. Despite its bountiful natural resources, high population density, urbanization and rapid economic growth have led to increasingly high demand for water, energy and food, thus raising the region’s level of exposure to the risks of water, energy, or food insecurity. To analyze the current situation and identify challenges to resource sustainability, we build an input-output (IO) model for the YRD and link it to existing sector models of water, energy and food. The IO model explicitly represents interdependencies of the sectors including but not limited to water, energy and food, whereas the process-driven sector models provide additional details of spatiotemporal dynamics within each sector. A set of metrics were also designed to quantify the level of sustainability of the water, energy and food sectors in the YRD.
The Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus
Authors: Beck Inga , Neumann Markus
Published: March 2020

The Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (UFS) is Germany’s highest research station, located at an altitude of 2650 m. For over 20 years, many different institutions have been working here on a variety of permanent studies on an inter- and trans-disciplinary basis. Eight key scientific activities were assigned in 2007. These are:

Satellite-based observations and early detection

Regional climate and atmosphere

Cosmic radiation and radioactivity

Hydrology

Environmental and high-altitude medicine

Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)

Biosphere and Geosphere

Cloud dynamics

Beyond these permanent research activities, around 80 temporary projects have been conducted with over 13 international partners. Over 30 projects are currently running at the UFS. The ‘size’ of the projects varies from small research groups and very short-term studies, to large research consortiums and long-term projects. The UFS is, furthermore, a partner in a number of international networks of (mountain) observatories, such as the Global Atmosphere Watch program of the WMO. International exchange is therefore guaranteed.

The operating company of the UFS makes the high quality of research possible. It takes care of the needs of the researchers, such as logistics, data transfer and exchange, and outreach. The UFS also serves as a meeting and educational center for research teams, operators of other stations and early- career scientists. The UFS is easily accessible all year round: a train line runs up the mountain, directly into the UFS building and allows the transportation of heavy material and devices. A well-equipped workshop allows the in-situ repair of instruments.

Beside some general information about the UFS, the presentation will highlight some recent projects in which the UFS has been involved. It will also show how to use the UFS for your own research ideas.
The Potential for Biochar to Mitigate the Impact of Climate Change
Authors: Al Nofeli Naeema , Worrall Fred
Published: March 2020

The date palm tree has been mainly used as a source of food in the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region. Specifically, in the United Arab Emirates produces over 44 million date palm trees yearly, each tree generates approximately 20 Kilograms of palm frond waste per year and this waste is currently sent to landfills. In this study, we proposed that in the arid soil conditions found in the UAE, this date palm waste could be converted to biochar and used to improve the water holding capacity of UAE soils. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test whether amendments of date palm frond (DPF) and its biochar could improve the water holding capacity of soils. A mesocosm design and a plant growth experiment were used to assess the treatments at summer temperature conditions. For the mesocosm, there were 6 different biochar and DPF treatments (1%, 3%, 6%, 12%, 15% and 18% biochar or DPF in soil) along with the controls (sharp sand, DPF biochar and DPF). The experiment was divided into 3 cycles (wet, dry, and dry with a water bowl (waw)). The impact of the experimental treatments was assessed using ANOVA. Both Biochar and DPF had no significant effect during the first two cycles (wet and dry) but during the third cycle, the DPF appeared to have better water holding capacity than Biochar. A plant growth experiment was conducted with 6 different treatment (controls - sand, DPF and Biochar; and Biochar at 1%, 6%,15% and 18%). Cat grass was used for measuring its temperature, height, moisture and pH. Water was irrigated during the first 3 weeks then the soil treatments left to dry. The results of the greatest growth for 1% Biochar. Further investigations are being processed using thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen & Oxygen (CHNO), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) & Computerized tomography (CT) scan. This is to assess water binding capacity and physiochemical properties of the Biochar, DPF and soil.  
New chronology for the Ardèche river Upper Pleistocene evolution: relationships to glacial/interglacial cycles
Authors: Genuite Kim , Delannoy Jean-Jacques , Bahain Jean-Jacques , Gresse Marceau , Jaillet Stéphane , Pons-Branchu Edwige , Voinchet Pierre , Revil André
Published: March 2020

The Ardèche river canyon (Ardèche, France), is famous for its deep ingrown meanders and represent one of the most touristic assets of the region. It is also a central place of Upper Paleolithic human occupancy with numerous caves containing some of the most ancient and impressive rock art ever discovered like in the Chauvet cave, located at the canyon entrance, which artwork was dated at more than 36000 years cal BP (Quilès et al., 2016). The highly elaborated artwork of the cave, dated at more than 36000 years cal BP (Quilès et al., 2016), was kept in an exceptional state because of successive rock collapses of the cliff overhanging the cave that led to the complete closing of the entrance about 21,000 years ago (Sadier et al., 2012). 

However, the late Quaternary river evolution remains poorly constrained as no absolute dating was conducted on the alluvial deposits, nor in other rivers of the Central Massif mountain eastern margin.

We present here the results of two independent dating campaigns based on the karst / river base level relationship and geomorphological observations conducted in both environments. We conducted topographical and geophysical surveys in the Ardèche river meanders and floodplains in order to map the different alluvial banks generations. Geomorphological observations were also conducted inside the canyon cavities and were compared to external observations on an altitudinal grids ranging from the current river thalweg to the + 45 m alluvial deposits.

We exploited U/Th dating method on some cave speleothems located along the river and sampled corresponding alluvial sediments for ESR dating, at the same altitudes. Results were thus compared to a relative chronological model in order to deliver a bayesian statistical model for the Upper Pleistocene deposits of the Ardèche river.

Chronological modelling can thus be compared to long term Pleistocene climatic evolution and show correlations with glacial/interglacial Upper Pleistocene cycles, and landscape modifications like meander shortcuts.
Estimation of forest vegetation height using Landsat data
Authors: Hong Mina , Ham Boyoung , Lee Soo Jeong , Lee Halim , Lee Woo-Kyun
Published: March 2020

As climate change progresses, the form of forests has been changing. Developmental studies of remote sensing methods are needed to accurately estimate the changing form of forests. Recently, studies for estimating the forest vegetation height of forest area using Landsat data have been actively conducted. Therefore, this study calculated the SLAVI index composed of 4 (red), 5 (NIR), 7 (SWIR2) band combinations of Landsat 8. The relationship between the height of trees was estimated by linear regression analysis. Based on the result, a comparison in the height of the forest stands measured by the National Forest Inventory (NFI) shows a very high accuracy by the height of trees over 9 meters. The applicability of the study was investigated with the results, and the accuracy of the study will be compared through field surveys. The estimated accuracy of the height of trees in this study is not as high as 0.5-0.6 (R2), but it has an advantage of low cost and less effort to estimate the ​​height of trees in a large area and to acquire image data easily. Information about the height of trees is an important parameter for estimating forest biomass and carbon stocks, which is significant in studies of forest under climate change.