WorldWideScience

Sample records for product-mix alternatives flood

  1. Mixed Culture PHA Production With Alternating Feedstocks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Oliveira, C.S.S.; Duque, A.F.; Carvalho, Gilda

    Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics that can be obtained from industrial wastes/by-products using mixed microbial cultures (MMC). MMC PHA production is commonly carried out in a 3-stage process consisting of an acidogenic stage, a PHA producing cultu...

  2. Determination of Flood Reduction Alternatives for Climate Change Adaptation in Gyeongancheon basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, D.; Joo, H. J.; Jung, J.; Kim, H. S.

    2017-12-01

    Recently, the frequency of extreme rainfall event has increased due to the climate change and the impermeable area in an urban watershed has also increased due to the rapid urbanization. Therefore, the flood risk is increasing and we ought to prepare countermeasures for flood damage reduction. For the determination of appropriate measures or alternatives, firstly, this study estimated the frequency based rainfall considering the climate change according to the each target period(reference : 1971˜2010, Target period Ⅰ : 2011˜2040, Target period Ⅱ : 2041˜2070, Target period Ⅲ : 2071˜2100). Then the future flood discharge was computed by using HEC-HMS model. We set 5 sizes of drainage pumps and detention ponds respectively as the flood reduction alternatives and the flood level in the river was obtained by each alternative through HEC-RAS model. The flood inundation map was constructed using topographical data and flood water level in the river and the economic analysis was conducted for the flood damage reduction studies using Multi Dimensional Flood Damage Analysis (MD-FDA) tool. As a result of the effectiveness analysis of the flood reduction alternatives, the flood level by drainage pump was reduced by 0.06m up to 0.44m while it was reduced by 0.01m up to 1.86m in the case of the detention pond. The flooded area was shrunk by up to 32.64% from 0.3% and inundation depth was also dropped. As a result of a comparison of the Benefit/Cost ratio estimated by the economic analysis, a detention pond E in the target period Ⅰ and the pump D in the periods Ⅱ and Ⅲ were considered as the appropriate alternatives for the flood damage reduction under the climate change. AcknowledgementsThis research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning(2017R1A2B3005695)

  3. Assessment of channel changes, model of historical floods, and effects of backwater on flood stage, and flood mitigation alternatives for the Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Texas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winters, Karl E.; Baldys, Stanley

    2011-01-01

    In cooperation with the City of Wichita Falls, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed channel changes on the Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Texas, and modeled historical floods to investigate possible causes and potential mitigation alternatives to higher flood stages in recent (2007 and 2008) floods. Extreme flooding occurred on the Wichita River on June 30, 2007, inundating 167 homes in Wichita Falls. Although a record flood stage was reached in June 2007, the peak discharge was much less than some historical floods at Wichita Falls. Streamflow and stage data from two gages on the Wichita River and one on Holliday Creek were used to assess the interaction of the two streams. Changes in the Wichita River channel were evaluated using historical aerial and ground photography, comparison of recent and historical cross sections, and comparison of channel roughness coefficients with those from earlier studies. The floods of 2007 and 2008 were modeled using a one-dimensional step-backwater model. Calibrated channel roughness was larger for the 2007 flood compared to the 2008 flood, and the 2007 flood peaked about 4 feet higher than the 2008 flood. Calibration of the 1941 flood yielded a channel roughness coefficient (Manning's n) of 0.030, which represents a fairly clean natural channel. The step-backwater model was also used to evaluate the following potential mitigation alternatives: (1) increasing the capacity of the bypass channel near River Road in Wichita Falls, Texas; (2) removal of obstructions near the Scott Avenue and Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard bridges in Wichita Falls, Texas; (3) widening of aggraded channel banks in the reach between Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and River Road; and (4) reducing channel bank and overbank roughness. Reductions in water-surface elevations ranged from 0.1 foot to as much as 3.0 feet for the different mitigation alternatives. The effects of implementing a combination of different flood-mitigation alternatives were

  4. 33 CFR 203.50 - Nonstructural alternatives to rehabilitation of flood control works.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... rehabilitation of flood control works. 203.50 Section 203.50 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF ENGINEERS... DISASTER PROCEDURES Rehabilitation Assistance for Flood Control Works Damaged by Flood or Coastal Storm: The Corps Rehabilitation and Inspection Program § 203.50 Nonstructural alternatives to rehabilitation...

  5. Global Near Real-Time Satellite-based Flood Monitoring and Product Dissemination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, M.; Slayback, D. A.; Policelli, F.; Brakenridge, G. R.; Tokay, M.

    2012-12-01

    , and are working to develop higher resolution flood detection using alternate sensors, including Landsat and various radar sensors. Although these provide better spatial resolution, this comes at the cost of being less timely. As of late 2011, the system expanded to fully global daily flood monitoring, with free public access to the generated products. These include GIS-ready files of flood and normal water extent (KML, shapefile, raster), and small scale graphic maps (10 degrees square) showing regional flood extent. We are now expanding product distribution channels to include live web services (WMS, etc), allowing easier access via standalone apps. We are also working to bring our product into the Pacific Disaster Center's Disaster Alert system and mobile app for wider accessibility.

  6. Understanding stakeholder preferences for flood adaptation alternatives with natural capital implications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathon R. Loos

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Inland flood risks are defined by a range of environmental and social factors, including land use and floodplain management. Shifting patterns of storm intensity and precipitation, attributed to climate change, are exacerbating flood risk in regions across North America. Strategies for adapting to growing flood risks and climate change must account for a community's specific vulnerabilities, and its local economic, environmental, and social conditions. Through a stakeholder-engaged methodology, we designed an interactive decision exercise to enable stakeholders to evaluate alternatives for addressing specific community flood vulnerabilities. We used a multicriteria framework to understand what drives stakeholder preferences for flood mitigation and adaptation alternatives, including ecosystem-based projects. Results indicated strong preferences for some ecosystem-based projects that utilize natural capital, generated a useful discussion on the role of individual values in driving decisions and a critique of local environmental and hazard planning procedure, and uncovered support for a river management alternative that had previously been considered socially infeasible. We conclude that a multicriteria decision framework may help ensure that the multiple benefit qualities of natural capital projects are considered by decision makers. Application of a utility function can demonstrate the role of individual decision-maker values in decision outcomes and help illustrate why one alternative may be a better choice than another. Although designing an efficient and accurate multicriteria exercise is quite challenging and often data intensive, we imagine that this method is applicable elsewhere. It may be especially suitable to group decisions that involve varying levels of expertise and competing values, as is often the case in planning for the ecological and human impacts of climate change.

  7. A Theory on Urban Resilience to Floods - A Basis for Alternative Planning Practices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kuei-Hsien Liao

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available River cities require a management approach based on resilience to floods rather than on resistance. Resisting floods by means of levees, dams, and channelization neglects inherent uncertainties arising from human-nature couplings and fails to address the extreme events that are expected to increase with climate change, and is thereby not a reliable approach to long-term flood safety. By applying resilience theory to address system persistence through changes, I develop a theory on "urban resilience to floods" as an alternative framework for urban flood hazard management. Urban resilience to floods is defined as a city's capacity to tolerate flooding and to reorganize should physical damage and socioeconomic disruption occur, so as to prevent deaths and injuries and maintain current socioeconomic identity. It derives from living with periodic floods as learning opportunities to prepare the city for extreme ones. The theory of urban resilience to floods challenges the conventional wisdom that cities cannot live without flood control, which in effect erodes resilience. To operationalize the theory for planning practice, a surrogate measure - the percent floodable area - is developed for assessing urban resilience to floods. To enable natural floodplain functions to build urban resilience to floods, flood adaptation is advocated in order to replace flood control for mitigating flood hazards.

  8. Characterisation of seasonal flood types according to timescales in mixed probability distributions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer, Svenja; Schumann, Andreas; Schulte, Markus

    2016-08-01

    When flood statistics are based on annual maximum series (AMS), the sample often contains flood peaks, which differ in their genesis. If the ratios among event types change over the range of observations, the extrapolation of a probability distribution function (pdf) can be dominated by a majority of events that belong to a certain flood type. If this type is not typical for extraordinarily large extremes, such an extrapolation of the pdf is misleading. To avoid this breach of the assumption of homogeneity, seasonal models were developed that differ between winter and summer floods. We show that a distinction between summer and winter floods is not always sufficient if seasonal series include events with different geneses. Here, we differentiate floods by their timescales into groups of long and short events. A statistical method for such a distinction of events is presented. To demonstrate their applicability, timescales for winter and summer floods in a German river basin were estimated. It is shown that summer floods can be separated into two main groups, but in our study region, the sample of winter floods consists of at least three different flood types. The pdfs of the two groups of summer floods are combined via a new mixing model. This model considers that information about parallel events that uses their maximum values only is incomplete because some of the realisations are overlaid. A statistical method resulting in an amendment of statistical parameters is proposed. The application in a German case study demonstrates the advantages of the new model, with specific emphasis on flood types.

  9. Global, Daily, Near Real-Time Satellite-based Flood Monitoring and Product Dissemination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slayback, D. A.; Policelli, F. S.; Brakenridge, G. R.; Tokay, M. M.; Smith, M. M.; Kettner, A. J.

    2013-12-01

    Flooding is the most destructive, frequent, and costly natural disaster faced by modern society, and is expected to increase in frequency and damage with climate change and population growth. Some of 2013's major floods have impacted the New York City region, the Midwest, Alberta, Australia, various parts of China, Thailand, Pakistan, and central Europe. The toll of these events, in financial costs, displacement of individuals, and deaths, is substantial and continues to rise as climate change generates more extreme weather events. When these events do occur, the disaster management community requires frequently updated and easily accessible information to better understand the extent of flooding and better coordinate response efforts. With funding from NASA's Applied Sciences program, we developed and are now operating a near real-time global flood mapping system to help provide critical flood extent information within 24-48 hours of events. The system applies a water detection algorithm to MODIS imagery received from the LANCE (Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS) system at NASA Goddard within a few hours of satellite overpass. Using imagery from both the Terra (10:30 AM local time overpass) and Aqua (1:30 PM) platforms allows an initial daily assessment of flooding extent by late afternoon, and more robust assessments after accumulating cloud-free imagery over several days. Cloud cover is the primary limitation in detecting surface water from MODIS imagery. Other issues include the relatively coarse scale of the MODIS imagery (250 meters), the difficulty of detecting flood waters in areas with continuous canopy cover, confusion of shadow (cloud or terrain) with water, and accurately identifying detected water as flood as opposed to normal water extents. We have made progress on many of these issues, and are working to develop higher resolution flood detection using alternate sensors, including Landsat and various radar sensors. Although these

  10. Managing flood prone ecosystem for rice production in Bihar plains

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, A.R.; Singh, S.S.

    2002-06-01

    A large area of the eastern region especially Bihar (0.5 million hectare) faces flood submergence and/or drought every year which creates an unfavorable environment for crop production. In this ecosystem only flood prone rice is grown whose cultivation is entirely different than normal rice crop. Managing the flood prone ecosystem for rice production needs to evaluate the reasons and a comprehensive appropriate technology through research efforts for better rice production under such harsh ecology. An attempt was made to develop a suitable agronomic package for rice cultivation during and after flooding in flood prone plains of Bihar. (author)

  11. Bias correction of satellite precipitation products for flood forecasting application at the Upper Mahanadi River Basin in Eastern India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beria, H.; Nanda, T., Sr.; Chatterjee, C.

    2015-12-01

    High resolution satellite precipitation products such as Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), etc., offer a promising alternative to flood forecasting in data scarce regions. At the current state-of-art, these products cannot be used in the raw form for flood forecasting, even at smaller lead times. In the current study, these precipitation products are bias corrected using statistical techniques, such as additive and multiplicative bias corrections, and wavelet multi-resolution analysis (MRA) with India Meteorological Department (IMD) gridded precipitation product,obtained from gauge-based rainfall estimates. Neural network based rainfall-runoff modeling using these bias corrected products provide encouraging results for flood forecasting upto 48 hours lead time. We will present various statistical and graphical interpretations of catchment response to high rainfall events using both the raw and bias corrected precipitation products at different lead times.

  12. Flood Fighting Products Research Facility

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Laboratory Consortium — A wave research basin at the ERDC Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory has been modified specifically for testing of temporary, barrier-type, flood fighting products....

  13. Detection of mixing dynamics during pumping of a flooded coal mine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elliot, Trevor; Younger, Paul L

    2014-01-01

    In complex hydrogeological environments the effective management of groundwater quality problems by pump-and-treat operations can be most confidently achieved if the mixing dynamics induced within the aquifer by pumping are well understood. The utility of isotopic environmental tracers (C-, H-, O-, S-stable isotopic analyses and age indicators-(14) C, (3) H) for this purpose is illustrated by the analysis of a pumping test in an abstraction borehole drilled into flooded, abandoned coal mineworkings at Deerplay (Lancashire, UK). Interpretation of the isotope data was undertaken conjunctively with that of major ion hydrochemistry, and interpreted in the context of the particular hydraulic setting of flooded mineworkings to identify the sources and mixing of water qualities in the groundwater system. Initial pumping showed breakdown of initial water quality stratification in the borehole, and gave evidence for distinctive isotopic signatures (δ(34) S(SO4) ≅ -1.6‰, δ(18) O(SO4 ) ≅ +15‰) associated with primary oxidation of pyrite in the zone of water table fluctuation-the first time this phenomenon has been successfully characterized by these isotopes in a flooded mine system. The overall aim of the test pumping-to replace an uncontrolled outflow from a mine entrance in an inconvenient location with a pumped discharge on a site where treatment could be provided-was swiftly achieved. Environmental tracing data illustrated the benefits of pumping as little as possible to attain this aim, as higher rates of pumping induced in-mixing of poorer quality waters from more distant old workings, and/or renewed pyrite oxidation in the shallow subsurface. © 2013, National Ground Water Association.

  14. Socio-economic Evaluation Of Different Alternatives For Flood Protection Within The Rivierenland-project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boot, S. P.; van Ast, J. A.

    The Netherlands have a tradition of protecting land against flooding from the main rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt by means of an extensive system of dikes. In recent years, however, this approach to protection has been increasingly questioned with re- gard to its sustainability and cost-effectiveness. The argument is that although the continued elevation of dikes may be technically feasible, there are several disadvan- tages to this approach. Firstly, a vast network of dikes requires a very high degree of organisation of water management, in which mistakes can not be afforded. Such a high degree of organisation may not always be maintainable in the future, due to changed economic or political circumstances. Secondly, it may not be the most cost- effective system for maintaining safety in the long term. Thirdly, it may not be the most desirable approach in terms of sustainability. One of the alternatives to contin- ued dike-elevation is the concept 'room for the river' ('ruimte voor de rivier'), which aims to give more space to rivers in the horizontal in stead of the vertical dimen- sion. This approach would reduce the risk of flooding, defined as the product of the probability and the consequences of flooding. In order to explore the long term con- sequences of both alternatives ('dike elevation' and 'room for the river'), the ministry of Verkeer en Waterstaat (Public Works, Transport and Water Management) started the 'Rivierenland'-project. The comparison of the alternatives mentioned was based on a fictitious project to adjust a region of The Netherlands, between the rivers Rhine and Meuse, to the concept of 'room for water'. The consequence of this adjustment would be that safety within that region would no longer be safeguarded by dikes, but by adjusting daily life to the 'demands of the water'. Part of the 'Rivierenland'-project was an analysis of the socio-economic costs and benefits of the alternative approaches. Within this analysis, a study was performed

  15. Going beyond the flood insurance rate map: insights from flood hazard map co-production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luke, Adam; Sanders, Brett F.; Goodrich, Kristen A.; Feldman, David L.; Boudreau, Danielle; Eguiarte, Ana; Serrano, Kimberly; Reyes, Abigail; Schubert, Jochen E.; AghaKouchak, Amir; Basolo, Victoria; Matthew, Richard A.

    2018-04-01

    Flood hazard mapping in the United States (US) is deeply tied to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Consequently, publicly available flood maps provide essential information for insurance purposes, but they do not necessarily provide relevant information for non-insurance aspects of flood risk management (FRM) such as public education and emergency planning. Recent calls for flood hazard maps that support a wider variety of FRM tasks highlight the need to deepen our understanding about the factors that make flood maps useful and understandable for local end users. In this study, social scientists and engineers explore opportunities for improving the utility and relevance of flood hazard maps through the co-production of maps responsive to end users' FRM needs. Specifically, two-dimensional flood modeling produced a set of baseline hazard maps for stakeholders of the Tijuana River valley, US, and Los Laureles Canyon in Tijuana, Mexico. Focus groups with natural resource managers, city planners, emergency managers, academia, non-profit, and community leaders refined the baseline hazard maps by triggering additional modeling scenarios and map revisions. Several important end user preferences emerged, such as (1) legends that frame flood intensity both qualitatively and quantitatively, and (2) flood scenario descriptions that report flood magnitude in terms of rainfall, streamflow, and its relation to an historic event. Regarding desired hazard map content, end users' requests revealed general consistency with mapping needs reported in European studies and guidelines published in Australia. However, requested map content that is not commonly produced included (1) standing water depths following the flood, (2) the erosive potential of flowing water, and (3) pluvial flood hazards, or flooding caused directly by rainfall. We conclude that the relevance and utility of commonly produced flood hazard maps can be most improved by illustrating pluvial flood hazards

  16. Going beyond the flood insurance rate map: insights from flood hazard map co-production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Luke

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Flood hazard mapping in the United States (US is deeply tied to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP. Consequently, publicly available flood maps provide essential information for insurance purposes, but they do not necessarily provide relevant information for non-insurance aspects of flood risk management (FRM such as public education and emergency planning. Recent calls for flood hazard maps that support a wider variety of FRM tasks highlight the need to deepen our understanding about the factors that make flood maps useful and understandable for local end users. In this study, social scientists and engineers explore opportunities for improving the utility and relevance of flood hazard maps through the co-production of maps responsive to end users' FRM needs. Specifically, two-dimensional flood modeling produced a set of baseline hazard maps for stakeholders of the Tijuana River valley, US, and Los Laureles Canyon in Tijuana, Mexico. Focus groups with natural resource managers, city planners, emergency managers, academia, non-profit, and community leaders refined the baseline hazard maps by triggering additional modeling scenarios and map revisions. Several important end user preferences emerged, such as (1 legends that frame flood intensity both qualitatively and quantitatively, and (2 flood scenario descriptions that report flood magnitude in terms of rainfall, streamflow, and its relation to an historic event. Regarding desired hazard map content, end users' requests revealed general consistency with mapping needs reported in European studies and guidelines published in Australia. However, requested map content that is not commonly produced included (1 standing water depths following the flood, (2 the erosive potential of flowing water, and (3 pluvial flood hazards, or flooding caused directly by rainfall. We conclude that the relevance and utility of commonly produced flood hazard maps can be most improved by illustrating

  17. On-Farm, Almond Orchard Flooding as a Viable Aquifer Recharge Alternative

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ulrich, C.; Nico, P. S.; Wu, Y.; Newman, G. A.; Conrad, M. E.; Dahlke, H. E.

    2017-12-01

    In 2014, California legislators passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which requires groundwater sustainability agencies (areas) to identify/prioritize water basins, develop current and projected water use/needs, develop a groundwater management plan, develop fees, etc. One of the challenges for implementing SGMA is the lack of data that can support alternative groundwater recharge methods such as on-farm flooding. Prior to anthropogenic river control, river floodplains captured excess water during overbank flow in the rainy season in the CA central valley. Today levees and canals strategically route rainy season high flows to the delta/ocean when irrigation water is not needed. Utilizing farmland once again as infiltration basins for groundwater banking and aquifer recharge could be a viable answer to California's depleted central valley aquifers. Prior to 2017, U.C. Davis had partnered with the Almond Board of California (ABC) and local growers to study the efficacy of agricultural flooding and the effects on annual almond crops (. LBNL joined this team to help understand the conveyance of recharge water, using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), into the subsurface (i.e. localized fast paths, depth of infiltration, etc.) during flooding events. The fate of the recharge water is what is significant to understanding the viability of on-farm flooding as an aquifer recharge option. In this study two orchards (in Delhi and Modesto, CA), each approximately 2 acres, were flooded during the almond tree dormant period (January), to recharge 2 acre/ft of water into the local aquifers. ERT was used to characterize (soil structure) and monitor water infiltration over a single flooding event to investigate the fate of applied water. Data were collected every hour prior to flooding (baseline), during, and after all flood water had infiltrated (about 5 days total). Our time-lapse ERT results show a heterogeneous soil structure that leads to non

  18. Long-term strategies for flood risk management: scenario definition and strategic alternative design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bruijn, de K.; Klijn, F.; McGahey, C.; Mens, M.; Wolfert, H.P.

    2008-01-01

    This report reviews some mainstream existing methods of scenario development and use, as well as experiences with the design and assessment of strategic alternatives for flood risk management. Next, a procedure and methods are proposed and discussed. Thirdly, the procedure and methods are tried on

  19. Mixed grazing systems of goats with cattle in tropical conditions: an alternative to improving animal production in the pasture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    d'Alexis, S; Periacarpin, F; Jackson, F; Boval, M

    2014-08-01

    Mixed grazing systems combining sheep and cattle have shown better growth performance for one or both species. This observation has been attributed to their complementary feeding behaviour and the reduced host infection by gastrointestinal nematodes. Less attention has been paid to mixed grazing systems combining goats and cattle. Here, continuously grazing goats mixed with cattle (M) were compared with control goats reared alone (C) under tropical conditions. The comparison was conducted with gastrointestinal nematode-infected (I) and non-infected (nI) goats. Thus, the four treatments were cattle with gastrointestinal nematode-infected goats (MI), gastrointestinal nematode-infected goats alone (CI), cattle with non-infected goats (MnI) and non-infected goats (CnI). Average daily gain (ADG, g/day) and grass production were measured for the four groups of animals (six goats and two heifers treated with MI or MnI) grazing for 3 months on 4 subplots. Monthly measurements were performed over 5-day periods. This pattern was replicated in space for a second set of four subplots and in time for six successive cohorts of animals (bands 1 to 6). The ADG of goats in mixed grazing conditions was higher than controls irrespective of the infection status (32.6 v. 18.4 g/day for MI v. CI; 44.2 v. 33.5 g/day for MnI v. CnI). Concomitantly, the average biomass was lower for mixed grazing animals compared with controls (174 v. 170 for MI and MnI; 235 v. 208 for CI and CnI, respectively), suggesting better use of the sward. For daily BW gain (g/kg DM), mixed grazing also yielded better results than the control (1.88 v. 0.52 g BW/kg DM per day for MI v. CI; 2.08 v. 1.47 g BW/kg DM per day for MnI and CnI). Mixed grazing of goats and heifers offers a promising alternative for increasing goat and overall animal production as well as improving the management of pastures.

  20. A new flooding scheme by horizontal well in thin heavy oil reservoirs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, H.; Zhang, H.; Wang, M. [China Univ. of Petroleum, Beijing (China). MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering ; Wang, Z. [Shengli Oil Field Co. (China). Dept. of Science and Technology]|[SINOPEC, Shengli (China)

    2008-10-15

    This paper presented a new flooding scheme for single horizontal wells that could improve recovery from thin marginal heavy oil reservoirs or from offshore reservoirs. The scheme involved the use of a multiple tubing string completion in a single wellbore. Special packers were installed within the long completion horizontal interval to establish an injection zone and a production zone. The new flooding scheme also involved simultaneous injection and production. Numerical simulation of the reservoir was used to determine the thickness of the formation and the lower limitation for different viscosities and the optimum time to start steam flooding after steam soaking by economic oil/steam ratio. The peak recovery efficiency of steam flooding was shown to occur when the length of separation section ratio is 0.15 to 0.2. It was concluded that high thermal efficiency in horizontal wells with long completion intervals can be maintained by alternating between steam soaking and steam flooding. Suitable alternation time to steam flooding is a seventh cycle for horizontal wells. Water cut and pressure difference will increase the steam injection rate, and thereby improve the oil production rate. The suitable injection rate for steam flooding is 2.4 t/d.ha.h because of its slow pressure change. 11 refs., 7 figs.

  1. Evaluation and Optimization Study on a Hybrid EOR Technique Named as Chemical-Alternating-Foam Floods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xu Xingguang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This work presents a novel Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR method called Chemical-Alternating-Foam (CAF floods in order to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional foam flooding such as insufficient amount of in-situ foams, severe foam collapse and surfactant retention. The first part of this research focused on the comparison of conventional foam floods and CAF floods both of which had the same amount of gas and chemicals. It showed that: (1 CAF floods possessed the much greater Residual Resistance Factor (RRF at elevated temperature; (2 the accumulative oil recovery of the CAF floods was 10%-15% higher than that of the conventional foam flooding. After 1.8 Pore Volume (PV injection, the oil recovery reached the plateau for both methods; (3 CAF floods yielded the most amount of incremental oil at the 98% water cut (water content in the effluent, while the continuous foam floods achieved the best performance at 60% water cut. The second part of this work determined the optimal foam quality (gas/liquid ratio or the volume percent gas within foam, chemical/foam slug size ratio, cycle number and injection sequence for the CAF floods. It was found that the CAF was endowed with the peak performance if the foam quality, chemical/foam slug size ratio, cycle number was fixed at 80%, 1:1 and 3 respectively with the chemical slug being introduced ahead of the foam slug. Through systematic and thorough research, the proposed hybrid process has been approved to be a viable and effective method significantly strengthening the conventional foam flooding.

  2. Analytic network process (ANP approach for product mix planning in railway industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hadi Pazoki Toroudi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Given the competitive environment in the global market in recent years, organizations need to plan for increased profitability and optimize their performance. Planning for an appropriate product mix plays essential role for the success of most production units. This paper applies analytical network process (ANP approach for product mix planning for a part supplier in Iran. The proposed method uses four criteria including cost of production, sales figures, supply of raw materials and quality of products. In addition, the study proposes different set of products as alternatives for production planning. The preliminary results have indicated that that the proposed study of this paper could increase productivity, significantly.

  3. Calculation of mixed mode stress intensity factors using an alternating method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakai, Takayuki

    1999-01-01

    In this study, mixed mode stress intensity factors (K I and K II ) of a square plate with a notch were calculated using a finite element alternating method. The obtained results were compared with the ones by a finite element method, and it was shown that the finite element alternating method can accurately estimate mixed mode stress intensity factors. Then, using this finite element alternating method, mixed mode stress intensity factors were calculated as changing the size and position of the notch, and its simplified equations were proposed. (author)

  4. Flooding-limited thermal mixing: The case of high-froude number injection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iyer, K.; Theofanous, T.G.

    1985-01-01

    The stratification in the cold leg due to high pressure injection in a stagnated loop of a PWR is considered. The working hypothesis is that at high injection Froude numbers the extent of mixing approaches a limit controlled only by the flooding condition at the cold leg exit. The available experimental data support this hypothesis. Predictions for reactor conditions indicate a stratification of about --40 0 C. As a consequence, the downcomer plume would be rather weak (low Froude Number) and is expected to decay quickly

  5. Mixed waste focus area alternative technologies workshop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borduin, L.C.; Palmer, B.A.; Pendergrass, J.A.

    1995-01-01

    This report documents the Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA)-sponsored Alternative Technology Workshop held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from January 24--27, 1995. The primary workshop goal was identifying potential applications for emerging technologies within the Options Analysis Team (OAT) ''wise'' configuration. Consistent with the scope of the OAT analysis, the review was limited to the Mixed Low-Level Waste (MLLW) fraction of DOE's mixed waste inventory. The Los Alamos team prepared workshop materials (databases and compilations) to be used as bases for participant review and recommendations. These materials derived from the Mixed Waste Inventory Report (MWIR) data base (May 1994), the Draft Site Treatment Plan (DSTP) data base, and the OAT treatment facility configuration of December 7, 1994. In reviewing workshop results, the reader should note several caveats regarding data limitations. Link-up of the MWIR and DSTP data bases, while representing the most comprehensive array of mixed waste information available at the time of the workshop, requires additional data to completely characterize all waste streams. A number of changes in waste identification (new and redefined streams) occurred during the interval from compilation of the data base to compilation of the DSTP data base with the end result that precise identification of radiological and contaminant characteristics was not possible for these streams. To a degree, these shortcomings compromise the workshop results; however, the preponderance of waste data was linked adequately, and therefore, these analyses should provide useful insight into potential applications of alternative technologies to DOE MLLW treatment facilities

  6. MSWT-01, an alternative in combining Production Based Education (PBE) and student CSR program in Polman

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ananto, Gamawan; Setiawan, Albertus B.; Z, Darman M.

    2014-06-01

    MSWT-01, Mobile Surface Water Treatment, producing 1m3 per hour, is an alternative for providing clean water in flood disaster areas, and was developed at Bandung State Polytechnic for Manufacturing (Polman) as a part of institution research project. The combination of cartridge or membrane technology such as carbon block, MF, UF and filtration media is used for this machine, instead of coagulation-flocculation with chemical addition, due to emergency purposes related with its treatment processing time. The idea is that MSWT could be combined with Production Based Education (PBE) concept in Polman as a vocational education institution and students 'CSR', students social activities. With the number of implementation trials in real flood area condition, MSWT will be developed further based on the technical output result. The manufacturing process for improving or adding necessary features could be implemented as a student's project in PBE system. This might be an ideal combination alternative for such vocational institution that students get the product media for their PBE program and implement their work as a defined social activity. They will learn and experience related technical matters and more social interactions with the people and other disaster stakeholder as well.

  7. Structural master plan of flood mitigation measures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Heidari

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Flood protection is one of the practical methods in damage reduction. Although it not possible to be completely protected from flood disaster but major part of damages can be reduced by mitigation plans. In this paper, the optimum flood mitigation master plan is determined by economic evaluation in trading off between the construction costs and expected value of damage reduction as the benefits. Size of the certain mitigation alternative is also be obtained by risk analysis by accepting possibility of flood overtopping. Different flood mitigation alternatives are investigated from various aspects in the Dez and Karun river floodplain areas as a case study in south west of IRAN. The results show that detention dam and flood diversion are the best alternatives of flood mitigation methods as well as enforcing the flood control purpose of upstream multipurpose reservoirs. Dyke and levees are not mostly justifiable because of negative impact on down stream by enhancing routed flood peak discharge magnitude and flood damages as well.

  8. Utilizing NASA Earth Observations to Enhance Flood Impact Products and Mitigation in the Lower Mekong Water Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doyle, C.; Gao, M.; Spruce, J.; Bolten, J. D.; Weber, S.

    2014-12-01

    This presentation discusses results of a project to develop a near real time flood monitoring capability for the Lower Mekong Water Basin (LMB), the largest river basin in Southeast Asia and home to more than sixty million people. The region has seen rapid population growth and socio-economic development, fueling unsustainable deforestation, agricultural expansion, and stream-flow regulation. The basin supports substantial rice farming and other agrarian activities, which heavily depend upon seasonal flooding. But, floods due to typhoons and other severe weather events can result in disasters that cost millions of dollars and cause hardships to millions of people. This study uses near real time and historical Aqua and Terra MODIS 250-m resolution Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products to map flood and drought impact within the LMB. In doing so, NDVI change products are derived by comparing from NDVI during the wet season to a baseline NDVI from the dry season. The method records flood events, which cause drastic decreases in NDVI compared to non-flooded conditions. NDVI change product computation was automated for updating a near real-time system, as part of the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites Disaster Risk Management Observation Strategy. The system is a web-based 'Flood Dashboard that will showcase MODIS flood monitoring products, along with other flood mapping and weather data products. This flood dashboard enables end-users to view and assess a variety of geospatial data to monitor floods and flood impacts in near real-time, as well provides a platform for further data aggregation for flood prediction modeling and post-event assessment.

  9. Development of a mixed-conductive ceramic membrane for syngas production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Etchegoyen, G.

    2005-10-01

    Natural gas conversion into syngas (H 2 +CO) is very attractive for hydrogen and clean fuel production via GTL technology by providing an alternative to oil products and reducing greenhouse gas emission. Syngas production, using a mixed ionic-electronic conducting ceramic membrane, is thought to be particularly promising. The purpose of this PhD thesis was to develop this type of membrane. Mixed-conducting oxide was synthesized, characterized and then, shaped via tape casting and co-sintered in order to obtain multilayer membranes with controlled architectures and microstructures. Oxygen permeation fluxes were measured with a specific device to evaluate membrane performances. As a result, the optimisation of architecture and microstructure made it possible to increase oxygen permeation flux by a factor 30. Additional researches were focused on the oxide composition in order to achieve higher dimensional stability. (author)

  10. Flood Risk and Probabilistic Benefit Assessment to Support Management of Flood-Prone Lands: Evidence From Candaba Floodplains, Philippines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juarez, A. M.; Kibler, K. M.; Sayama, T.; Ohara, M.

    2016-12-01

    Flood management decision-making is often supported by risk assessment, which may overlook the role of coping capacity and the potential benefits derived from direct use of flood-prone land. Alternatively, risk-benefit analysis can support floodplain management to yield maximum socio-ecological benefits for the minimum flood risk. We evaluate flood risk-probabilistic benefit tradeoffs of livelihood practices compatible with direct human use of flood-prone land (agriculture/wild fisheries) and nature conservation (wild fisheries only) in Candaba, Philippines. Located north-west to Metro Manila, Candaba area is a multi-functional landscape that provides a temporally-variable mix of possible land uses, benefits and ecosystem services of local and regional value. To characterize inundation from 1.3- to 100-year recurrence intervals we couple frequency analysis with rainfall-runoff-inundation modelling and remotely-sensed data. By combining simulated probabilistic floods with both damage and benefit functions (e.g. fish capture and rice yield with flood intensity) we estimate potential damages and benefits over varying probabilistic flood hazards. We find that although direct human uses of flood-prone land are associated with damages, for all the investigated magnitudes of flood events with different frequencies, the probabilistic benefits ( 91 million) exceed risks by a large margin ( 33 million). Even considering risk, probabilistic livelihood benefits of direct human uses far exceed benefits provided by scenarios that exclude direct "risky" human uses (difference of 85 million). In addition, we find that individual coping strategies, such as adapting crop planting periods to the flood pulse or fishing rather than cultivating rice in the wet season, minimize flood losses ( 6 million) while allowing for valuable livelihood benefits ($ 125 million) in flood-prone land. Analysis of societal benefits and local capacities to cope with regular floods demonstrate the

  11. Experimental research on microscopic displacement mechanism of CO2-water alternative flooding in low permeability reservoir

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Hongyan; Zhu, Weiyao; Long, Yunqian; Song, Hongqing; Huang, Kun

    2018-02-01

    This paper provides an experimental method to deal with the problems of low oil recovery ratio faced with water flooding utilizing the CO2/water alternate displacement technology. A series of CO2/water alternate flooding experiments were carried out under 60°C and 18.4MPa using high temperature / pressure microscopic visualization simulation system. Then, we used the image processing technique and software to analyze the proportion of remaining oil in the displacement process. The results show that CO2 can extract the lighter chemical components in the crude oil and make it easier to form miscible phase, which can reduce the viscosity and favorable mobility ratio of oil. What’s more, the displacement reduces the impact of gas channeling, which can achieve an enlarged sweeping efficiency to improve filtration ability. In addition, the CO2 dissolved in oil and water can greatly reduce the interfacial tension, which can increase the oil displacement efficiency in a large extent. Generally speaking, the recovery rate of residual oil in the micro - model can be elevated up to 15.89% ∼ 16.48% under formation condition by alternate displacement.

  12. Experimental study of bioethanol production using mixed cassava and durian seed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seer, Q. H.; Nandong, J.; Shanon, T.

    2017-06-01

    The production of biofuels using conventional fermentation feedstocks, such as sugar-and starch-based agricultural crops will in the long-term lead to a serious competition with human-animal food consumption. To avoid this competition, it is important to explore various alternative feedstocks especially those from inedible waste materials. Potentially, fruit wastes such as damaged fruits, peels and seeds represent alternative cheap feedstocks for biofuel production. In this work, an experimental study was conducted on ethanol production using mixed cassava and durian seeds through fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. The effects of pH, temperature and ratio of hydrolyzed cassava to durian seeds on the ethanol yield, substrate consumption and product formation rates were analyzed in the study. In flask-scale fermentation using the mixed cassava-durian seeds, it was found that the highest ethanol yield of 45.9 and a final ethanol concentration of 24.92 g/L were achieved at pH 5.0, temperature 35°C and 50:50 volume ratio of hydrolyzed cassava to durian seeds for a batch period of 48 hours. Additionally, the ethanol, glucose and biomass concentration profiles in a lab-scale bioreactor were examined for the fermentation using the proposed materials under the flask-scale optimum conditions. The ethanol yield of 35.7 and a final ethanol concentration of 14.61 g/L were obtained over a period of 46 hours where the glucose was almost fully consumed. It is worth noting that both pH and temperature have significant impacts on the fermentation process using the mixed cassava-durian seeds.

  13. An Alternative Method for Computing Unit Costs and Productivity Ratios. AIR 1984 Annual Forum Paper.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winstead, Wayland H.; And Others

    An alternative measure for evaluating the performance of academic departments was studied. A comparison was made with the traditional manner for computing unit costs and productivity ratios: prorating the salary and effort of each faculty member to each course level based on the personal mix of course taught. The alternative method used averaging…

  14. Effect of using fly ash as alternative filler in hot mix asphalt

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raja Mistry

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the effect of using fly ash (FA in asphalt mixture as replacement of common filler. In view of the same, samples were prepared for different bitumen content (3.5−6.5% at 0.5% increments by using 2% hydrated lime (HL in control mix as well as varying percentage of FA ranging from 2 to 8% as alternative filler in modified mixes. The optimum bitumen content (OBC was then determined for all the mix by Marshall mix design. Experimental results indicated higher stability value with lower OBC for the mixture having 4% FA as optimum filler content in comparison with conventional mix and standard specification. So this study discuss the feasibility of using FA as alternative filler instead of HL in asphalt concrete mix by satisfying the standard specification.

  15. Flood effects provide evidence of an alternate stable state from dam management on the Upper Missouri River

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skalak, Katherine; Benthem, Adam J.; Hupp, Cliff R.; Schenk, Edward R.; Galloway, Joel M.; Nustad, Rochelle A.

    2017-01-01

    We examine how historic flooding in 2011 affected the geomorphic adjustments created by dam regulation along the approximately 120 km free flowing reach of the Upper Missouri River bounded upstream by the Garrison Dam (1953) and downstream by Lake Oahe Reservoir (1959) near the City of Bismarck, ND, USA. The largest flood since dam regulation occurred in 2011. Flood releases from the Garrison Dam began in May 2011 and lasted until October, peaking with a flow of more than 4200 m3 s−1. Channel cross-section data and aerial imagery before and after the flood were compared with historic rates of channel change to assess the relative impact of the flood on the river morphology. Results indicate that the 2011 flood maintained trends in island area with the loss of islands in the reach just below the dam and an increase in island area downstream. Channel capacity changes varied along the Garrison Segment as a result of the flood. The thalweg, which has been stable since the mid-1970s, did not migrate. And channel morphology, as defined by a newly developed shoaling metric, which quantifies the degree of channel braiding, indicates significant longitudinal variability in response to the flood. These results show that the 2011 flood exacerbates some geomorphic trends caused by the dam while reversing others. We conclude that the presence of dams has created an alternate geomorphic and related ecological stable state, which does not revert towards pre-dam conditions in response to the flood of record. This suggests that management of sediment transport dynamics as well as flow modification is necessary to restore the Garrison Segment of the Upper Missouri River towards pre-dam conditions and help create or maintain habitat for endangered species. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  16. 9 CFR 114.6 - Mixing biological products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Mixing biological products. 114.6... BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTS § 114.6 Mixing biological products. Each biological product, when in liquid form, shall be mixed thoroughly in a single container. During bottling operations, the product shall be...

  17. From Big Data to Small Transportable Products for Decision Support for Floods in Namibia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandl, D.; Frye, S.; Cappelaere, P.; Policelli, F.; Handy, M.; Sohlberg, R. A.; Grossman, R.

    2013-12-01

    During the past four years, a team from NASA, Oklahoma University, University of Maryland and University of Chicago in collaboration with the Namibia Hydrological Services (NHS) has explored ways to provide decision support products for floods. The products include a variety of data including a hydrological model, ground measurements such as river gauges, and earth remote sensing data. This poster or presentation highlights the lessons learned in acquiring, storing, managing big data on the cloud and turning it into relevant products for GEOSS users. Technology that has been explored includes the use of Hadoop/MapReduce and Accumulo to process and manage the large data sets. OpenStreetMap was explored for use in cataloging water boundaries and enabling collaborative mapping of the base water mask and floods. A Flood Dashboard was created to customize displays of various data products. Finally, a higher level Geo-Social Application Processing Interface (API) was developed so that users can discover, generate products dynamically for their specific needs/societal benefit areas and then share them with their Community of Practice over social networks. Results of this experiment have included 100x reduction in size of some flood products, making it possible to distribute these products to mobile platforms and/or bandwidth-limited users.

  18. Alternative Fuels in Cement Production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Morten Boberg

    The substitution of alternative for fossil fuels in cement production has increased significantly in the last decade. Of these new alternative fuels, solid state fuels presently account for the largest part, and in particular, meat and bone meal, plastics and tyre derived fuels (TDF) accounted...... for the most significant alternative fuel energy contributors in the German cement industry. Solid alternative fuels are typically high in volatile content and they may differ significantly in physical and chemical properties compared to traditional solid fossil fuels. From the process point of view......, considering a modern kiln system for cement production, the use of alternative fuels mainly influences 1) kiln process stability (may accelerate build up of blockages preventing gas and/or solids flow), 2) cement clinker quality, 3) emissions, and 4) decreased production capacity. Kiln process stability...

  19. High-resolution flood modeling of urban areas using MSN_Flood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Hartnett

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Although existing hydraulic models have been used to simulate and predict urban flooding, most of these models are inadequate due to the high spatial resolution required to simulate flows in urban floodplains. Nesting high-resolution subdomains within coarser-resolution models is an efficient solution for enabling simultaneous calculation of flooding due to tides, surges, and high river flows. MSN_Flood has been developed to incorporate moving boundaries around nested domains, permitting alternate flooding and drying along the boundary and in the interior of the domain. Ghost cells adjacent to open boundary cells convert open boundaries, in effect, into internal boundaries. The moving boundary may be multi-segmented and non-continuous, with recirculating flow across the boundary. When combined with a bespoke adaptive interpolation scheme, this approach facilitates a dynamic internal boundary. Based on an alternating-direction semi-implicit finite difference scheme, MSN_Flood was used to hindcast a major flood event in Cork City resulting from the combined pressures of fluvial, tidal, and storm surge processes. The results show that the model is computationally efficient, as the 2-m high-resolution nest is used only in the urban flooded region. Elsewhere, lower-resolution nests are used. The results also show that the model is highly accurate when compared with measured data. The model is capable of incorporating nested sub-domains when the nested boundary is multi-segmented and highly complex with lateral gradients of elevation and velocities. This is a major benefit when modelling urban floodplains at very high resolution.

  20. 21 CFR 163.145 - Mixed dairy product chocolates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Mixed dairy product chocolates. 163.145 Section... § 163.145 Mixed dairy product chocolates. (a) Description. Mixed dairy product chocolates are the foods...; or (iv) Malted milk; and (2) The finished mixed dairy product chocolates shall contain not less than...

  1. Flood Hazard Mapping by Applying Fuzzy TOPSIS Method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, K. Y.; Lee, J. Y.; Keum, H.; Kim, B. J.; Kim, T. H.

    2017-12-01

    There are lots of technical methods to integrate various factors for flood hazard mapping. The purpose of this study is to suggest the methodology of integrated flood hazard mapping using MCDM(Multi Criteria Decision Making). MCDM problems involve a set of alternatives that are evaluated on the basis of conflicting and incommensurate criteria. In this study, to apply MCDM to assessing flood risk, maximum flood depth, maximum velocity, and maximum travel time are considered as criterion, and each applied elements are considered as alternatives. The scheme to find the efficient alternative closest to a ideal value is appropriate way to assess flood risk of a lot of element units(alternatives) based on various flood indices. Therefore, TOPSIS which is most commonly used MCDM scheme is adopted to create flood hazard map. The indices for flood hazard mapping(maximum flood depth, maximum velocity, and maximum travel time) have uncertainty concerning simulation results due to various values according to flood scenario and topographical condition. These kind of ambiguity of indices can cause uncertainty of flood hazard map. To consider ambiguity and uncertainty of criterion, fuzzy logic is introduced which is able to handle ambiguous expression. In this paper, we made Flood Hazard Map according to levee breach overflow using the Fuzzy TOPSIS Technique. We confirmed the areas where the highest grade of hazard was recorded through the drawn-up integrated flood hazard map, and then produced flood hazard map can be compared them with those indicated in the existing flood risk maps. Also, we expect that if we can apply the flood hazard map methodology suggested in this paper even to manufacturing the current flood risk maps, we will be able to make a new flood hazard map to even consider the priorities for hazard areas, including more varied and important information than ever before. Keywords : Flood hazard map; levee break analysis; 2D analysis; MCDM; Fuzzy TOPSIS

  2. Carbonated water flooding : Process overview in the frame of co2 flooding

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peksa, A.E.

    2017-01-01

    The main scope of the work related to the physical and dynamical processes associated with the injection of carbonated water in porous media. Carbonated water flooding is an alternative for traditional CO2 flooding. Both methods have the potential to recover any oil left behind after primary and

  3. Alternate wetting and drying decreases methylmercury in flooded rice (Oryza sativa) systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanner, K. Christy; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark C.; Fleck, Jacob; Linquist, Bruce A.

    2018-01-01

    In flooded soils, including those found in rice (Oryza sativa L.) fields, microbes convert inorganic Hg to more toxic methylmercury (MeHg). Methylmercury is accumulated in rice grain, potentially affecting health. Methylmercury in rice field surface water can bioaccumulate in wildlife. We evaluated how introducing aerobic periods into an otherwise continuously flooded rice growing season affects MeHg dynamics. Conventional continuously flooded (CF) rice field water management was compared with alternate wetting and drying, where irrigation was stopped twice during the growing season, allowing soil to dry to 35% volumetric moisture content, at which point plots were reflooded (AWD-35). Methylmercury studies began at harvest in Year 3 and throughout Year 4 of a 4-yr replicated field experiment. Bulk soil, water, and plant samples were analyzed for MeHg and total Hg (THg), and iron (Fe) speciation was measured in soil samples. Rice grain yield over 4 yr did not differ between treatments. Soil chemistry responded quickly to AWD-35 dry-downs, showing significant oxidation of Fe(II) accompanied by a significant reduction of MeHg concentration (76% reduction at harvest) compared with CF. Surface water MeHg decreased by 68 and 39% in the growing and fallow seasons, respectively, suggesting that the effects of AWD-35 management can last through to the fallow season. The AWD-35 treatment reduced rice grain MeHg and THg by 60 and 32%, respectively. These results suggest that the more aerobic conditions caused by AWD-35 limited the activity of Hg(II)-methylating microbes and may be an effective way to reduce MeHg concentrations in rice ecosystems.

  4. Mixed waste: An alternative solution. The utility perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seizert, R.D.

    1988-01-01

    The issue of mixed waste is one of significant interest to the utility industry. The interest is focused on the current regulatory scheme of dual regulation. A fundamental concern of the commercial nuclear utilities resulting from dual regulation is that there are currently no facilities in the US to dispose of mixed low-level radioactive and hazardous waste. The lack of available sites renders mixed waste an orphan, requiring generators of such material to store the waste on-site. This in turn causes commercial nuclear power plants to be subjected to the full gamut of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulation in addition to the existing Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations. Superimposing dual regulatory schemes will have impacts which extend far beyond the mere management of mixed waste. Certainly the burdens, complexities and costs of complying with the overlapping regulatory schemes will not have a commensurate increase in protection from the real risks being addressed. For these reasons, the commercial nuclear utility industry is working toward an alternative solution which will protect the public health and the environment from all hazards of mixed waste and will minimize the impacts on both the regulators and the regulated community

  5. Development of flood index by characterisation of flood hydrographs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharya, Biswa; Suman, Asadusjjaman

    2015-04-01

    In recent years the world has experienced deaths, large-scale displacement of people, billions of Euros of economic damage, mental stress and ecosystem impacts due to flooding. Global changes (climate change, population and economic growth, and urbanisation) are exacerbating the severity of flooding. The 2010 floods in Pakistan and the 2011 floods in Australia and Thailand demonstrate the need for concerted action in the face of global societal and environmental changes to strengthen resilience against flooding. Due to climatological characteristics there are catchments where flood forecasting may have a relatively limited role and flood event management may have to be trusted upon. For example, in flash flood catchments, which often may be tiny and un-gauged, flood event management often depends on approximate prediction tools such as flash flood guidance (FFG). There are catchments fed largely by flood waters coming from upstream catchments, which are un-gauged or due to data sharing issues in transboundary catchments the flow of information from upstream catchment is limited. Hydrological and hydraulic modelling of these downstream catchments will never be sufficient to provide any required forecasting lead time and alternative tools to support flood event management will be required. In FFG, or similar approaches, the primary motif is to provide guidance by synthesising the historical data. We follow a similar approach to characterise past flood hydrographs to determine a flood index (FI), which varies in space and time with flood magnitude and its propagation. By studying the variation of the index the pockets of high flood risk, requiring attention, can be earmarked beforehand. This approach can be very useful in flood risk management of catchments where information about hydro-meteorological variables is inadequate for any forecasting system. This paper presents the development of FI and its application to several catchments including in Kentucky in the USA

  6. Evaluating miscible flood projects for acquisition or viability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cassinat, J.C.

    1991-01-01

    Very little information exists regarding evaluating enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects, in particular miscible floods. Due to the size and scope of most tertiary recovery projects, standard evaluation rules and techniques are too general and vague to adequately model these schemes. A procedure for identifying the risks associated with miscible EOR projects is presented. It is essential to set up a cash flow model that accurately represents the future performance of a miscible flood. Included in the model are the timing of crucial events such as expected solvent breakthrough and the injection of trace gas. The cash flow analysis allows a quick audit procedure and converts production into a monetary or economic evaluation criteria that can easily be compared to other investment alternatives. When evaluating a miscible flood project, forecasting production, solvent and chase gas recovery costs can become quite complex. An organized procedure for an evaluation will ensure that a comprehensive and thorough examination of all the data is completed, and will increase confidence levels associated with decision making. 32 refs., 4 figs., 4 tabs

  7. Mapping flood hazards under uncertainty through probabilistic flood inundation maps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephens, T.; Bledsoe, B. P.; Miller, A. J.; Lee, G.

    2017-12-01

    Changing precipitation, rapid urbanization, and population growth interact to create unprecedented challenges for flood mitigation and management. Standard methods for estimating risk from flood inundation maps generally involve simulations of floodplain hydraulics for an established regulatory discharge of specified frequency. Hydraulic model results are then geospatially mapped and depicted as a discrete boundary of flood extents and a binary representation of the probability of inundation (in or out) that is assumed constant over a project's lifetime. Consequently, existing methods utilized to define flood hazards and assess risk management are hindered by deterministic approaches that assume stationarity in a nonstationary world, failing to account for spatio-temporal variability of climate and land use as they translate to hydraulic models. This presentation outlines novel techniques for portraying flood hazards and the results of multiple flood inundation maps spanning hydroclimatic regions. Flood inundation maps generated through modeling of floodplain hydraulics are probabilistic reflecting uncertainty quantified through Monte-Carlo analyses of model inputs and parameters under current and future scenarios. The likelihood of inundation and range of variability in flood extents resulting from Monte-Carlo simulations are then compared with deterministic evaluations of flood hazards from current regulatory flood hazard maps. By facilitating alternative approaches of portraying flood hazards, the novel techniques described in this presentation can contribute to a shifting paradigm in flood management that acknowledges the inherent uncertainty in model estimates and the nonstationary behavior of land use and climate.

  8. Air-water flooding in multirod channels: effects of spacer grids and blockages

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cha, Jong Hee; Jun, Hyung Gil

    1993-01-01

    This paper presents the experimental results on flooding of countercurrent flow in vertical multirod channels, which consists of falling water film and upward air flow. In particular, the effects of spacer grids, with and without mixing vane, and of blockage in the multirod bundle on the behaviour of flooding were investigated. The 5 x 5 zircaloy tube bundle was used for the test section. The comparison of previous analytical models and empirical correlations with present data on flooding showed that the existing models and correlations predict much higher flooding curves. The spacer grid causes the lower flooding air flow rate to compare with the bare rod bundle. However, the mixing spacer grids need a higher flooding air flow rate for a constant liquid flow rate than the spacer grids without mixing vanes. The bundle containing blockages has the highest flooding air flow rate among the bundles with spacer grids and blokages. Empirical flooding correlations for the three types of test section have been made. (Author)

  9. Functionality of alternative protein in gluten-free product development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deora, Navneet Singh; Deswal, Aastha; Mishra, Hari Niwas

    2015-07-01

    Celiac disease is an immune-mediated disease triggered in genetically susceptible individuals by ingested gluten from wheat, rye, barley, and other closely related cereal grains. The current treatment for celiac disease is life-long adherence to a strict gluten-exclusion diet. The replacement of gluten presents a significant technological challenge, as it is an essential structure-building protein, which is necessary for formulating high-quality baked goods. A major limitation in the production of gluten-free products is the lack of protein functionality in non-wheat cereals. Additionally, commercial gluten-free mixes usually contain only carbohydrates, which may significantly limit the amount of protein in the diet. In the recent past, various approaches are attempted to incorporate protein-based ingredients and to modify the functional properties for gluten-free product development. This review aims to the highlight functionality of the alternative protein-based ingredients, which can be utilized for gluten-free product development both functionally as well as nutritionally. © The Author(s) 2014.

  10. Alternative disposal options for alpha-mixed low-level waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loomis, G.G.; Sherick, M.J.

    1995-01-01

    This paper presents several disposal options for the Department of Energy alpha-mixed low-level waste. The mixed nature of the waste favors thermally treating the waste to either an iron-enriched basalt or glass waste form, at which point a multitude of reasonable disposal options, including in-state disposal, are a possibility. Most notably, these waste forms will meet the land-ban restrictions. However, the thermal treatment of this waste involves considerable waste handling and complicated/expensive offgas systems with secondary waste management problems. In the United States, public perception of offgas systems in the radioactive incinerator area is unfavorable. The alternatives presented here are nonthermal in nature and involve homogenizing the waste with cryogenic techniques followed by complete encapsulation with a variety of chemical/grouting agents into retrievable waste forms. Once encapsulated, the waste forms are suitable for transport out of the state or for actual in-state disposal. This paper investigates variances that would have to be obtained and contrasts the alternative encapsulation idea with the thermal treatment option

  11. Alternative disposal options for alpha-mixed low-level waste

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Loomis, G.G.; Sherick, M.J. [Idaho National Engineering Lab., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    1995-12-31

    This paper presents several disposal options for the Department of Energy alpha-mixed low-level waste. The mixed nature of the waste favors thermally treating the waste to either an iron-enriched basalt or glass waste form, at which point a multitude of reasonable disposal options, including in-state disposal, are a possibility. Most notably, these waste forms will meet the land-ban restrictions. However, the thermal treatment of this waste involves considerable waste handling and complicated/expensive offgas, systems with secondary waste management problems. In the United States, public perception of off gas systems in the radioactive incinerator area is unfavorable. The alternatives presented here are nonthermal in nature and involve homogenizing the waste with cryogenic techniques followed by complete encapsulation with a variety of chemical/grouting agents into retrievable waste forms. Once encapsulated, the waste forms are suitable for transport out of the state or for actual in-state disposal. This paper investigates variances that would have to be obtained and contrasts the alternative encapsulation idea with the thermal treatment option.

  12. Flood mapping with multitemporal MODIS data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Son, Nguyen-Thanh; Chen, Chi-Farn; Chen, Cheng-Ru

    2014-05-01

    Flood is one of the most devastating and frequent disasters resulting in loss of human life and serve damage to infrastructure and agricultural production. Flood is phenomenal in the Mekong River Delta (MRD), Vietnam. It annually lasts from July to November. Information on spatiotemporal flood dynamics is thus important for planners to devise successful strategies for flood monitoring and mitigation of its negative effects. The main objective of this study is to develop an approach for weekly mapping flood dynamics with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data in MRD using the water fraction model (WFM). The data processed for 2009 comprises three main steps: (1) data pre-processing to construct smooth time series of the difference in the values (DVLE) between land surface water index (LSWI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), (2) flood derivation using WFM, and (3) accuracy assessment. The mapping results were compared with the ground reference data, which were constructed from Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data. As several error sources, including mixed-pixel problems and low-resolution bias between the mapping results and ground reference data, could lower the level of classification accuracy, the comparisons indicated satisfactory results with the overall accuracy of 80.5% and Kappa coefficient of 0.61, respectively. These results were reaffirmed by a close correlation between the MODIS-derived flood area and that of the ground reference map at the provincial level, with the correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.93. Considering the importance of remote sensing for monitoring floods and mitigating the damage caused by floods to crops and infrastructure, this study eventually leads to the realization of the value of using time-series MODIS DVLE data for weekly flood monitoring in MRD with the aid of EMD and WFM. Such an approach that could provide quantitative information on

  13. Fickle product mix: Exporters adapting their product vectors across markets

    OpenAIRE

    Fontagné, Lionel; Secchi, Angelo; Tomasi, Chiara

    2014-01-01

    This paper analyzes how multi-product firms adjust their exported product-mix across desti- nations. Using cross sections of Italian and French data, we show that firms do not follow a rigid ordering in their product mix exported in different markets but rather they adapt their choices to better match with country characteristics. By using metrics based on export shares and on sequences of product names we provide new insights on the extent a firm's products portfolio changes across destinati...

  14. Effects of changes in stock productivity and mixing on sustainable fishing and economic viability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bastardie, Francois; Nielsen, J. Rasmus; Eero, Margit

    2017-01-01

    Within the new FMSY European paradigm, this paper shows how a combination of changes in fish stock mixing, non-stationarity in productivity, and constraints on unit stock concepts undermine the effective management of fisheries, especially when management reference points are not adjusted...... accordingly. Recent changes in stock structures, conditions and stock mixing between eastern and western Baltic cod can jeopardize the reliability of stock assessments and of the fishery economy. We modelled how different management, individual vessel decision-making, and stock growth and mixing scenarios...... have induced alternative individual vessel spatial effort allocation and economic performance by affecting fishing costs and by changing the relative stock abundance and size distribution. Stock mixing heavily influences profit and stock abundance for stocks that have experienced increased fishing...

  15. A mixed method to evaluate burden of malaria due to flooding and waterlogging in Mengcheng County, China: a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Guoyong; Gao, Lu; Li, Xuewen; Zhou, Maigeng; Liu, Qiyong; Ren, Hongyan; Jiang, Baofa

    2014-01-01

    Malaria is a highly climate-sensitive vector-borne infectious disease that still represents a significant public health problem in Huaihe River Basin. However, little comprehensive information about the burden of malaria caused by flooding and waterlogging is available from this region. This study aims to quantitatively assess the impact of flooding and waterlogging on the burden of malaria in a county of Anhui Province, China. A mixed method evaluation was conducted. A case-crossover study was firstly performed to evaluate the relationship between daily number of cases of malaria and flooding and waterlogging from May to October 2007 in Mengcheng County, China. Stratified Cox models were used to examine the lagged time and hazard ratios (HRs) of the risk of flooding and waterlogging on malaria. Years lived with disability (YLDs) of malaria attributable to flooding and waterlogging were then estimated based on the WHO framework of calculating potential impact fraction in the Global Burden of Disease study. A total of 3683 malaria were notified during the study period. The strongest effect was shown with a 25-day lag for flooding and a 7-day lag for waterlogging. Multivariable analysis showed that an increased risk of malaria was significantly associated with flooding alone [adjusted hazard ratio (AHR)  = 1.467, 95% CI = 1.257, 1.713], waterlogging alone (AHR = 1.879, 95% CI = 1.696, 2.121), and flooding and waterlogging together (AHR = 2.926, 95% CI = 2.576, 3.325). YLDs per 1000 of malaria attributable to flooding alone, waterlogging alone and flooding and waterlogging together were 0.009 per day, 0.019 per day and 0.022 per day, respectively. Flooding and waterlogging can lead to higher burden of malaria in the study area. Public health action should be taken to avoid and control a potential risk of malaria epidemics after these two weather disasters.

  16. 7 CFR 650.25 - Flood-plain management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... user how alternative land use decisions may affect the aquatic and terrestial ecosystems, human safety... Flood-plain management. Through proper planning, flood plains can be managed to reduce the threat to... encourages sound flood-plain management decisions by land users. (a) Policy—(1) General. NRCS provides...

  17. Alternative Fuels Data Center: Conventional Natural Gas Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conventional Natural Gas Production to someone by E-mail Share Alternative Fuels Data Center : Conventional Natural Gas Production on Facebook Tweet about Alternative Fuels Data Center: Conventional Natural Gas Production on Twitter Bookmark Alternative Fuels Data Center: Conventional Natural Gas Production

  18. Assessing the value of the ATL13 inland water level product for the Global Flood Partnership

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schumann, G.; Pappenberger, F.; Bates, P. D.; Neal, J. C.; Jasinski, M. F.

    2015-12-01

    This paper reports on the activities and first results of an our ICESat-2 Early Adopter (EA) project for inland water observations. Our team will assess the value of the ICESat-2 water level product using two flood model use cases, one over the California Bay Delta and one over the Niger Inland Delta. Application of the ALT13 product into routine operations will be ensured via an ALT13 database integrated into the pillar "Global Flood Service and Toolbox" (GFST) of the Global Flood Partnership (GFP). GFP is a cooperation framework between scientific organizations and flood disaster managers worldwide to develop flood observational and modelling infrastructure, leveraging on existing initiatives for better predicting and managing flood disaster impacts and flood risk globally. GFP is hosted as an Expert Working Group by the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS). The objective of this EA project is to make the ICESat-2 water level data available to the international GFP community. The EA team believes that the ALT13 product, after successful demonstration of its value in model calibration/validation and monitoring of large floodplain inundation dynamics, should be made easily accessible to the GFP. The GFST will host data outputs and tools from different flood models and for different applications and regions. All these models can benefit from ALT13 if made available to GFP through GFST. Here, we will introduce both test cases and their model setups and report on first preliminary "capabilities" test runs with the Niger model and ICESat-1 as well as radar altimeter data. Based on our results, we will also reflect on expected capabilities and potential of the ICESat-2 mission for river observations.

  19. Production of Biodiesel from Mixed Waste Cooking and Castor Oil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hadiyanto Hadiyanto

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to increasing population growth, the consumption and needs of energy increase significantly. This leads Indonesia government to search alternative energy to cover the lacks of fossil energy reserves. Biodiesel is one of the prospective alternative energy which are renewable and environmental friendly. A common problem in large-scale biodiesel production is the sustainability of feedstock and the biodiesel stability. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the production of biodiesel from two oil sources i.e. waste cooking oil and castor oil. This study examined the effect of mixed oil ratio on yield, biodiesel characteristics and stability. The physical properties included kinematic viscosity, acid number, saponification number, iodine number and cetane number have been evaluated as function of oil ratio. Yield of biodiesel was obtained at 35.07%, 99.2% and 83.69% for jatropha:castor oil ratio of 1: 0, 1: 2 and 2: 1, respectively. Most of these characteristics showed an increase by increasing the oil ratio. The result concluded that at the ratio of 1:1(v/v was the best characteristic and stability.

  20. Satellite-based Flood Modeling Using TRMM-based Rainfall Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Greg Easson

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Increasingly available and a virtually uninterrupted supply of satellite-estimatedrainfall data is gradually becoming a cost-effective source of input for flood predictionunder a variety of circumstances. However, most real-time and quasi-global satelliterainfall products are currently available at spatial scales ranging from 0.25o to 0.50o andhence, are considered somewhat coarse for dynamic hydrologic modeling of basin-scaleflood events. This study assesses the question: what are the hydrologic implications ofuncertainty of satellite rainfall data at the coarse scale? We investigated this question onthe 970 km2 Upper Cumberland river basin of Kentucky. The satellite rainfall productassessed was NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM Multi-satellitePrecipitation Analysis (TMPA product called 3B41RT that is available in pseudo real timewith a latency of 6-10 hours. We observed that bias adjustment of satellite rainfall data canimprove application in flood prediction to some extent with the trade-off of more falsealarms in peak flow. However, a more rational and regime-based adjustment procedureneeds to be identified before the use of satellite data can be institutionalized among floodmodelers.

  1. Productivity responses of Acer rubrum and Taxodium distichum seedlings to elevated CO2 and flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vann, C.D.; Megonigal, J.P.

    2002-01-01

    Elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 are expected to increase photosynthetic rates of C3 tree species, but it is uncertain whether this will result in an increase in wetland seedling productivity. Separate short-term experiments (12 and 17 weeks) were performed on two wetland tree species, Taxodium distichum and Acer rubrum, to determine if elevated CO2 would influence the biomass responses of seedlings to flooding. T. distichum were grown in replicate glasshouses (n = 2) at CO2 concentrations of 350 or 700 ppm, and A. rubrum were grown in growth chambers at CO2 concentrations of 422 or 722 ppm. Both species were grown from seed. The elevated CO2 treatment was crossed with two water table treatments, flooded and non-flooded. Elevated CO2 increased leaf-level photosynthesis, whole-plant photosynthesis, and trunk diameter of T. distichum in both flooding treatments, but did not increase biomass of T. distichum or A. rubrum. Flooding severely reduced biomass, height, and leaf area of both T. distichum and A. rubrum. Our results suggest that the absence of a CO2-induced increase in growth may have been due to an O2 limitation on root production even though there was a relatively deep (??? 10 cm) aerobic soil surface in the non-flooded treatment. ?? 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Flooding and mental health: a systematic mapping review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez, Ana; Black, John; Jones, Mairwen; Wilson, Leigh; Salvador-Carulla, Luis; Astell-Burt, Thomas; Black, Deborah

    2015-01-01

    Floods are the most common type of global natural disaster. Floods have a negative impact on mental health. Comprehensive evaluation and review of the literature are lacking. To systematically map and review available scientific evidence on mental health impacts of floods caused by extended periods of heavy rain in river catchments. We performed a systematic mapping review of published scientific literature in five languages for mixed studies on floods and mental health. PUBMED and Web of Science were searched to identify all relevant articles from 1994 to May 2014 (no restrictions). The electronic search strategy identified 1331 potentially relevant papers. Finally, 83 papers met the inclusion criteria. Four broad areas are identified: i) the main mental health disorders-post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety; ii] the factors associated with mental health among those affected by floods; iii) the narratives associated with flooding, which focuses on the long-term impacts of flooding on mental health as a consequence of the secondary stressors; and iv) the management actions identified. The quantitative and qualitative studies have consistent findings. However, very few studies have used mixed methods to quantify the size of the mental health burden as well as exploration of in-depth narratives. Methodological limitations include control of potential confounders and short-term follow up. Floods following extreme events were excluded from our review. Although the level of exposure to floods has been systematically associated with mental health problems, the paucity of longitudinal studies and lack of confounding controls precludes strong conclusions. We recommend that future research in this area include mixed-method studies that are purposefully designed, using more rigorous methods. Studies should also focus on vulnerable groups and include analyses of policy and practical responses.

  3. Flooding and Mental Health: A Systematic Mapping Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez, Ana; Black, John; Jones, Mairwen; Wilson, Leigh; Salvador-Carulla, Luis; Astell-Burt, Thomas; Black, Deborah

    2015-01-01

    Background Floods are the most common type of global natural disaster. Floods have a negative impact on mental health. Comprehensive evaluation and review of the literature are lacking. Objective To systematically map and review available scientific evidence on mental health impacts of floods caused by extended periods of heavy rain in river catchments. Methods We performed a systematic mapping review of published scientific literature in five languages for mixed studies on floods and mental health. PUBMED and Web of Science were searched to identify all relevant articles from 1994 to May 2014 (no restrictions). Results The electronic search strategy identified 1331 potentially relevant papers. Finally, 83 papers met the inclusion criteria. Four broad areas are identified: i) the main mental health disorders—post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety; ii] the factors associated with mental health among those affected by floods; iii) the narratives associated with flooding, which focuses on the long-term impacts of flooding on mental health as a consequence of the secondary stressors; and iv) the management actions identified. The quantitative and qualitative studies have consistent findings. However, very few studies have used mixed methods to quantify the size of the mental health burden as well as exploration of in-depth narratives. Methodological limitations include control of potential confounders and short-term follow up. Limitations Floods following extreme events were excluded from our review. Conclusions Although the level of exposure to floods has been systematically associated with mental health problems, the paucity of longitudinal studies and lack of confounding controls precludes strong conclusions. Implications We recommend that future research in this area include mixed-method studies that are purposefully designed, using more rigorous methods. Studies should also focus on vulnerable groups and include analyses of policy and practical

  4. On the performance of satellite precipitation products in riverine flood modeling: A review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maggioni, Viviana; Massari, Christian

    2018-03-01

    This work is meant to summarize lessons learned on using satellite precipitation products for riverine flood modeling and to propose future directions in this field of research. Firstly, the most common satellite precipitation products (SPPs) during the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) eras are reviewed. Secondly, we discuss the main errors and uncertainty sources in these datasets that have the potential to affect streamflow and runoff model simulations. Thirdly, past studies that focused on using SPPs for predicting streamflow and runoff are analyzed. As the impact of floods depends not only on the characteristics of the flood itself, but also on the characteristics of the region (population density, land use, geophysical and climatic factors), a regional analysis is required to assess the performance of hydrologic models in monitoring and predicting floods. The performance of SPP-forced hydrological models was shown to largely depend on several factors, including precipitation type, seasonality, hydrological model formulation, topography. Across several basins around the world, the bias in SPPs was recognized as a major issue and bias correction methods of different complexity were shown to significantly reduce streamflow errors. Model re-calibration was also raised as a viable option to improve SPP-forced streamflow simulations, but caution is necessary when recalibrating models with SPP, which may result in unrealistic parameter values. From a general standpoint, there is significant potential for using satellite observations in flood forecasting, but the performance of SPP in hydrological modeling is still inadequate for operational purposes.

  5. A relative permeability model to derive fractional-flow functions of water-alternating-gas and surfactant-alternating-gas foam core-floods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al-Mossawy, Mohammed Idrees; Demiral, Birol; Raja, D M Anwar

    2013-01-01

    Foam is used in enhanced oil recovery to improve the sweep efficiency by controlling the gas mobility. The surfactant-alternating-gas (SAG) foam process is used as an alternative to the water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection. In the WAG technique, the high mobility and the low density of the gas lead the gas to flow in channels through the high permeability zones of the reservoir and to rise to the top of the reservoir by gravity segregation. As a result, the sweep efficiency decreases and there will be more residual oil in the reservoir. The foam can trap the gas in liquid films and reduces the gas mobility. The fractional-flow method describes the physics of immiscible displacements in porous media. Finding the water fractional flow theoretically or experimentally as a function of the water saturation represents the heart of this method. The relative permeability function is the conventional way to derive the fractional-flow function. This study presents an improved relative permeability model to derive the fractional-flow functions for WAG and SAG foam core-floods. The SAG flow regimes are characterized into weak foam, strong foam without a shock front and strong foam with a shock front. (paper)

  6. A system dynamics model to determine products mix

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahtab Hajghasem

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an implementation of system dynamics model to determine appropriate product mix by considering various factors such as labor, materials, overhead, etc. for an Iranian producer of cosmetic and sanitary products. The proposed model of this paper considers three hypotheses including the relationship between product mix and profitability, optimum production capacity and having minimum amount of storage to take advantage of low cost production. The implementation of system dynamics on VENSIM software package has confirmed all three hypotheses of the survey and suggested that in order to reach better mix product, it is necessary to reach optimum production planning, take advantage of all available production capacities and use inventory management techniques.

  7. Joint pattern of seasonal hydrological droughts and floods alternation in China's Huai River Basin using the multivariate L-moments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, ShaoFei; Zhang, Xiang; She, DunXian

    2017-06-01

    Under the current condition of climate change, droughts and floods occur more frequently, and events in which flooding occurs after a prolonged drought or a drought occurs after an extreme flood may have a more severe impact on natural systems and human lives. This challenges the traditional approach wherein droughts and floods are considered separately, which may largely underestimate the risk of the disasters. In our study, the sudden alternation of droughts and flood events (ADFEs) between adjacent seasons is studied using the multivariate L-moments theory and the bivariate copula functions in the Huai River Basin (HRB) of China with monthly streamflow data at 32 hydrological stations from 1956 to 2012. The dry and wet conditions are characterized by the standardized streamflow index (SSI) at a 3-month time scale. The results show that: (1) The summer streamflow makes the largest contribution to the annual streamflow, followed by the autumn streamflow and spring streamflow. (2) The entire study area can be divided into five homogeneous sub-regions using the multivariate regional homogeneity test. The generalized logistic distribution (GLO) and log-normal distribution (LN3) are acceptable to be the optimal marginal distributions under most conditions, and the Frank copula is more appropriate for spring-summer and summer-autumn SSI series. Continuous flood events dominate at most sites both in spring-summer and summer-autumn (with an average frequency of 13.78% and 17.06%, respectively), while continuous drought events come second (with an average frequency of 11.27% and 13.79%, respectively). Moreover, seasonal ADFEs most probably occurred near the mainstream of HRB, and drought and flood events are more likely to occur in summer-autumn than in spring-summer.

  8. Alternative oxidation technologies for organic mixed waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borduin, L.C.; Fewell, T.

    1998-01-01

    The Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA) is currently supporting the development and demonstration of several alternative oxidation technology (AOT) processes for treatment of combustible mixed low-level wastes. AOTs have been defined as technologies that destroy organic material without using open-flame reactions. AOTs include both thermal and nonthermal processes that oxidize organic wastes but operate under significantly different physical and chemical conditions than incinerators. Nonthermal processes currently being studied include Delphi DETOX and acid digestion at the Savannah River Site (SRS), and direct chemical oxidation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). All three technologies are at advanced stages of development or are entering the demonstration phase. Nonflame thermal processes include catalytic chemical oxidation, which is being developed and deployed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and steam reforming, a commercial process being supported by the Department of Energy (DOE). Although testing is complete on some AOT technologies, most require additional support to complete some or all of the identified development objectives. Brief descriptions, status, and planned paths forward for each of the technologies are presented

  9. Investigation of Flooding Water Depth Management on Yield and Quality Indices of Rice Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamid Reza Salemi

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Water crisis as a majorlimitation factor for agriculture, like other arid and semiarid regions exists in Isfahan province which is located in the central part of the Zayandehrud River Basin (ZRB. Rice appears to be the far-most profitable crop but at the same time it has a major impact on basin scale water resources, especially affecting downstream farmers. In the study area (ShahidFozveh Research Station, the water resources for agricultural production face heightened competition from other sectors like industry and domestic use. This necessitates considering different crops, altered agricultural systems and innovative methods that can reduce the water requirements for the irrigation of rice. The Alternative Wetting and Drying (AWD seems to be an effective method reducing water use for rice crops and possibly save the water for downstream users. There have been no qualitative evaluations of rice production under deficit irrigation practices in Isfahan area. This study sought to determine, under study area conditions, the quantities of water irrigation used with AWD practices, the resulting water productivity (WP and the effects of alternative irrigation management on yield, quality indices and rice production performance. Materials and Methods: The ZRB (41,500 km2 is a closed basin with no outlet to the sea. The research was conducted in the Qahderijan region of Isfahan province, which is located in the central part of the ZRB. The ShahidFozveh Agricultural Research Station (32°, 36’ N, 51°, 36’ E is located at the altitude of 1612 m above the sea level. In order to improve WP and illustration of the impact of various levels of flooding depth on grain yield and quality indices at rice production, a field experiment (3000 m2 was conducted at ShahidFozveh Research Station for 2 years arranged in a split plot design with three replications. It will be necessary to use different scenario of water flooding depth management to

  10. Characterizing Global Flood Wave Travel Times to Optimize the Utility of Near Real-Time Satellite Remote Sensing Products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allen, G. H.; David, C. H.; Andreadis, K. M.; Emery, C. M.; Famiglietti, J. S.

    2017-12-01

    Earth observing satellites provide valuable near real-time (NRT) information about flood occurrence and magnitude worldwide. This NRT information can be used in early flood warning systems and other flood management applications to save lives and mitigate flood damage. However, these NRT products are only useful to early flood warning systems if they are quickly made available, with sufficient time for flood mitigation actions to be implemented. More specifically, NRT data latency, or the time period between the satellite observation and when the user has access to the information, must be less than the time it takes a flood to travel from the flood observation location to a given downstream point of interest. Yet the paradigm that "lower latency is always better" may not necessarily hold true in river systems due to tradeoffs between data latency and data quality. Further, the existence of statistical breaks in the global distribution of flood wave travel time (i.e. a jagged statistical distribution) would represent preferable latencies for river-observation NRT remote sensing products. Here we present a global analysis of flood wave velocity (i.e. flow celerity) and travel time. We apply a simple kinematic wave model to a global hydrography dataset and calculate flow wave celerity and travel time during bankfull flow conditions. Bankfull flow corresponds to the condition of maximum celerity and thus we present the "worst-case scenario" minimum flow wave travel time. We conduct a similar analysis with respect to the time it takes flood waves to reach the next downstream city, as well as the next downstream reservoir. Finally, we conduct these same analyses, but with regards to the technical capabilities of the planned Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission, which is anticipated to provide waterbody elevation and extent measurements at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. We validate these results with discharge records from paired

  11. A new refillable Cobalt-57 flood phantom to measure camera uniformity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dias-Neto, A.; Silva, C.P.G. da; Osso, J.

    1997-01-01

    Full text: The system uniformity of a scintillation camera is assessed using an extended Tc-99m source: a well constructed flood phantom, filled with a solution of Tc-99m pertechnetate, that does not bulge and is well mixed. A convenient substitute is a commercial solid Co-57 sheet source, which is expensive (5k-10k USS), has a relative short life-span (1,5 - 2 years), and, may not be quite uniform. As an alternative, an inexpensive fillable Co-57 flood source is presented. For pilot testing, a plastic flood phantom was filled with a solution of Co-57 chloride produced by IPEN's cyclotron. Special filling plugs with O-rings were used to avoid any leakage. High count uniformity images, using a low-energy high-resolution collimator and 15% energy windows, were obtained with the fillable Co-57 source, a commercial Co-57 sheet source, and a Tc-99 source. The data were compared visually and quantified with the NEMA uniformity parameters. The fillable Co-57 source compared favourably with the other sources. A shock-proof flood phantom is at present under development. This phantom is intended to be refilled annually with Co-57, at a fraction of the cost of a commercial sheet source. (authors)

  12. Productivity growth in outpatient child and adolescent mental health services: the impact of case-mix adjustment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halsteinli, Vidar; Kittelsen, Sverre A; Magnussen, Jon

    2010-02-01

    The performance of health service providers may be monitored by measuring productivity. However, the policy value of such measures may depend crucially on the accuracy of input and output measures. In particular, an important question is how to adjust adequately for case-mix in the production of health care. In this study, we assess productivity growth in Norwegian outpatient child and adolescent mental health service units (CAMHS) over a period characterized by governmental utilization of simple productivity indices, a substantial increase in capacity and a concurrent change in case-mix. We analyze the sensitivity of the productivity growth estimates using different specifications of output to adjust for case-mix differences. Case-mix adjustment is achieved by distributing patients into eight groups depending on reason for referral, age and gender, as well as correcting for the number of consultations. We utilize the nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to implicitly calculate weights that maximize each unit's efficiency. Malmquist indices of technical productivity growth are estimated and bootstrap procedures are performed to calculate confidence intervals and to test alternative specifications of outputs. The dataset consist of an unbalanced panel of 48-60 CAMHS in the period 1998-2006. The mean productivity growth estimate from a simple unadjusted patient model (one single output) is 35%; adjusting for case-mix (eight outputs) reduces the growth estimate to 15%. Adding consultations increases the estimate to 28%. The latter reflects an increase in number of consultations per patient. We find that the governmental productivity indices strongly tend to overestimate productivity growth. Case-mix adjustment is of major importance and governmental utilization of performance indicators necessitates careful considerations of output specifications. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Study of flood defense structural measures priorities using Compromise Programming technique

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, D.; Jeong, S.

    2017-12-01

    Recent climate change of global warming has led to the frequent occurrence of heavy regional rainfalls. As such, inundation vulnerability increases in urban areas with high population density due to the low runoff carrying capacity. This study selects a sample area (Janghang-eup, the Republic of Korea), which is one of the most vulnerable areas to flooding, analyzing the urban flood runoff model (XP-SWMM) and using the MCDM (Multi-Criteria Decision Making) technique to establish flood protection structural measures. To this end, we compare the alternatives and choose the optimal flood defense measure: our model is utilized with three flood prevention structural measures; (i) drainage pipe construction; (ii) water detention; and (iii) flood pumping station. Dividing the target area into three small basins, we propose flood evaluations for an inundation decrease by studying the flooded area, the maximum inundation depth, the damaged residential area, and the construction cost. In addition, Compromise Programming determines the priority of the alternatives. As a consequent, this study suggests flood pumping station for Zone 1 and drainage pipe construction for Zone 2 and Zone 3, respectively, as the optimal flood defense alternative. Keywords : MCDM; Compromise Programming; Urban Flood Prevention; This research was supported by a grant [MPSS-DP-2013-62] through the Disaster and Safety Management Institute funded by Ministry of Public Safety and Security of Korean government.

  14. Chaotic fluid mixing by alternating microparticle topologies to enhance biochemical reactions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gao, Y.; Reenen, van A.; Hulsen, M.A.; Jong, de A.M.; Prins, M.W.J.; Toonder, den J.M.J.

    2014-01-01

    We report experimental results on chaotic mass transport induced by alternating topological changes of magnetic particle chains actuated by a rotating magnetic field. Results on the induced fluid flows, through particle tracing experiments and mixing experiments, are obtained for (1) the regime of

  15. Absorption of gamma-emitting fission products and activation products by rice under flooded and unflooded conditions from two tropical soils

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Souza, T.J.; Mistry, K.B.

    1980-01-01

    The absorption of gamma-emitting fission products 106 Ru, 125 Sb, 137 Cs and 144 Ce and activation products 59 Fe, 58 Co, 54 Mn and 65 Zn by rice plants grown on two contrasting tropical soils, namely, a blak soil (pellustert) and a laterite (oxisol), and the effects of flooding were studied under controlled conditions. Results indicated greater uptake of 106 Ru and 125 Sb from the black soil than from the laterite. In contrast, the uptake of 144 Ce and 137 Cs was greater in the laterite than in the black soil. Flooding treatment enhanced the uptake of all these fission products by rice plants in the laterite soil whereas this effect was observed only for 125 Sb and 137 Cs in the black soil. The plant uptake of activation products from the two soil types showed maximum accumulation of 65 Zn followed by 54 Mn, 59 Fe and 58 Co in both soil types. Besides, uptake of these nuclides was greater from the laterite soil than from the black soil. Flooding treatment for rice while showing a reduction of 59 Fe uptake showed an increase in plant uptake of 58 Co, 54 Mn and 65 Zn in both soil types. (orig.)

  16. Towards a better understanding of flood generation and surface water inundation mechanisms using NASA remote sensing data products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucey, J.; Reager, J. T., II; Lopez, S. R.

    2017-12-01

    Floods annually cause several weather-related fatalities and financial losses. According to NOAA and FEMA, there were 43 deaths and 18 billion dollars paid out in flood insurance policies during 2005. The goal of this work is to improve flood prediction and flood risk assessment by creating a general model of predictability of extreme runoff generation using various NASA products. Using satellite-based flood inundation observations, we can relate surface water formation processes to changes in other hydrological variables, such as precipitation, storage and soil moisture, and understand how runoff generation response to these forcings is modulated by local topography and land cover. Since it is known that a flood event would cause an abnormal increase in surface water, we examine these underlying physical relationships in comparison with the Dartmouth Flood Observatory archive of historic flood events globally. Using ground water storage observations (GRACE), precipitation (TRMM or GPCP), land use (MODIS), elevation (SRTM) and surface inundation levels (SWAMPS), an assessment of geological and climate conditions can be performed for any location around the world. This project utilizes multiple linear regression analysis evaluating the relationship between surface water inundation, total water storage anomalies and precipitation values, grouped by average slope or land use, to determine their statistical relationships and influences on inundation data. This research demonstrates the potential benefits of using global data products for early flood prediction and will improve our understanding of runoff generation processes.

  17. FEMA 100 year Flood Data

    Data.gov (United States)

    California Natural Resource Agency — The Q3 Flood Data product is a digital representation of certain features of FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) product, intended for use with desktop mapping...

  18. Use of alternative product in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahmut Dulger

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Some of the patients with chronic hepatitis use both alternative product and/or antiviral treatment. These herbal products sometimes lead to clinical deterioration. In this study we aimed to determine the purpose of alternative product utilization and rate among the chronic hepatitis B (CHB and C (CHC patients. Methods: This prospective cohort study included 200 consecutive adult patients with chronic hepatitis B and C at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Ondokuz Mayis University, between 1 March 2012 and 30 July 2012. At enrollment, clinical information, demographics, laboratory variables and knowledge about alternative products were recorded. Results: Of the patients 150 had CHB, 50 had CHC. 54% of patients were male. Use of alternative products was 26%. Antiviral treatment rate was 48.5% for all patients. The most used alternative products were artichoke extract and honey. 67.3% of patients were using single alternative product whereas the others were using two or more alternative products. 46.2% of patients who use alternative product provided information about the alternative product usage, but the others did not. Conclusions: Majority of patients used alternative products. More than half of these patients did not give information to their physicians about their use of alternative medicine. Use of alternative product should be asked in all patients with chronic hepatitis. Herbal product usage was detected in majority of patients and also approximately half of these patients did not give information to their doctors about taking alternative medicine. In conclusion, it is necessary to take detailed information about herbal product usage in patients with chronic hepatitis. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2014; 4(3: 102-106

  19. Global Near Real-Time MODIS and Landsat Flood Mapping and Product Delivery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Policelli, F. S.; Slayback, D. A.; Tokay, M. M.; Brakenridge, G. R.

    2014-12-01

    flood event. These data products are provided in various formats on our website, and also via live OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) services, and ArcGIS Online accessible web maps, allowing easy access from a variety of platforms, from desktop GIS software to web browsers on mobile phones. https://oas.gsfc.nasa.gov/floodmap

  20. Absorption of gamma-emitting fission products and activation products by rice under flooded and unflooded conditions from two tropical soils

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    D' Souza, T J; Mistry, K B [Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay (India). Biology and Agriculture Div.

    1980-01-01

    The absorption of gamma-emitting fission products /sup 106/Ru, /sup 125/Sb, /sup 137/Cs and /sup 144/Ce and activation products /sup 59/Fe, /sup 58/Co, /sup 54/Mn and /sup 65/Zn by rice plants grown on two contrasting tropical soils, namely, a blak soil (pellustert) and a laterite (oxisol), and the effects of flooding were studied under controlled conditions. Results indicated greater uptake of /sup 106/Ru and /sup 125/Sb from the black soil than from the laterite. In contrast, the uptake of /sup 144/Ce and /sup 137/Cs was greater in the laterite than in the black soil. Flooding treatment enhanced the uptake of all these fission products by rice plants in the laterite soil whereas this effect was observed only for /sup 125/Sb and /sup 137/Cs in the black soil. The plant uptake of activation products from the two soil types showed maximum accumulation of /sup 65/Zn followed by /sup 54/Mn, /sup 59/Fe and /sup 58/Co in both soil types. Besides, uptake of these nuclides was greater from the laterite soil than from the black soil. Flooding treatment for rice while showing a reduction of /sup 59/Fe uptake showed an increase in plant uptake of /sup 58/Co, /sup 54/Mn and /sup 65/Zn in both soil types.

  1. An Experimental Study of Surfactant Alternating CO2 Injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery of Carbonated Reservoir

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asghar Gandomkar

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Core flooding experiments were conducted with the objective of evaluating near miscible surfactant alternating CO2 injection and the effect of surfactant concentrations on gas-oil and water displacements in porous media. The core samples were provided from a low permeability mixed wet oil reservoir at 156 °F and 1900 psia. In addition, very few studies of surfactant adsorption on carbonate minerals have been conducted. Hence, the surfactant adsorption on carbonate rock was determined by core flooding and crushed tests. It was found that for the crushed rock, the required equilibrium time is approximately five hours, while it is more than four days for the flow-through tests. Hysteresis effects demonstrated that the irreducible water saturations were 5 to 10% higher than the initial connate water saturation after drainage cycles during 5000 ppm surfactant solution. Furthermore, near-miscible surfactant alternating CO2 injection process led to a 4-17% increase in the recovery factor in comparison to water alternating gas process.

  2. Modeling Flood Plain Hydrology and Forest Productivity of Congaree Swamp, South Carolina

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doyle, Thomas W.

    2009-01-01

    tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), green ash (Fraxinus pennslyvanica), laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia), swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii), and sycamore (Plantanus occidentalis) within Congaree Swamp in highand low-elevation sites characteristic of shorter and longer flood duration and related to upriver flood controls and dam operation. Ring counts and dating indicated that all loblolly pine trees and nearly all baldcypress collections in this study are postsettlement recruits and old-growth cohorts, dating from 100 to 300 years in age. Most hardwood species and trees cored for age analysis were less than 100 years old, demonstrating robust growth and high site quality. Growth chronologies of loblolly pine and baldcypress exhibited positive and negative inflections over the last century that corresponded with climate history and residual effects of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Stemwood production on average was less for trees and species on sites with longer flood retention and hydroperiod affected more by groundwater seepage and site elevation than river floods. Water level data provided evidence that stream regulation and operations of the Saluda Dam (post-1934) have actually increased the average daily water stage in the Congaree River. There was no difference in tree growth response by species or hydrogeomorphic setting to predam and postdam flood conditions and river stage. Climate-growth analysis showed that long-term growth variation is controlled more by spring/ summer temperatures in loblolly pine and by spring/summer precipitation in baldcypress than flooding history.

  3. Flooded native pastures of the northern region of the Pantanal of Mato Grosso: biomass and primary productivity variations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. G. Pozer

    Full Text Available The Pantanal comprises a number of landscape units, submitted to a flood pulse with variable intensity or regularity. One of these units, the flooded plains, is important in cattle raising. This study was carried out in the northern portion of the Pantanal and presents data related to the productive dynamics of the flooded native pastures both protected from and exposed to cattle. The greatest total biomass values were for the protected pasture due to accumulated dead biomass. Net primary production presented smaller values at the flood-season start and increasing gradually beginning in the subsequent rainy season. However, consumption by cattle was also more intense during the months of greater precipitation. The effect of cattle in pastures is of fundamental importance to management since it prevents the dead biomass excess that increases fire risks.

  4. Technology mix alternatives with high shares of wind power and photovoltaics—case study for Spain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zubi, Ghassan

    2011-01-01

    The shift to a low carbon society is an issue of highest priority in the EU. For electricity generation, such a target counts with three main alternatives: renewable energies, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage. This paper focuses on the renewables’ alternative. Due to resource availability, a technology mix with a high share of PV and wind power is gaining increasing interest as a major solution for several EU member states and in part for the EU collectively to achieve decarbonization and energy security with acceptable costs. Due to their intermittency, the integration of high shares of PV and wind power in the electricity supply is challenging. This paper presents a techno-economic assessment of technology mix alternatives with a high share of PV and wind power in Spain, as an example. Thereby, the focus is on the option of increasing wind curtailment versus substituting rigid baseload generation in favor of the more flexible gas turbines and combined cycle gas turbines. - Highlights: ► The potential of power generation from renewable energy resources in the EU is illustrated. ► The LEC of the different technologies considered is calculated for today and future scenarios. ► An excel-based model for the technology mix assessment is applied using Spanish data. ► Technology mix alternatives with a high share of PV and wind power are assessed. ► The focus is on increasing wind curtailment vs. relying on more flexible power generation units.

  5. Hurricane coastal flood analysis using multispectral spectral images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ogashawara, I.; Ferreira, C.; Curtarelli, M. P.

    2013-12-01

    Flooding is one of the main hazards caused by extreme events such as hurricanes and tropical storms. Therefore, flood maps are a crucial tool to support policy makers, environmental managers and other government agencies for emergency management, disaster recovery and risk reduction planning. However traditional flood mapping methods rely heavily on the interpolation of hydrodynamic models results, and most recently, the extensive collection of field data. These methods are time-consuming, labor intensive, and costly. Efficient and fast response alternative methods should be developed in order to improve flood mapping, and remote sensing has been proved as a valuable tool for this application. Our goal in this paper is to introduce a novel technique based on spectral analysis in order to aggregate knowledge and information to map coastal flood areas. For this purpose we used the Normalized Diference Water Index (NDWI) which was derived from two the medium resolution LANDSAT/TM 5 surface reflectance product from the LANDSAT climate data record (CDR). This product is generated from specialized software called Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS). We used the surface reflectance products acquired before and after the passage of Hurricane Ike for East Texas in September of 2008. We used as end member a classification of estimated flooded area based on the United States Geological Survey (USGS) mobile storm surge network that was deployed for Hurricane Ike. We used a dataset which consisted of 59 water levels recording stations. The estimated flooded area was delineated interpolating the maximum surge in each location using a spline with barriers method with high tension and a 30 meter Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from the National Elevation Dataset (NED). Our results showed that, in the flooded area, the NDWI values decreased after the hurricane landfall on average from 0.38 to 0.18 and the median value decreased from 0.36 to 0.2. However

  6. Alternative Tobacco Product Use and Smoking Cessation: A National Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Popova, Lucy

    2013-01-01

    Objectives. We investigated the frequency of alternative tobacco product use (loose leaf, moist snuff, snus, dissolvables, electronic cigarettes [e-cigarettes]) among smokers and the association with quit attempts and intentions. Methods. A nationally representative probability-based cross-sectional survey of 1836 current or recently former adult smokers was completed in November 2011. Multivariate logistic regressions evaluated associations between alternative tobacco product use and smoking cessation behaviors. Results. Of the smokers, 38% had tried an alternative tobacco product, most frequently e-cigarettes. Alternative tobacco product use was associated with having made a quit attempt, and those intending to quit were significantly more likely to have tried and to currently use the products than were smokers with no intentions to quit. Use was not associated with successful quit attempts. Interest in future use of alternative tobacco products was low, except for e-cigarettes. Conclusions. Alternative tobacco products are attractive to smokers who want to quit smoking, but these data did not indicate that alternative tobacco products promote cessation. Unsubstantiated overt and implied claims that alternative tobacco products aid smoking cessation should be prohibited. PMID:23488521

  7. Assessment of Remote Sensing Products and Hydrologic Simulation of the 2016 Louisiana Flood in the Amite River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, S.; Bilskie, M. V.; Hagen, S. C.; Braud, D.

    2017-12-01

    Riverine and coastal flooding are one of the most common environmental hazards that affect millions of people around the world. For example, in August 2016, a slow-moving upper level low-pressure system with a high amount of atmospheric moisture brought heavy rains from August 11 to August 13. The torrential downpours led to widespread flash flooding and river flooding across multiple parishes in Southeast Louisiana and Southwest Mississippi (NWS, 2016; Watson et al., 2017). Precipitation totals as high as 26 inches were recorded during the two-day event. A Louisiana Economic Development report documented that the state of Louisiana suffered more than eight billion dollars in damage from the catastrophic flooding (LED, 2016). According to the National Weather Service (NWS) in New Orleans, the rainfall caused the Amite River, Comite River, Tangipahoa River and Tickfaw River to rise to record-setting levels. Some of the most serious flooding occurred along the Amite River, which runs between Baton Rouge and the nearby city of Denham Springs, and has its headwaters in southwestern Mississippi and drains into Lake Maurepas (Mossa et al., 1997). To develop an understanding of the driving mechanisms that caused the catastrophic flooding a campaign was initiated to collect and rigorously examine all possible remote sensing products in order to derive the flooding extent and depth within the Amite River basin. In addition, a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) has been developed for the Amite River watershed to simulate runoff from the 2016 Louisiana flood event. The developed and assimilated remote sensing and modeling products will enhance understanding of the hydrological processes within the Amite River basin. This will provide further insight into conceptualization of flood risk across river deltas that are vulnerable to both riverine and coastal flooding. Reference:LED. (2016). The economic impact of the august 2016 floods on the state of Louisiana. Mossa, J., & Mc

  8. Spillways Scheduling for Flood Control of Three Gorges Reservoir Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maoyuan Feng

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This study proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP model to optimize the spillways scheduling for reservoir flood control. Unlike the conventional reservoir operation model, the proposed MILP model specifies the spillways status (including the number of spillways to be open and the degree of the spillway opened instead of reservoir release, since the release is actually controlled by using the spillway. The piecewise linear approximation is used to formulate the relationship between the reservoir storage and water release for a spillway, which should be open/closed with a status depicted by a binary variable. The control order and symmetry rules of spillways are described and incorporated into the constraints for meeting the practical demand. Thus, a MILP model is set up to minimize the maximum reservoir storage. The General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS and IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio (CPLEX software are used to find the optimal solution for the proposed MILP model. The China’s Three Gorges Reservoir, whose spillways are of five types with the total number of 80, is selected as the case study. It is shown that the proposed model decreases the flood risk compared with the conventional operation and makes the operation more practical by specifying the spillways status directly.

  9. 21 CFR 184.1027 - Mixed carbohydrase and protease enzyme product.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Mixed carbohydrase and protease enzyme product. 184... RECOGNIZED AS SAFE Listing of Specific Substances Affirmed as GRAS § 184.1027 Mixed carbohydrase and protease enzyme product. (a) Mixed carbohydrase and protease enzyme product is an enzyme preparation that includes...

  10. Lipid production by pure and mixed cultures of Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa isolated in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reyna-Martínez, Raúl; Gomez-Flores, Ricardo; López-Chuken, Ulrico J; González-González, Rosario; Fernández-Delgadillo, Sergio; Balderas-Rentería, Isaias

    2015-01-01

    Given the well-known environmental drawbacks of using fossil fuels, advances in the field of alternative energy have become a worldwide technological priority. Special interest has been focused on the production of biodiesel obtained from oleaginous microorganisms. In the present research, lipid production by two species, microalgae Chlorella pyrenoidosa and yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa was assessed, independently and in mixed culture to evaluate a possible synergy. Fatty acid analysis was performed by gas chromatography. Among pure and mixed cultures of both strains and several culturing conditions, the highest biomass and lipid productivity was obtained by C. pyrenoidosa (8.05 and 1.62 g/L, respectively). The results of this study showed that both strains used are in fact oleaginous strains as they were found to reach up to 20 % of lipids, in addition, lipids in both pure and mixed cultures were mainly of triglycerides (>90 %), composed of fatty acid chains between 16 and 18 carbons.

  11. The land use potential of flood-prone rice fields using floating rice system in Bojonegoro regency in East Java

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irianto, H.; Mujiyo; Riptanti, E. W.; Qonita, A.

    2018-03-01

    Bojonegoro regency occupies the largest flood-prone rice fields of about 14,198 hectares, in East Java province. Floods commonly occur due to Bengawan Solo river over-burst, particularly in rainy season. The fields are potential for cultivating rice, but floods lasting for months causing these areas to be unproductive. The objective of this article is to examine the potential land use of flood prone rice fields in Bojonegoro regency using floating rice system as an effort to maintain productivity in rainy season. The method of this study is referential study about the rice production using floating cultivation system in other regions, which are later compared with the physical condition of the fields in Bojonegoro. The results of analysis show that rice cultivation using floating system can maintain rice production in flood prone areas during rainy season. The potential production of rice is 5-6 tons/ha. However, technical problems for cultivating rice cannot be ignored since farmers are not familiar with cultivating flooded fields. This article also explains alternatives of floating rice cultivation technique, which can be implemented effectively and efficiently. Pioneer work of developing floating rice in Bojonegoro that has been done by the Team of Faculty of Agriculture of UNS, Surakarta, is expected to serve as a medium for accelerating the adoption of cultivation technology innovation to farmers.

  12. The Global Flood Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, P.; Huddelston, M.; Michel, G.; Thompson, S.; Heynert, K.; Pickering, C.; Abbott Donnelly, I.; Fewtrell, T.; Galy, H.; Sperna Weiland, F.; Winsemius, H.; Weerts, A.; Nixon, S.; Davies, P.; Schiferli, D.

    2012-04-01

    Recently, a Global Flood Model (GFM) initiative has been proposed by Willis, UK Met Office, Esri, Deltares and IBM. The idea is to create a global community platform that enables better understanding of the complexities of flood risk assessment to better support the decisions, education and communication needed to mitigate flood risk. The GFM will provide tools for assessing the risk of floods, for devising mitigation strategies such as land-use changes and infrastructure improvements, and for enabling effective pre- and post-flood event response. The GFM combines humanitarian and commercial motives. It will benefit: - The public, seeking to preserve personal safety and property; - State and local governments, seeking to safeguard economic activity, and improve resilience; - NGOs, similarly seeking to respond proactively to flood events; - The insurance sector, seeking to understand and price flood risk; - Large corporations, seeking to protect global operations and supply chains. The GFM is an integrated and transparent set of modules, each composed of models and data. For each module, there are two core elements: a live "reference version" (a worked example) and a framework of specifications, which will allow development of alternative versions. In the future, users will be able to work with the reference version or substitute their own models and data. If these meet the specification for the relevant module, they will interoperate with the rest of the GFM. Some "crowd-sourced" modules could even be accredited and published to the wider GFM community. Our intent is to build on existing public, private and academic work, improve local adoption, and stimulate the development of multiple - but compatible - alternatives, so strengthening mankind's ability to manage flood impacts. The GFM is being developed and managed by a non-profit organization created for the purpose. The business model will be inspired from open source software (eg Linux): - for non-profit usage

  13. A preliminary evaluation of alternatives for disposal of INEL low-level waste and low-level mixed waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, T.H.; Roesener, W.S.; Jorgenson-Waters, M.J.

    1993-07-01

    The Mixed and Low-Level Waste Disposal Facility (MLLWDF) project was established in 1992 by the US Department of Energy Idaho Operations Office to provide enhanced disposal capabilities for Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) low-level mixed waste and low-level waste. This Preliminary Evaluation of Alternatives for Disposal of INEL Low-Level Waste and Low-Level Mixed Waste identifies and evaluates-on a preliminary, overview basis-the alternatives for disposal of that waste. Five disposal alternatives, ranging from of no-action'' to constructing and operating the MLLWDF, are identified and evaluated. Several subalternatives are formulated within the MLLWDF alternative. The subalternatives involve various disposal technologies as well as various scenarios related to the waste volumes and waste forms to be received for disposal. The evaluations include qualitative comparisons of the projected isolation performance for each alternative, and facility, health and safety, environmental, institutional, schedule, and rough order-of-magnitude life-cycle cost comparisons. The performance of each alternative is evaluated against lists of ''musts'' and ''wants.'' Also included is a discussion of other key considerations for decisionmaking. The analysis of results indicated further study is necessary to obtain the best estimate of long-term future waste volume and characteristics from the INEL Environmental Restoration activities and the expanded INEL Decontamination and Decommissioning Program

  14. DOE evaluates nine alternative thermal technologies for treatment of mixed waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1995-01-01

    In June 1993, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Technology Development commissioned a study to evaluate 19 thermal technologies for treating DOE's mixed waste. The study was divided into two phases: Phase I evaluated ten conventional incineration techniques (primarily rotary kiln), and Phase II looked at nine innovative, alternative thermal treatment technologies. The treatment processes were evaluated as part of an integrated waste treatment system, which would include all of the facilities, equipment, and methods required to treat and dispose DOE mixed waste. The relative merits and life-cycle costs were then developed for each of the 19 waste treatment systems evaluated. The study also identified the additional research and development, demonstration, and testing/evaluation steps that would be necessary for the waste treatment systems to successfully treat DOE mixed waste. 3 tabs., 2 refs

  15. Structural master plan of flood mitigation measures

    OpenAIRE

    A. Heidari

    2009-01-01

    Flood protection is one of the practical methods in damage reduction. Although it not possible to be completely protected from flood disaster but major part of damages can be reduced by mitigation plans. In this paper, the optimum flood mitigation master plan is determined by economic evaluation in trading off between the construction costs and expected value of damage reduction as the benefits. Size of the certain mitigation alternative is also be obtained by risk analysis by accepting possi...

  16. Interconnected ponds operation for flood hazard distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Putra, S. S.; Ridwan, B. W.

    2016-05-01

    The climatic anomaly, which comes with extreme rainfall, will increase the flood hazard in an area within a short period of time. The river capacity in discharging the flood is not continuous along the river stretch and sensitive to the flood peak. This paper contains the alternatives on how to locate the flood retention pond that are physically feasible to reduce the flood peak. The flood ponds were designed based on flood curve number criteria (TR-55, USDA) with the aim of rapid flood peak capturing and gradual flood retuning back to the river. As a case study, the hydrologic condition of upper Ciliwung river basin with several presumed flood pond locations was conceptually designed. A fundamental tank model that reproducing the operation of interconnected ponds was elaborated to achieve the designed flood discharge that will flows to the downstream area. The flood hazard distribution status, as the model performance criteria, will be computed within Ciliwung river reach in Manggarai Sluice Gate spot. The predicted hazard reduction with the operation of the interconnected retention area result had been bench marked with the normal flow condition.

  17. Linking phenology and biomass productivity in South Dakota mixed-grass prairie

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rigge, Matthew; Smart, Alexander; Wylie, Bruce; Gilmanov, Tagir; Johnson, Patricia

    2013-01-01

    Assessing the health of rangeland ecosystems based solely on annual biomass production does not fully describe plant community condition; the phenology of production can provide inferences on species composition, successional stage, and grazing impacts. We evaluate the productivity and phenology of western South Dakota mixed-grass prairie using 2000 to 2008 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) satellite imagery at 250 m spatial resolution. Growing season NDVI images were integrated weekly to produce time-integrated NDVI (TIN), a proxy of total annual biomass production, and integrated seasonally to represent annual production by cool (C3) and warm (C4) season species. Additionally, a variety of phenological indicators including cool season percentage of TIN were derived from the seasonal profiles of NDVI. Cool season percentage and TIN were combined to generate vegetation classes, which served as proxies of plant community condition. TIN decreased with precipitation from east to west across the study area. Alternatively, cool season percentage increased from east to west, following patterns related to the reliability (interannual coefficient of variation [CV]) and quantity of mid-summer precipitation. Cool season TIN averaged 76.8% of total. Seasonal accumulation of TIN corresponded closely (R2 > 0.90) to that of gross photosynthesis data from a carbon flux tower. Field-collected biomass and community composition data were strongly related to the TIN and cool season percentage products. The patterns of vegetation classes were responsive to topographic, edaphic, and land management influences on plant communities. Accurate maps of biomass production, cool/warm season composition, and vegetation classes can improve the efficiency of land management by adjusting stocking rates and season of use to maximize rangeland productivity and achieve conservation objectives. Further, our results clarify the spatial and

  18. Flooding and Flood Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, K.N.; Fallon, J.D.; Lorenz, D.L.; Stark, J.R.; Menard, Jason; Easter, K.W.; Perry, Jim

    2011-01-01

    Floods result in great human disasters globally and nationally, causing an average of $4 billion of damages each year in the United States. Minnesota has its share of floods and flood damages, and the state has awarded nearly $278 million to local units of government for flood mitigation projects through its Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Since 1995, flood mitigation in the Red River Valley has exceeded $146 million. Considerable local and state funding has been provided to manage and mitigate problems of excess stormwater in urban areas, flooding of farmlands, and flood damages at road crossings. The cumulative costs involved with floods and flood mitigation in Minnesota are not known precisely, but it is safe to conclude that flood mitigation is a costly business. This chapter begins with a description of floods in Minneosta to provide examples and contrasts across the state. Background material is presented to provide a basic understanding of floods and flood processes, predication, and management and mitigation. Methods of analyzing and characterizing floods are presented because they affect how we respond to flooding and can influence relevant practices. The understanding and perceptions of floods and flooding commonly differ among those who work in flood forecasting, flood protection, or water resource mamnagement and citizens and businesses affected by floods. These differences can become magnified following a major flood, pointing to the need for better understanding of flooding as well as common language to describe flood risks and the uncertainty associated with determining such risks. Expectations of accurate and timely flood forecasts and our ability to control floods do not always match reality. Striving for clarity is important in formulating policies that can help avoid recurring flood damages and costs.

  19. Effects of flood control alternatives on fish and wildlife resources of the Malheur-Harney lakes basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, David B.; Auble, Gregor T.; Ellison, Richard A.; Roelle, James E.

    1985-01-01

    Malheur Lake is the largest freshwater marsh in the western contiguous United States and is one of the main management units of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. The marsh provides excellent waterfowl production habitat as well as vital migration habitats for birds in the Pacific flyway. Water shortages have typically been a problem in this semiarid area; however, record snowfalls and cool summers have recently caused Malheur Lake to rise to its highest level in recorded history. This has resulted in the loss of approximately 57,000 acres of important wildlife habitat as well as extensive flooding of local ranches, roads, and railroad lines. Because of the importance of the Refuge, any water management plan for the Malheur-Harney Lakes Basin needs to consider the impact of management alternatives on the hydrology of Malheur Lake. The facilitated modeling workshop described in this report was conducted January 14-18, 1985, under the joint sponsorship of the Portland Ecological Services Field Office and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Region 1, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The Portland Field Office is responsible for FWS reporting requirements on Federal water resource projects while the Refuge staff has management responsibility for much of the land affected by high water levels in the Malheur-Harney Lakes Basin. The primary objective of the workshop was to begin gathering and analyzing information concerning potential fish and wildlife impacts, needs, and opportunities associated with proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) flood control alternatives for Malheur Lake. The workshop was structured around the formulation of a computer model that would simulate the hydrologic effects of the various alternatives and any concommitant changes in vegetation communities and wildlife use patterns. The simulation model is composed of three connected submodels. The Hydrology submodel calculates changes in lake volume, elevation

  20. Development of a mixed-conductive ceramic membrane for syngas production; Developpement d'une membrane ceramique conductrice mixte pour la production de gaz de synthese

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Etchegoyen, G

    2005-10-15

    Natural gas conversion into syngas (H{sub 2}+CO) is very attractive for hydrogen and clean fuel production via GTL technology by providing an alternative to oil products and reducing greenhouse gas emission. Syngas production, using a mixed ionic-electronic conducting ceramic membrane, is thought to be particularly promising. The purpose of this PhD thesis was to develop this type of membrane. Mixed-conducting oxide was synthesized, characterized and then, shaped via tape casting and co-sintered in order to obtain multilayer membranes with controlled architectures and microstructures. Oxygen permeation fluxes were measured with a specific device to evaluate membrane performances. As a result, the optimisation of architecture and microstructure made it possible to increase oxygen permeation flux by a factor 30. Additional researches were focused on the oxide composition in order to achieve higher dimensional stability. (author)

  1. Municipal solid waste processing and separation employing wet torrefaction for alternative fuel production and aluminum reclamation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mu'min, Gea Fardias; Prawisudha, Pandji; Zaini, Ilman Nuran; Aziz, Muhammad; Pasek, Ari Darmawan

    2017-09-01

    This study employs wet torrefaction process (also known as hydrothermal) at low temperature. This process simultaneously acts as waste processing and separation of mixed waste, for subsequent utilization as an alternative fuel. The process is also applied for the delamination and separation of non-recyclable laminated aluminum waste into separable aluminum and plastic. A 2.5-L reactor was used to examine the wet torrefaction process at temperatures below 200°C. It was observed that the processed mixed waste was converted into two different products: a mushy organic part and a bulky plastic part. Using mechanical separation, the two products can be separated into a granular organic product and a plastic bulk for further treatment. TGA analysis showed that no changes in the plastic composition and no intrusion from plastic fraction to the organic fraction. It can be proclaimed that both fractions have been completely separated by wet torrefaction. The separated plastic fraction product obtained from the wet torrefaction treatment also contained relatively high calorific value (approximately 44MJ/kg), therefore, justifying its use as an alternative fuel. The non-recyclable plastic fraction of laminated aluminum was observed to be delaminated and separated from its aluminum counterpart at a temperature of 170°C using an additional acetic acid concentration of 3%, leaving less than 25% of the plastic content in the aluminum part. Plastic products from both samples had high calorific values of more than 30MJ/kg, which is sufficient to be converted and used as a fuel. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Two-dimensional Model of Ciliwung River Flood in DKI Jakarta for Development of the Regional Flood Index Map

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam Formánek

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study was to present a sophisticated method of developing supporting material for flood control implementation in DKI Jakarta. High flow rates in the Ciliwung River flowing through Jakarta regularly causes extensive flooding in the rainy season. The affected area comprises highly densely populated villages. For developing an efficient early warning system in view of decreasing the vulnerability of the locations a flood index map has to be available. This study analyses the development of a flood risk map of the inundation area based on a two-dimensional modeling using FESWMS. The reference event used for the model was the most recent significant flood in 2007. The resulting solution represents flood characteristics such as inundation area, inundation depth and flow velocity. Model verification was performed by confrontation of the results with survey data. The model solution was overlaid with a street map of Jakarta. Finally, alternatives for flood mitigation measures are discussed.

  3. The real governance of disaster risk management in peri-urban Senegal: Delivering flood response services through co-production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schaer, Caroline; Hahonou, Eric Komlavi

    2017-01-01

    Disastrous and recurring floods have impacted West African urban centres over the last decade, accentuating already existing vulnerabilities in poor neighbourhoods. Climate change-induced changing weather patterns and more extreme weather events are only part of the explanation for this situation......, as large segments of the urban population in West Africa are not offered the public services, infrastructure and protective regulations needed in order to respond to floods. Through an empirically grounded approach, the article shows that the ability to respond to floods is formed largely outside the realm....... The article concludes that weak state capacity is not equivalent to non-existent of ungoverned collective services linked to floods. While flood response service delivery through co-production, may constitute the best available options in a context of poor resources, because of the negotiated character...

  4. (η-η'-ι)-mixing, decay and production mechanisms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geiger, K.; Mueller, B.; Greiner, W.

    1990-01-01

    We present a phenomenoligcal model for meson-glueball mixing and apply it to the mixing of the pseudoscalar mesons η and η' with the ι(1440)-particle as the prime candidate for a O -+ -glueball. Using the MIT bag model framework, our model incorporates, among other elements, configuration mixing effects due to virtually excited states, as well as mixing of quark and gluon components. We evaluate the portions of quark-antiquark and two-gluon admixtures in η, η' and ι. The results are used to study various decay and production processes involving these particles. In particular, we calculate the radiative and the 2γ-decay widths of the light mesons and make predictions for the widths of the ι in these channels. Furthermore, production mechanisms of the light mesons in electromagnetic and hadronic J/ψ-decays are used to evaluate the branching ratios for the production of the ι in various J/ψ-transitions. Our results are generally in reasonable agreement with experimental data. Especially we predict a rather large width for the decay ι→ργ and a sizable production rate for the ι in the transition J/ψ-ωι. (orig.)

  5. Increased spring flooding of agricultural fields will exhibit altered production of greenhouse gases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paul, R. F.; Smith, C. M.; Smyth, E. M.; Kantola, I. B.; DeLucia, E. H.

    2013-12-01

    The U.S. Corn Belt currently is a net source of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide to the atmosphere, but is also a sink of methane. Among the proposed effects of climate change in the North American Midwest region is an increase in the frequency and duration of spring flooding events. This would cause ponding in fields which may change the greenhouse gas balance of the region, especially by providing a suitable anoxic environment for the proliferation of methanogens, increasing methane emissions. To determine whether methanogenesis occurs in flooded agricultural soils of the Midwest and how other gas fluxes are affected, we installed collars into the ground of a research field located in central Illinois. The control group was maintained at the same conditions as the surrounding field. Two groups of collars were sustained with water flooding the headspaces via a drip irrigation system; one treatment was analyzed for gas fluxes of CH4, N2O, and CO2 evolving from the collars, and a separate treatment of flooded collars was used for soil sampling. Comparing flooded soils versus control we measured reduced N2O fluxes (-3.12 x 10-6 × 6.8 x 10-7 g N m-2 min-1), reduced CO2 fluxes (-6.13 x 10-3 × 9.3 x 10-4 g CO2 m-2 min-1), and increased methane fluxes (+2.72 x 10-6 × 5.8 x 10-7 g CH4 m-2 min-1). After only one week of treatment the flooded soils switched from being sinks to sources of methane, which continued across the duration of the experiment. These preliminary results indicate that methanogenesis occurs in flooded agricultural fields, and suggest including regional modeling into further study. Although the global warming potential of methane is 25 times greater than CO2, our measured rates of methane production were compensated by reductions in nitrous oxide and CO2 fluxes, reducing the total 100-year horizon global warming potential of the flooded soils we studied by 64.8%. This indicates that accounting for more frequent seasonal ponding would significantly

  6. Evaluation of the efficiency of alternative enzyme production technologies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Albaek, M.O.

    2012-03-15

    Enzymes are used in an increasing number of industries. The application of enzymes is extending into the production of lignocellulosic ethanol in processes that economically can compete with fossil fuels. Since lignocellulosic ethanol is based on renewable resources it will have a positive impact on for example the emission of green house gasses. Cellulases and hemi-cellulases are used for enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated lignocellulosic biomass, and fermentable sugars are released upon the enzymatic process. Even though many years of research has decreased the amount of enzyme needed in the process, the cost of enzymes is still considered a bottleneck in the economic feasibility of lignocellulose utilization. The purpose of this project was to investigate and compare different technologies for production of these enzymes. The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei is currently used for industrial production of cellulases and hemi-cellulases. The aim of the thesis was to use modeling tools to identify alternative technologies that have higher energy or raw material efficiency than the current technology. The enzyme production by T. reesei was conducted as an aerobic fed-batch fermentation. The process was carried out in pilot scale stirred tank reactors and based on a range of different process conditions, a process model was constructed which satisfactory described the course of fermentation. The process was governed by the rate limiting mass transfer of oxygen from the gas to the liquid phase. During fermentation, filamentous growth of the fungus lead to increased viscosity which hindered mass transfer. These mechanisms were described by a viscosity model based on the biomass concentration of the fermentation broth and a mass transfer correlation that incorporated a viscosity term. An analysis of the uncertainty and sensitivity of the model indicated the biological parameters to be responsible for most of the model uncertainty. A number of alternative

  7. Using Minimax Regret Optimization to Search for Multi-Stakeholder Solutions to Deeply Uncertain Flood Hazards under Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirshen, P. H.; Hecht, J. S.; Vogel, R. M.

    2015-12-01

    Prescribing long-term urban floodplain management plans under the deep uncertainty of climate change is a challenging endeavor. To address this, we have implemented and tested with stakeholders a parsimonious multi-stage mixed integer programming (MIP) model that identifies the optimal time period(s) for implementing publicly and privately financed adaptation measures. Publicly funded measures include reach-scale flood barriers, flood insurance, and buyout programs to encourage property owners in flood-prone areas to retreat from the floodplain. Measures privately funded by property owners consist of property-scale floodproofing options, such as raising building foundations, as well as investments in flood insurance or retreat from flood-prone areas. The objective function to minimize the sum of flood control and damage costs in all planning stages for different property types during floods of different severities. There are constraints over time for flow mass balances, construction of flood management alternatives and their cumulative implementation, budget allocations, and binary decisions. Damages are adjusted for flood control investments. In recognition of the deep uncertainty of GCM-derived climate change scenarios, we employ the minimax regret criterion to identify adaptation portfolios robust to different climate change trajectories. As an example, we identify publicly and privately funded adaptation measures for a stylized community based on the estuarine community of Exeter, New Hampshire, USA. We explore the sensitivity of recommended portfolios to different ranges of climate changes, and costs associated with economies of scale and flexible infrastructure design as well as different municipal budget constraints.

  8. Swiss Re Global Flood Hazard Zones: Know your flood risk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vinukollu, R. K.; Castaldi, A.; Mehlhorn, J.

    2012-12-01

    Floods, among all natural disasters, have a great damage potential. On a global basis, there is strong evidence of increase in the number of people affected and economic losses due to floods. For example, global insured flood losses have increased by 12% every year since 1970 and this is expected to further increase with growing exposure in the high risk areas close to rivers and coastlines. Recently, the insurance industry has been surprised by the large extent of losses, because most countries lack reliable hazard information. One example has been the 2011 Thailand floods where millions of people were affected and the total economic losses were 30 billion USD. In order to assess the flood risk across different regions and countries, the flood team at Swiss Re based on a Geomorphologic Regression approach, developed in house and patented, produced global maps of flood zones. Input data for the study was obtained from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) elevation data, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) and HydroSHEDS. The underlying assumptions of the approach are that naturally flowing rivers shape their channel and flood plain according to basin inherent forces and characteristics and that the flood water extent strongly depends on the shape of the flood plain. On the basis of the catchment characteristics, the model finally calculates the probability of a location to be flooded or not for a defined return period, which in the current study was set to 100 years. The data is produced at a 90-m resolution for latitudes 60S to 60N. This global product is now used in the insurance industry to inspect, inform and/or insure the flood risk across the world.

  9. Long-lasting floods buffer the thermal regime of the Pampas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houspanossian, Javier; Kuppel, Sylvain; Nosetto, Marcelo; Di Bella, Carlos; Oricchio, Patricio; Barrucand, Mariana; Rusticucci, Matilde; Jobbágy, Esteban

    2018-01-01

    The presence of large water masses influences the thermal regime of nearby land shaping the local climate of coastal areas by the ocean or large continental lakes. Large surface water bodies have an ephemeral nature in the vast sedimentary plains of the Pampas (Argentina) where non-flooded periods alternate with flooding cycles covering up to one third of the landscape for several months. Based on temperature records from 17 sites located 1 to 700 km away from the Atlantic coast and MODIS land surface temperature data, we explore the effects of floods on diurnal and seasonal thermal ranges as well as temperature extremes. In non-flooded periods, there is a linear increase of mean diurnal thermal range (DTR) from the coast towards the interior of the region (DTR increasing from 10 to 16 K, 0.79 K/100 km, r 2 = 0.81). This relationship weakens during flood episodes when the DTR of flood-prone inland locations shows a decline of 2 to 4 K, depending on surface water coverage in the surrounding area. DTR even approaches typical coastal values 500 km away from the ocean in the most flooded location that we studied during the three flooding cycles recorded in the study period. Frosts-free periods, a key driver of the phenology of both natural and cultivated ecosystems, are extended by up to 55 days during floods, most likely as a result of enhanced ground heat storage across the landscape ( 2.7 fold change in day-night heat transfer) combined with other effects on the surface energy balance such as greater night evaporation rates. The reduced thermal range and longer frost-free periods affect plant growth development and may offer an opportunity for longer crop growing periods, which may not only contribute to partially compensating for regional production losses caused by floods, but also open avenues for flood mitigation through higher plant evapotranspirative water losses.

  10. Productivity and profitability of maize-pumpkin mix cropping in Chitwan, Nepal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shiva Chandra Dhakal

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The study was conducted to determine the productivity, profitability and resource use efficiency of maize-pumpkin mix crop production in Chitwan. The study used 53 maize-pumpkin mix crop adopting farmers from among 300 farmers adopting different pollinator friendly practices. Descriptive and statistical tools including Cobb-Douglas production function were used to analyze data, collected from structured interview schedule. The benefit cost ratio (1.58 indicates that maize-pumpkin mix cropping was profitable with productivity of 2.83 ton per ha on maize main product equivalent basis. The magnitude of regression coefficients of maize-pumpkin mix cropping implied that expenditure on seed and fertilizer and irrigation had significant positive effect on gross return with estimated decreasing return to scale (0.85. According to estimated allocative efficiency indices, it is suggested to increase expenditure on seed and fertilizer cum irrigation by about 90% and 55% respectively. Extension of modern technologies with adjustment on resource use is to be encouraged for increase in productivity and profitability of maize-pumpkin mix crop production which indirectly promotes and ensure forage for pollinators

  11. Biomass and lipid production of Chlorella protothecoides under heterotrophic cultivation on a mixed waste substrate of brewer fermentation and crude glycerol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Xiaoyu; Walker, Terry H; Bridges, William C; Thornton, Charles; Gopalakrishnan, Karthik

    2014-08-01

    Biomass and lipid accumulation of heterotrophic microalgae Chlorella protothecoides by supplying mixed waste substrate of brewer fermentation and crude glycerol were investigated. The biomass concentrations of the old and the new C. protothecoides strains on day 6 reached 14.07 and 12.73 g/L, respectively, which were comparable to those in basal medium with supplement of glucose and yeast extract (BM-GY) (14.47 g/L for old strains and 11.43 g/L for new strains) (P>0.05). Approximately 81.5% of total organic carbon and 65.1% of total nitrogen in the mixed waste were effectively removed. The accumulated lipid productivities of the old and the new C. protothecoides strains in BM-GY were 2.07 and 1.61 g/L/day, respectively, whereas in the mixed waste, lipid productivities could reach 2.12 and 1.81 g/L/day, respectively. Our result highlights a new approach of mixing carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich wastes as economical and practical alternative substrates for biofuel production. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Alternatives sources of energy in the Czech energy mix

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martin, Lisy; Marek, Balas; Zdenek, Skala

    2010-09-15

    The paper features a basic outline of the situation in the energy sector of the Czech Republic. It brings information about the current state of the country's energy mix and indicative targets of the State Energy Policy. Though coal and nuclear energy will remain the country's energy staples, great stress is also put on the growth of share of renewable and alternative energy sources. Out of these, the greatest potential in the Czech Republic is that of biomass and waste. To make the use of these sources cost-effective, it is necessary to put stress on heat and power cogeneration.

  13. Modeling Wettability Variation during Long-Term Water Flooding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renyi Cao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Surface property of rock affects oil recovery during water flooding. Oil-wet polar substances adsorbed on the surface of the rock will gradually be desorbed during water flooding, and original reservoir wettability will change towards water-wet, and the change will reduce the residual oil saturation and improve the oil displacement efficiency. However there is a lack of an accurate description of wettability alternation model during long-term water flooding and it will lead to difficulties in history match and unreliable forecasts using reservoir simulators. This paper summarizes the mechanism of wettability variation and characterizes the adsorption of polar substance during long-term water flooding from injecting water or aquifer and relates the residual oil saturation and relative permeability to the polar substance adsorbed on clay and pore volumes of flooding water. A mathematical model is presented to simulate the long-term water flooding and the model is validated with experimental results. The simulation results of long-term water flooding are also discussed.

  14. INNOVATION NETWORKS AND MARKETING MIX: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON PRODUCT'S DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thel Augusto Monteiro

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to present how innovation networks can be used to develop a new product or service, using the marketing compound. The study methodology consists of an exploratory research from literature review on this subject. After an initial discussion of the characteristics of innovation networks and marketing functions, the study presents proposals that allow adequately addressing the main difficulties in the management of marketing in innovation networks. Through this study it can be stated that these networks have been identified as an attractive alternative for the development of new products, when using the marketing mix, given the dynamics of the contemporary market. Innovation networks bring a lot of benefits to companies that embrace the relationship between these networks and marketing. The discussion reveals that the structure in the form of innovation networks can bring effective results in the organization which adopt it, providing competitiveness and adaptability in the face of its target market.

  15. Productivity and profitability of maize-pumpkin mix cropping in Chitwan, Nepal

    OpenAIRE

    Shiva Chandra Dhakal; Punya Prasad Regmi; Resham Bahadur Thapa; Shrawan Kumar Sah; Dilli Bahadur Khatri-Chhetri

    2015-01-01

    The study was conducted to determine the productivity, profitability and resource use efficiency of maize-pumpkin mix crop production in Chitwan. The study used 53 maize-pumpkin mix crop adopting farmers from among 300 farmers adopting different pollinator friendly practices. Descriptive and statistical tools including Cobb-Douglas production function were used to analyze data, collected from structured interview schedule. The benefit cost ratio (1.58) indicates that maize-pumpkin mix croppin...

  16. Analytic evidence of the equivalence of the alternating Heisenberg spin chain to the mixed spin (1, 1/2) Heisenberg chain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang Jianjun; Liu Yongjun; Tang Fei; Yang Cuihong

    2011-01-01

    We investigated the properties of the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain using the spin-wave theory. The spin-wave excitation spectra, the sublattice magnetizations and the local bond energies of the model are calculated to be compared with the corresponding properties of the mixed spin (1, 1/2) chain for a range of α. The results demonstrate that all the properties show similar behaviours in the small α limit, so the properties of the mixed spin (1, 1/2) chain can be described using the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain. -- Research Highlights: →The spin-wave excitation spectra, the sublattice magnetizations and the local bond energies of the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain are calculated. →In the small α limit, the properties of the mixed spin (1,1/2) chain can be described using the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain. →The spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain may be of interest for some real quasi-one-dimensional molecular magnetic materials.

  17. On causal links between flood basalts and continental breakup

    Science.gov (United States)

    Courtillot, V.; Jaupart, C.; Manighetti, I.; Tapponnier, P.; Besse, J.

    1999-03-01

    Temporal coincidence between continental flood basalts and breakup has been noted for almost three decades. Eight major continental flood basalts have been produced over the last 300 Ma. The most recent, the Ethiopian traps, erupted in about 1 Myr at 30 Ma. Rifting in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, and possibly East African rift started at about the same time. A second trap-like episode occurred around 2 Ma and formation of true oceanic crust is due in the next few Myr. We find similar relationships for the 60 Ma Greenland traps and opening of the North Atlantic, 65 Ma Deccan traps and opening of the NW Indian Ocean, 132 Ma Parana traps and South Atlantic, 184 Ma Karoo traps and SW Indian Ocean, and 200 Ma Central Atlantic Margin flood basalts and opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean. The 250 Ma Siberian and 258 Ma Emeishan traps seem to correlate with major, if aborted, phases of rifting. Rifting asymmetry, apparent triple junctions and rift propagation (towards the flood basalt area) are common features that may, together with the relative timings of flood basalt, seaward dipping reflector and oceanic crust production, depend on a number of plume- and lithosphere- related factors. We propose a mixed scenario of `active/passive' rifting to account for these observations. In all cases, an active component (a plume and resulting flood basalt) is a pre-requisite for the breakup of a major oceanic basin. But rifting must be allowed by plate-boundary forces and is influenced by pre-existing heterogeneities in lithospheric structure. The best example is the Atlantic Ocean, whose large-scale geometry with three large basins was imposed by the impact points of three mantle plumes.

  18. Ensemble hydro-meteorological forecasting for early warning of floods and scheduling of hydropower production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solvang Johansen, Stian; Steinsland, Ingelin; Engeland, Kolbjørn

    2016-04-01

    Running hydrological models with precipitation and temperature ensemble forcing to generate ensembles of streamflow is a commonly used method in operational hydrology. Evaluations of streamflow ensembles have however revealed that the ensembles are biased with respect to both mean and spread. Thus postprocessing of the ensembles is needed in order to improve the forecast skill. The aims of this study is (i) to to evaluate how postprocessing of streamflow ensembles works for Norwegian catchments within different hydrological regimes and to (ii) demonstrate how post processed streamflow ensembles are used operationally by a hydropower producer. These aims were achieved by postprocessing forecasted daily discharge for 10 lead-times for 20 catchments in Norway by using EPS forcing from ECMWF applied the semi-distributed HBV-model dividing each catchment into 10 elevation zones. Statkraft Energi uses forecasts from these catchments for scheduling hydropower production. The catchments represent different hydrological regimes. Some catchments have stable winter condition with winter low flow and a major flood event during spring or early summer caused by snow melting. Others has a more mixed snow-rain regime, often with a secondary flood season during autumn, and in the coastal areas, the stream flow is dominated by rain, and the main flood season is autumn and winter. For post processing, a Bayesian model averaging model (BMA) close to (Kleiber et al 2011) is used. The model creates a predictive PDF that is a weighted average of PDFs centered on the individual bias corrected forecasts. The weights are here equal since all ensemble members come from the same model, and thus have the same probability. For modeling streamflow, the gamma distribution is chosen as a predictive PDF. The bias correction parameters and the PDF parameters are estimated using a 30-day sliding window training period. Preliminary results show that the improvement varies between catchments depending

  19. Integrating hydrodynamic models and COSMO-SkyMed derived products for flood damage assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giuffra, Flavio; Boni, Giorgio; Pulvirenti, Luca; Pierdicca, Nazzareno; Rudari, Roberto; Fiorini, Mattia

    2015-04-01

    Floods are the most frequent weather disasters in the world and probably the most costly in terms of social and economic losses. They may have a strong impact on infrastructures and health because the range of possible damages includes casualties, loss of housing and destruction of crops. Presently, the most common approach for remotely sensing floods is the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Key features of SAR data for inundation mapping are the synoptic view, the capability to operate even in cloudy conditions and during both day and night time and the sensitivity of the microwave radiation to water. The launch of a new generation of instruments, such as TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) allows producing near real time flood maps having a spatial resolution in the order of 1-5 m. Moreover, the present (CSK) and upcoming (Sentinel-1) constellations permit the acquisition of radar data characterized by a short revisit time (in the order of some hours for CSK), so that the production of frequent inundation maps can be envisaged. Nonetheless, gaps might be present in the SAR-derived flood maps because of the limited area imaged by SAR; moreover, the detection of floodwater may be complicated by the presence of very dense vegetation or urban settlements. Hence the need to complement SAR-derived flood maps with the outputs of physical models. Physical models allow delivering to end users very useful information for a complete flood damage assessment, such as data on water depths and flow directions, which cannot be directly derived from satellite remote sensing images. In addition, the flood extent predictions of hydraulic models can be compared to SAR-derived inundation maps to calibrate the models, or to fill the aforementioned gaps that can be present in the SAR-derived maps. Finally, physical models enable the construction of risk scenarios useful for emergency managers to take their decisions and for programming additional SAR acquisitions in order to

  20. Floods and Flash Flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Floods and flash flooding Now is the time to determine your area’s flood risk. If you are not sure whether you ... If you are in a floodplain, consider buying flood insurance. Do not drive around barricades. If your ...

  1. Monte Carlo study of alternate mixed spin-5/2 and spin-2 Ising ferrimagnetic system on the Bethe lattice

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jabar, A. [Laboratoire de Magnétisme et Physique des Hautes Energies L.M.P.H.E.URAC 12, Université Mohammed V, Faculté des Sciences, B.P. 1014 Rabat (Morocco); Masrour, R., E-mail: rachidmasrour@hotmail.com [Laboratoire de Magnétisme et Physique des Hautes Energies L.M.P.H.E.URAC 12, Université Mohammed V, Faculté des Sciences, B.P. 1014 Rabat (Morocco); Laboratory of Materials, Processes, Environment and Quality, Cady Ayyed University, National School of Applied Sciences, PB 63 46000 Safi (Morocco); Benyoussef, A. [Laboratoire de Magnétisme et Physique des Hautes Energies L.M.P.H.E.URAC 12, Université Mohammed V, Faculté des Sciences, B.P. 1014 Rabat (Morocco); Institute of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies, MAScIR, Rabat (Morocco); Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology, Rabat (Morocco); Hamedoun, M. [Institute of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies, MAScIR, Rabat (Morocco)

    2016-01-01

    The magnetic properties of alternate mixed spin-5/2 and spin-2 Ising model on the Bethe lattice have been studied by using the Monte Carlo simulations. The ground state phase diagrams of alternate mixed spin-5/2 and spin-2 Ising model on the Bethe lattice has been obtained. The thermal total magnetization and magnetization of spins-5/2 and spin-2 with the different exchange interactions, external magnetic field and temperatures have been studied. The critical temperature have been deduced. The magnetic hysteresis cycle on the Bethe lattice has been deduced for different values of exchange interactions, for different values of crystal field and for different sizes. The magnetic coercive field has been deduced. - Highlights: • The alternate mixed spin-5/2 and -2 on the Bethe lattice is studied. • The critical temperature has been deduced. • The magnetic coercive filed has been deduced.

  2. Improving flood risk mapping in Italy: the FloodRisk open-source software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albano, Raffaele; Mancusi, Leonardo; Craciun, Iulia; Sole, Aurelia; Ozunu, Alexandru

    2017-04-01

    Time and again, floods around the world illustrate the devastating impact they can have on societies. Furthermore, the expectation that the flood damages can increase over time with climate, land-use change and social growth in flood prone-areas has raised the public and other stakeholders' (governments, international organization, re-insurance companies and emergency responders) awareness for the need to manage risks in order to mitigate their causes and consequences. In this light, the choice of appropriate measures, the assessment of the costs and effects of such measures, and their prioritization are crucial for decision makers. As a result, a priori flood risk assessment has become a key part of flood management practices with the aim of minimizing the total costs related to the risk management cycle. In this context, The EU Flood Directive 2007/60 requires the delineation of flood risk maps on the bases of most appropriate and advanced tools, with particular attention on limiting required economic efforts. The main aim of these risk maps is to provide the required knowledge for the development of flood risk management plans (FRMPs) by considering both costs and benefits of alternatives and results from consultation with all interested parties. In this context, this research project developed a free and open-source (FOSS) GIS software, called FloodRisk, to operatively support stakeholders in their compliance with the FRMPs. FloodRisk aims to facilitate the development of risk maps and the evaluation and management of current and future flood risk for multi-purpose applications. This new approach overcomes the limits of the expert-drive qualitative (EDQ) approach currently adopted in several European countries, such as Italy, which does not permit a suitable evaluation of the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies, because the vulnerability component cannot be properly assessed. Moreover, FloodRisk is also able to involve the citizens in the flood

  3. Update on Area Production in Mixing of Supercritical Fluids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okongo, Nora; Bellan, Josette

    2003-01-01

    The focus of this research is on supercritical C7H16/N2 and O2/H2 mixing layers undergoing transitions to turbulence. The C7H16/N2 system serves as a simplified model of hydrocarbon/air systems in gas-turbine and diesel engines; the O2/H2 system is representative of liquid rocket engines. One goal of this research is to identify ways of controlling area production to increase disintegration of fluids and enhance combustion in such engines. As used in this research, "area production" signifies the fractional rate of change of surface area oriented perpendicular to the mass-fraction gradient of a mixing layer. In the study, a database of transitional states obtained from direct numerical simulations of the aforementioned mixing layers was analyzed to investigate global layer characteristics, phenomena in regions of high density-gradient magnitude (HDGM), irreversible entropy production and its relationship to the HDGM regions, and mechanisms leading to area production.

  4. Comparison of Microbial Community Compositions of Injection and Production Well Samples in a Long-Term Water-Flooded Petroleum Reservoir

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Hong-Yan; Zhang, Xiao-Jun; Song, Zhi-yong; Rupert, Wieger; Gao, Guang-Jun; Guo, Sheng-xue; Zhao, Li-Ping

    2011-01-01

    Water flooding plays an important role in recovering oil from depleted petroleum reservoirs. Exactly how the microbial communities of production wells are affected by microorganisms introduced with injected water has previously not been adequately studied. Using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) approach and 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis, the comparison of microbial communities is carried out between one injection water and two production waters collected from a working block of the water-flooded Gudao petroleum reservoir located in the Yellow River Delta. DGGE fingerprints showed that the similarities of the bacterial communities between the injection water and production waters were lower than between the two production waters. It was also observed that the archaeal composition among these three samples showed no significant difference. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene clone libraries showed that the dominant groups within the injection water were Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Methanomicrobia, while the dominant groups in the production waters were Gammaproteobacteria and Methanobacteria. Only 2 out of 54 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and 5 out of 17 archaeal OTUs in the injection water were detected in the production waters, indicating that most of the microorganisms introduced by the injection water may not survive to be detected in the production waters. Additionally, there were 55.6% and 82.6% unique OTUs in the two production waters respectively, suggesting that each production well has its specific microbial composition, despite both wells being flooded with the same injection water. PMID:21858049

  5. Flood Inundation Modelling in the Kuantan River Basin using 1D-2D Flood Modeller coupled with ASTER-GDEM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Z. F.; Gisen, J. I.; Akbari, A.

    2018-03-01

    Topography dataset is an important input in performing flood inundation modelling. However, it is always difficult to obtain high resolution topography that provide accurate elevation information. Fortunately, there are some open source topography datasets available with reasonable resolution such as SRTM and ASTER-GDEM. In Malaysia particularly in Kuantan, the modelling research on the floodplain area is still lacking. This research aims to: a) to investigate the suitability of ASTER-GDEM to be applied in the 1D-2D flood inundation modelling for the Kuantan River Basin; b) to generate flood inundation map for Kuantan river basin. The topography dataset used in this study is ASTER-GDEM to generate physical characteristics of watershed in the basin. It is used to perform rainfall runoff modelling for hydrological studies and to delineate flood inundation area in the Flood Modeller. The results obtained have shown that a 30m resolution ASTER-GDEM is applicable as an input for the 1D-2D flood modelling. The simulated water level in 2013 has NSE of 0.644 and RSME of 1.259. As a conclusion, ASTER-GDEM can be used as one alternative topography datasets for flood inundation modelling. However, the flood level obtained from the hydraulic modelling shows low accuracy at flat urban areas.

  6. Marketing mix for consumer high technology products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dovleac, L.

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper includes an analysis upon the variables of marketing mix for high technology products used for individual consumption. There are exposed the essential aspects related to marketing policies and strategies used by high technology companies for providing consumers the best solutions tailored to their needs. A special attention is given to the necessity for inclusion in the marketing mix of the fifth element – the assistance and informational support for customers.

  7. Measuring flood footprint of a regional economy - A case study for the UK flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guan, D.

    2013-12-01

    Analysis of the urban economy and society is central to understanding the broad impacts of flooding and to identify cost-effective adaptation and mitigation measures. Assessments of the flooding impacts on cities have traditionally focused on the initial impact on people and assets. These initial estimates (so-called ';direct damage') are useful both in understanding the immediate implications of damage, and in marshalling the pools of capital and supplies required for re-building after an event. Since different economies as well as societies are coupled, especially under the current economic crisis, any small-scale damage may be multiplied and cascaded throughout wider economic systems and social networks. The direct and indirect damage is currently not evaluated well and could be captured by quantification of what we call the flood footprint. Flooding in one location can impact the whole UK economy. Neglecting these knock-on costs (i.e. the true footprint of the flood) means we might be ignoring the economic benefits and beneficiaries of flood risk management interventions. In 2007, for example, floods cost the economy about £3.2 bn directly, but the wider effect might actually add another 50% to 250% to that. Flood footprint is a measure of the exclusive total socioeconomic impact that is directly and indirectly caused by a flood event to the flooding region and wider economic systems and social networks. We adopt the UK 2012 flooding. An input-output basic dynamic inequalities (BDI) model is used to assess the impact of the floodings on the level of a Yorkshire economy, accounting for interactions between industries through demand and supply of intermediate consumption goods with a circular flow. After the disaster the economy will be unbalanced. The recovery process finishes when the economy is completely balance, i.e., when labour production capacity equals demands and production and all the variables reach pre-disaster levels. The analysis is carried out

  8. Single well surfactant test to evaluate surfactant floods using multi tracer method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheely, Clyde Q.

    1979-01-01

    Data useful for evaluating the effectiveness of or designing an enhanced recovery process said process involving mobilizing and moving hydrocarbons through a hydrocarbon bearing subterranean formation from an injection well to a production well by injecting a mobilizing fluid into the injection well, comprising (a) determining hydrocarbon saturation in a volume in the formation near a well bore penetrating formation, (b) injecting sufficient mobilizing fluid to mobilize and move hydrocarbons from a volume in the formation near the well bore, and (c) determining the hydrocarbon saturation in a volume including at least a part of the volume of (b) by an improved single well surfactant method comprising injecting 2 or more slugs of water containing the primary tracer separated by water slugs containing no primary tracer. Alternatively, the plurality of ester tracers can be injected in a single slug said tracers penetrating varying distances into the formation wherein the esters have different partition coefficients and essentially equal reaction times. The single well tracer method employed is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,842. This method designated the single well surfactant test (SWST) is useful for evaluating the effect of surfactant floods, polymer floods, carbon dioxide floods, micellar floods, caustic floods and the like in subterranean formations in much less time and at much reduced cost compared to conventional multiwell pilot tests.

  9. On the reliable use of satellite-derived surface water products for global flood monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirpa, F. A.; Revilla-Romero, B.; Thielen, J.; Salamon, P.; Brakenridge, R.; Pappenberger, F.; de Groeve, T.

    2015-12-01

    Early flood warning and real-time monitoring systems play a key role in flood risk reduction and disaster response management. To this end, real-time flood forecasting and satellite-based detection systems have been developed at global scale. However, due to the limited availability of up-to-date ground observations, the reliability of these systems for real-time applications have not been assessed in large parts of the globe. In this study, we performed comparative evaluations of the commonly used satellite-based global flood detections and operational flood forecasting system using 10 major flood cases reported over three years (2012-2014). Specially, we assessed the flood detection capabilities of the near real-time global flood maps from the Global Flood Detection System (GFDS), and from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the operational forecasts from the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) for the major flood events recorded in global flood databases. We present the evaluation results of the global flood detection and forecasting systems in terms of correctly indicating the reported flood events and highlight the exiting limitations of each system. Finally, we propose possible ways forward to improve the reliability of large scale flood monitoring tools.

  10. Flood Catastrophe Model for Designing Optimal Flood Insurance Program: Estimating Location-Specific Premiums in the Netherlands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ermolieva, T; Filatova, T; Ermoliev, Y; Obersteiner, M; de Bruijn, K M; Jeuken, A

    2017-01-01

    As flood risks grow worldwide, a well-designed insurance program engaging various stakeholders becomes a vital instrument in flood risk management. The main challenge concerns the applicability of standard approaches for calculating insurance premiums of rare catastrophic losses. This article focuses on the design of a flood-loss-sharing program involving private insurance based on location-specific exposures. The analysis is guided by a developed integrated catastrophe risk management (ICRM) model consisting of a GIS-based flood model and a stochastic optimization procedure with respect to location-specific risk exposures. To achieve the stability and robustness of the program towards floods with various recurrences, the ICRM uses stochastic optimization procedure, which relies on quantile-related risk functions of a systemic insolvency involving overpayments and underpayments of the stakeholders. Two alternative ways of calculating insurance premiums are compared: the robust derived with the ICRM and the traditional average annual loss approach. The applicability of the proposed model is illustrated in a case study of a Rotterdam area outside the main flood protection system in the Netherlands. Our numerical experiments demonstrate essential advantages of the robust premiums, namely, that they: (1) guarantee the program's solvency under all relevant flood scenarios rather than one average event; (2) establish a tradeoff between the security of the program and the welfare of locations; and (3) decrease the need for other risk transfer and risk reduction measures. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

  11. Mixed Cultures Fermentation for the Production of Poly-ß-hydroxybutyrate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Shalin

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Poly-ß-hydroxybutyrate (PHB is a biodegradable intracellular microbial product produced by many bacteria and it is comparable to some of the petrochemical derived thermoplastics such as polypropylene. One of the main barriers for the commercial exploitation is the high cost of the substrate for the production of biopolymer. The utilization of mixed microbial cultures facilitates the use of complex substrates thereby reducing the cost of PHB production. In the present study, mixed culture systems were evaluated for PHB production. Bacillus firmus NII 0830 was used for the production of PHB since it accumulates a large amount of PHB and a second organism Lactobacillus delbrueckii NII 0925 was used to provide lactic acid. FTIR and 1H NMR analyses revealed that the PHB extracted from pure culture and mixed culture showed exact match to that of standard PHB. Biodegradation studies of the PHB blends showed 87% degradation. It was also found that a consortium of organisms degraded the films faster than a single organism.

  12. Some alternatives to the mixed oxide fuel cycle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deonigi, D.E.; Eschbach, E.A.; Goldsmith, S.; Pankaskie, P.J.; Rohrmann, C.A.; Widrig, R.D.

    1977-02-01

    While on initial examination each of the six fuel cycle concepts (tandem cycle, extended burnup, fuel rejuvenation, coprocessing, partial reprocessing, and thorium) described in the report may have some potential for improving safeguards, none of the six appears to have any other major or compelling advantages over the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel cycle. Compared to the MOX cycle, all but coprocessing appear to have major disadvantages, including severe cost penalties. Three of the concepts-tandem, extended burnup, and rejuvenation--share the basic problems of the throwaway cycle (GESMO Alternative 6): without reprocessing, high-level waste volumes and costs are substantially increased, and overall uranium utilization decreases for three reasons. First, the parasitic fission products left in the fuel absorb neutrons in later irradiation steps reducing the overall neutronic efficiencies of these cycles. Second, discarded fuel still has sufficient fissile values to warrant recycle. Third, perhaps most important, the plutonium needed for breeder start-up will not be available; without the breeder, uranium utilization would drop by about a factor of sixty. Two of the concepts--coprocessing and partial reprocessing--involve variations of the basic MOX fuel cycle's chemical reprocessing step to make plutonium diversion potentially more difficult. These concepts could be used with the MOX fuel cycle or in conjunction with the tandem, extended burnup and rejuvenation concepts to eliminate some of the problems with those cycles. But in so doing, the basic impetus for those cycles--elimination of reprocessing for safeguards purposes--no longer exists. Of all the concepts considered, only coprocessing--and particularly the ''master blend'' version--appears to have sufficient promise to warrant a more detailed study. The master blend concept could possibly make plutonium diversion more difficult with minimal impact on the reprocessing and MOX fuel fabrication operations

  13. Do Emotions Spark Interest in Alternative Tobacco Products?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Popova, Lucy; So, Jiyeon; Sangalang, Angeline; Neilands, Torsten B; Ling, Pamela M

    2017-08-01

    Exposure to advertisements for tobacco products and tobacco warning labels evokes emotions. This study evaluated the association of discrete positive and negative emotions with interest in alternative tobacco products. In 2013, 1,226 U.S. adult nonsmokers and current smokers viewed advertisements for moist snuff, snus, and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) with various warning labels and then indicated their emotional responses in terms of anger, anxiety, sadness, guilt, disgust, discouragement, hope, and contentment. Outcomes were openness to using moist snuff, snus, and e-cigarettes in the future and interest in a free sample of each product. Data were analyzed in 2016. Hope was positively associated with openness and interest across all alternative tobacco products as was contentment for moist snuff and snus. Anger was negatively associated with openness to moist snuff and e-cigarettes, disgust negatively to moist snuff and snus, and anxiety negatively to e-cigarettes. Being a current smoker, ever trying a corresponding product, being male, and younger age were associated with greater openness to and interest in moist snuff and snus. For e-cigarettes, being a current smoker, ever trying e-cigarettes, and being female were associated with greater openness, and being a current smoker was associated with greater odds of selecting a free sample. Positive emotions, particularly hope, were consistently positively associated with interest in alternative tobacco products. Hope is widely used by tobacco and e-cigarette companies to advertise their products. Antitobacco messages should aim to lower hope associated with tobacco products but increase hope for cessation or life without tobacco.

  14. Long-term changes to flood conditions due to varying management strategies, Rock River, WI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fredrick, K. C.

    2015-12-01

    The Rock River is a 300-mile tributary of the Mississippi River in southern Wisconsin. Its source is a protected migratory bird habitat called the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. Below the refuge, the Rock River flows through mostly rural, agricultural areas, with wide floodplain of mixed land use. Between the dam at Horicon and a hydroelectric dam in Watertown, WI, lie the townships of Lebanon, Ashippun, and Ixonia. These rural townships boast productive agricultural lands of mostly corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. Large portions of their land are within the floodplain, underlain by vast expanses of outwash sands and gravels, glaciolacustrine deposits, and tills. Throughout the region, spring floods are common from snowmelt and spring rain. These annual floods may be exacerbated by frozen ground and slow infiltration, making it an accepted part of life for residents. Over the last 8 years, and possibly as many as 20, this segment of the Rock River has seen an increase in flooding both in periodicity and retention of flood waters. Due to the delicate habitat of the wildlife refuge and the commissioned hydroelectric installation at the upper dam in Watertown, the residents and local governments of the Lebanon/Ashippun/Ixonia segment of the river have mostly been left to their own devices to monitor and manage flood events. Lebanon Township has been recording water levels for several years. Recent events at the hydroelectric plant seem to indicate that it may be playing a more important role in the flooding. High water events and flood retention do not correlate well with precipitation for the region. It appears that releases at the dam, or periods of water retention, are driving the long flooding periods upstream. Negative impacts to the region from the flooding include property damage, loss of arable land, and environmental effects.

  15. Interactions between Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in mixed culture for kefiran production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheirsilp, Benjamas; Shoji, Hirofumi; Shimizu, Hiroshi; Shioya, Suteaki

    2003-01-01

    Since a positive effect on the growth and kefiran production of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens was observed in a mixed culture with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the elucidation of the interactions between L. kefiranofaciens and S. cerevisiae may lead to higher productivity. Hence, the microbial interaction of each strain was investigated. Apart from the positive effect of a reduction in the amount of lactic acid by S. cerevisiae, a positive effect of S. cerevisiae on the growth and kefiran production of L. kefiranofaciens in a mixed culture was observed. Various experiments were carried out to study this effect. In this study, the observed increase in capsular kefiran in a mixed culture with inactivated S. cerevisiae correlated well to that in an anaerobic mixed culture. Differences in capsular kefiran production were observed for different initial S. cerevisiae concentrations under anaerobic conditions. From these fermentation results, it was concluded that the physical contact with S. cerevisiae mainly enhanced the capsular kefiran production of L. kefiranofaciens in a mixed culture. Therefore, in an anaerobic mixed culture, this direct contact resulted in higher capsular kefiran production than that in pure culture.

  16. Alternative Crops and Biofuel Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kenkel, Philip [Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater, OK (United States); Holcomb, Rodney B. [Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater, OK (United States)

    2013-03-01

    In order for the biofuel industry to meet the RFS benchmarks for biofuels, new feedstock sources and production systems will have to be identified and evaluated. The Southern Plains has the potential to produce over a billion gallons of biofuels from regionally produced alternative crops, agricultural residues, and animal fats. While information on biofuel conversion processes is available, it is difficult for entrepreneurs, community planners and other interested individuals to determine the feasibility of biofuel processes or to match production alternatives with feed stock availability and community infrastructure. This project facilitates the development of biofuel production from these regionally available feed stocks. Project activities are concentrated in five major areas. The first component focused on demonstrating the supply of biofuel feedstocks. This involves modeling the yield and cost of production of dedicated energy crops at the county level. In 1991 the DOE selected switchgrass as a renewable source to produce transportation fuel after extensive evaluations of many plant species in multiple location (Caddel et al,. 2010). However, data on the yield and cost of production of switchgrass are limited. This deficiency in demonstrating the supply of biofuel feedstocks was addressed by modeling the potential supply and geographic variability of switchgrass yields based on relationship of available switchgrass yields to the yields of other forage crops. This model made it possible to create a database of projected switchgrass yields for five different soil types at the county level. A major advantage of this methodology is that the supply projections can be easily updated as improved varieties of switchgrass are developed and additional yield data becomes available. The modeling techniques are illustrated using the geographic area of Oklahoma. A summary of the regional supply is then provided.

  17. Technical note Flood map development by coupling satellite maps ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Flood maps are important for local authorities in designing mitigation plans to minimise damage and loss due to flooding. In recent years, flood events in the Sarawak River Basin, Malaysia have caused damage to property, loss of life and disruption of productive activities. Currently, the available flood map for Sarawak River ...

  18. Flood Hazard Management: British and International Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    James, L. Douglas

    This proceedings of an international workshop at the Flood Hazard Research Centre (Queensway, Enfield, Middlesex, U.K.) begins by noting how past British research on flood problems concentrated on refining techniques to implement established policy. In contrast, research covered in North American and Australian publications involved normative issues on policy alternatives and administrative implementation. The workshop's participants included 16 widely recognized scientists, whose origins were about equally divided between Britain and overseas; from this group the workshop's organizers expertly drew ideas for refining British urban riverine flood hazard management and for cultivating links among researchers everywhere. Such intellectual exchange should be of keen interest to flood hazard program managers around the world, to students of comparative institutional performance, to those who make policy on protecting people from hazards, and to hydrologists and other geophysicists who must communicate descriptive information for bureaucratic, political, and public decision- making.

  19. Automation of production of concrete mix

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Popello Egor

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Computer-aided design of concrete leads to a reduction in terms of production, the exclusion of product deficiencies, improve the quality of manufactured products. This approach allows to produce the concrete to exact physical and mechanical characteristics, which makes the design more reliable and economical. The software package will allow: to reduce the settlement time in the design of concrete mixture, to improve the efficiency of the staff of the laboratory building, to improve the quality of the concrete mix due to higher accuracy of calculations, to apply a flexible approach to the design of concrete mixture in question of introducing new chemical additives and their characteristics.

  20. Predicting the impact of urban flooding using open data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tkachenko, Nataliya; Procter, Rob; Jarvis, Stephen

    2016-05-01

    This paper aims to explore whether there is a relationship between search patterns for flood risk information on the Web and how badly localities have been affected by flood events. We hypothesize that localities where people stay more actively informed about potential flooding experience less negative impact than localities where people make less effort to be informed. Being informed, of course, does not hold the waters back; however, it may stimulate (or serve as an indicator of) such resilient behaviours as timely use of sandbags, relocation of possessions from basements to upper floors and/or temporary evacuation from flooded homes to alternative accommodation. We make use of open data to test this relationship empirically. Our results demonstrate that although aggregated Web search reflects average rainfall patterns, its eigenvectors predominantly consist of locations with similar flood impacts during 2014-2015. These results are also consistent with statistically significant correlations of Web search eigenvectors with flood warning and incident reporting datasets.

  1. Solar energy as an alternate energy source to mixed oxide fuels in light-water cooled reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bertini, H.W.

    1977-01-01

    Supplemental information pertaining to the generic environmental impact statement on the Pu recycling process for mixed oxide light-water cooled reactors (GESMO) was requested from several sources. In particular, the role of alternate sources of energy was to be explored and the implications of these alternate sources to the question of Pu recycle in LWRs were to be investigated. In this vein, solar energy as an alternate source is the main subject of this report, along with other information related to solar energy. The general conclusion is that solar energy should have little effect on the decisions concerning GESMO

  2. Forecast-based Integrated Flood Detection System for Emergency Response and Disaster Risk Reduction (Flood-FINDER)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arcorace, Mauro; Silvestro, Francesco; Rudari, Roberto; Boni, Giorgio; Dell'Oro, Luca; Bjorgo, Einar

    2016-04-01

    Most flood prone areas in the globe are mainly located in developing countries where making communities more flood resilient is a priority. Despite different flood forecasting initiatives are now available from academia and research centers, what is often missing is the connection between the timely hazard detection and the community response to warnings. In order to bridge the gap between science and decision makers, UN agencies play a key role on the dissemination of information in the field and on capacity-building to local governments. In this context, having a reliable global early warning system in the UN would concretely improve existing in house capacities for Humanitarian Response and the Disaster Risk Reduction. For those reasons, UNITAR-UNOSAT has developed together with USGS and CIMA Foundation a Global Flood EWS called "Flood-FINDER". The Flood-FINDER system is a modelling chain which includes meteorological, hydrological and hydraulic models that are accurately linked to enable the production of warnings and forecast inundation scenarios up to three weeks in advance. The system is forced with global satellite derived precipitation products and Numerical Weather Prediction outputs. The modelling chain is based on the "Continuum" hydrological model and risk assessments produced for GAR2015. In combination with existing hydraulically reconditioned SRTM data and 1D hydraulic models, flood scenarios are derived at multiple scales and resolutions. Climate and flood data are shared through a Web GIS integrated platform. First validation of the modelling chain has been conducted through a flood hindcasting test case, over the Chao Phraya river basin in Thailand, using multi temporal satellite-based analysis derived for the exceptional flood event of 2011. In terms of humanitarian relief operations, the EO-based services of flood mapping in rush mode generally suffer from delays caused by the time required for their activation, programming, acquisitions and

  3. Identification of flood-rich and flood-poor periods in flood series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mediero, Luis; Santillán, David; Garrote, Luis

    2015-04-01

    Recently, a general concern about non-stationarity of flood series has arisen, as changes in catchment response can be driven by several factors, such as climatic and land-use changes. Several studies to detect trends in flood series at either national or trans-national scales have been conducted. Trends are usually detected by the Mann-Kendall test. However, the results of this test depend on the starting and ending year of the series, which can lead to different results in terms of the period considered. The results can be conditioned to flood-poor and flood-rich periods located at the beginning or end of the series. A methodology to identify statistically significant flood-rich and flood-poor periods is developed, based on the comparison between the expected sampling variability of floods when stationarity is assumed and the observed variability of floods in a given series. The methodology is applied to a set of long series of annual maximum floods, peaks over threshold and counts of annual occurrences in peaks over threshold series observed in Spain in the period 1942-2009. Mediero et al. (2014) found a general decreasing trend in flood series in some parts of Spain that could be caused by a flood-rich period observed in 1950-1970, placed at the beginning of the flood series. The results of this study support the findings of Mediero et al. (2014), as a flood-rich period in 1950-1970 was identified in most of the selected sites. References: Mediero, L., Santillán, D., Garrote, L., Granados, A. Detection and attribution of trends in magnitude, frequency and timing of floods in Spain, Journal of Hydrology, 517, 1072-1088, 2014.

  4. Hierarchical Modelling of Flood Risk for Engineering Decision Analysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Custer, Rocco

    protection structures in the hierarchical flood protection system - is identified. To optimise the design of protection structures, fragility and vulnerability models must allow for consideration of decision alternatives. While such vulnerability models are available for large protection structures (e...... systems, as well as the implementation of the flood risk analysis methodology and the vulnerability modelling approach are illustrated with an example application. In summary, the present thesis provides a characterisation of hierarchical flood protection systems as well as several methodologies to model...... and robust. Traditional risk management solutions, e.g. dike construction, are not particularly flexible, as they are difficult to adapt to changing risk. Conversely, the recent concept of integrated flood risk management, entailing a combination of several structural and non-structural risk management...

  5. Ethanol production in fermentation of mixed sugars containing xylose

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viitanen, Paul V [West Chester, PA; Mc Cutchen, Carol M [Wilmington, DE; Li,; Xu, [Newark, DE; Emptage, Mark [Wilmington, DE; Caimi, Perry G [Kennett Square, PA; Zhang, Min [Lakewood, CO; Chou, Yat-Chen [Lakewood, CO; Franden, Mary Ann [Centennial, CO

    2009-12-08

    Xylose-utilizing Z. mobilis strains were found to have improved ethanol production when grown in medium containing mixed sugars including xylose if sorbitol or mannitol was included in the medium. The effect was seen in concentrations of mixed sugars where no growth lag period occurs, as well as in higher sugars concentrations.

  6. Blending satellite data and RADAR tool for rapid flood damage assessment in Agriculture: A case study in Sri Lanka

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amarnath, Giriraj; Inada, Yoshiaki; Inoue, Ryosuke; Alahacoon, Niranga; Smakhtin, Vladimir

    2014-05-01

    During the catastrophic flooding it is critically important to estimate losses as it is essential for facilitating good decision making at the district, province and national levels of government and to appraise aid agencies for necessary assistance. Flood loss estimates can also be used to evaluate the cost effectiveness of alternative approaches to strengthening flood control measures. In the case of Sri Lanka there were limited knowledge and application system exist for carrying out rapid damage assessment for Agriculture in Sri Lanka. FAO has developed the tool "Rapid Agricultural Disaster Assessment Routine" (RADAR) based on theoretical approach that uses simple tools for assessing the impact on agriculture of a disastrous event. There are two knowledge bases that contain information needed for calculation of the value loss or damage. The procedure of rapid impact assessment implies the use of knowledge-bases, database and GIS. In this study, the user friendly application of RADAR system has been developed. Three components were considered including agriculture, livestock and farmers asset to estimate the losses. The application will allow estimating flood damage at various scales and this being tested at district level and specific example for the 2011 floods in Sri Lanka. In order to understand flood inundation cycle, time-series optical MODIS satellite data (2000-2011) and microwave ALOS PALSAR (2006-2011) were used to derive annual flood extent, flood duration and recurrent areas to identify flood risk and impact of seasonal flooding on agriculture. This study demonstrates how RADAR & satellite-based flood products can be effectively used for rapid damage assessment and managing the floods.

  7. Impact of the Three-Gorges Dam and water transfer project on Changjiang floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakayama, Tadanobu; Shankman, David

    2013-01-01

    Increasing frequency of severe floods on the middle and lower Changjiang (Yangtze) River during the past few decades can be attributed to both abnormal monsoon rainfall and landscape changes that include extensive deforestation affecting river sedimentation, and shrinking lakes and levee construction that reduced the areas available for floodwater storage. The Three-Gorges Dam (TGD) and the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) will also affect frequency and intensity of severe floods in the Poyang Lake region of the middle Changjiang. Process-based National Integrated Catchment-based Eco-hydrology (NICE) model predicts that the TGD will increase flood risk during the early summer monsoon against the original justifications for building the dam, relating to complex river-lake-groundwater interactions. Several scenarios predict that morphological change will increase flood risk around the lake. This indicates the importance of managing both flood discharge and sediment deposition for the entire basin. Further, the authors assessed the impact of sand mining in the lake after its prohibition on the Changjiang, and clarified that alternative scenario of sand mining in lakes currently disconnected from the mainstream would reduce the flood risk to a greater extent than intensive dredging along junction channel. Because dry biomasses simulated by the model were linearly related to the Time-Integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (TINDVI) estimated from satellite images, its decadal gradient during 1982-1999 showed a spatially heterogeneous distribution and generally decreasing trends beside the lakes, indicating that the increases in lake reclamation and the resultant decrease in rice productivity are closely related to the hydrologic changes. This integrated approach could help to minimize flood damage and promote better decisions addressing sustainable development.

  8. Enhanced kefiran production by mixed culture of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheirsilp, Benjamas; Shimizu, Hiroshi; Shioya, Suteaki

    2003-01-09

    In a batch mixed culture of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which could assimilate lactic acid, cell growth and kefiran production rates of L. kefiranofaciens significantly increased, compared with those in pure cultures. The kefiran production rate was 36 mg l(-1) h(-1) in the mixed culture under the anaerobic condition, which was greater than that in the pure culture (24 mg l(-1) h(-1)). Under the aerobic condition, a more intensive interaction between these two strains was observed and higher kefiran production rate (44 mg l(-1) h(-1)) was obtained compared with that under the anaerobic condition. Kefiran production was further enhanced by an addition of fresh medium in the fed-batch mixed culture. In the fed-batch mixed culture, a final kefiran concentration of 5.41 g l(-1) was achieved at 87 h, thereby attaining the highest productivity at 62 mg l(-1) h(-1). Simulation study considered the reduction of lactic acid in pure culture was performed to estimate the additional effect of coculture with S. cerevisiae. Slightly higher cell growth and kefiran production rates in the mixed culture than those expected from pure culture by simulation were observed. These results suggest that coculture of L. kefiranofaciens and S. cerevisiae not only reduces the lactic acid concentration by consumption but also stimulates cell growth and kefiran production of L. kefiranofaciens.

  9. Wellbeing in the aftermath of floods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker-Springett, Kate; Butler, Catherine; Adger, W Neil

    2017-01-01

    The interactions between flood events, their aftermath, and recovery leading to health and wellbeing outcomes for individuals are complex, and the pathways and mechanisms through which wellbeing is affected are often hidden and remain under-researched. This study analyses the diverse processes that explain changes in wellbeing for those experiencing flooding. It identifies key pathways to wellbeing outcomes that concern perceptions of lack of agency, dislocation from home, and disrupted futures inducing negative impacts, with offsetting positive effects through community networks and interactions. The mixed method study is based on data from repeated qualitative semi-structured interviews (n=60) and a structured survey (n=1000) with individuals that experienced flooding directly during winter 2013/14 in two UK regions. The results show for the first time the diversity and intersection of pathways to wellbeing outcomes in the aftermath of floods. The findings suggest that enhanced public health planning and interventions could focus on the precise practices and mechanisms that intersect to produce anxiety, stress, and their amelioration at individual and community levels. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  10. MIX-MEDIA NARRATIVES WORKSHOP: MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS’ PRODUCTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Liliana da Silva Vieira

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The development of creation and content production teams, regarding design and digital publishing areas, their processes and transdisciplinary knowledge, are making deep changes in media production structures, and in its own professional sustainability model. The Mix-media Narratives Workshop that took place at Universidade da Beira Interior (Portugal intended to simulate the reality of production structures and the recent integrated digital writing paradigm, as well as to evaluate the several multi and transdisciplinary challenges that may be present in the creation of digital media contents. Design, journalism and film production students were not only confronted with real editorial development situations, but also with professional feedback, which was possible due to a partnership with the newspaper Expresso.pt. A fellow editor from this newspaper kept track of the sessions, with the help and presence of professors from many of the courses involved. Data gathered from observation notes, pictures and video during laboratorial work meetings, was compiled and crossed with research results, analyses and comments made by the participant professors and Expresso. pt editor’s observations. Our goal was to analyze in which way future workers will deal with the challenging task of collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and produce mix-media content with real publishing purpose.

  11. Evaluation of alternative future energy scenarios for Brazil using an energy mix model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coelho, Maysa Joppert

    The purpose of this study is to model and assess the performance and the emissions impacts of electric energy technologies in Brazil, based on selected economic scenarios, for a time frame of 40 years, taking the year of 1995 as a base year. A Base scenario has been developed, for each of three economic development projections, based upon a sectoral analysis. Data regarding the characteristics of over 300 end-use technologies and 400 energy conversion technologies have been collected. The stand-alone MARKAL technology-based energy-mix model, first developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, was applied to a base case study and five alternative case studies, for each economic scenario. The alternative case studies are: (1) minimum increase in the thermoelectric contribution to the power production system of 20 percent after 2010; (2) extreme values for crude oil price; (3) minimum increase in the renewable technologies contribution to the power production system of 20 percent after 2010; (4) uncertainty on the cost of future renewable conversion technologies; and (5) model is forced to use the natural gas plants committed to be built in the country. Results such as the distribution of fuel used for power generation, electricity demand across economy sectors, total CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels for power generation, shadow price (marginal cost) of technologies, and others, are evaluated and compared to the Base scenarios previous established. Among some key findings regarding the Brazilian energy system it may be inferred that: (1) diesel technologies are estimated to be the most cost-effective thermal technology in the country; (2) wind technology is estimated to be the most cost-effective technology to be used when a minimum share of renewables is imposed to the system; and (3) hydroelectric technologies present the highest cost/benefit relation among all conversion technologies considered. These results are subject to the limitations of key input

  12. Rendimento do arroz e manejo da irrigação e da palha de azevém no sistema mix de pré-germinado Rice yield and management of irrigation and ryegrass straw on flooded rice in no tillage and water seed system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo González Pinto

    2003-04-01

    Full Text Available A incidência de arroz vermelho na cultura do arroz irrigado tem praticamente inviabilizado o cultivo em muitas áreas do Rio Grande do Sul, destacando-se como um dos principais entraves ao aumento da produtividade. Uma alternativa para minimizar o problema é o sistema mix de pré-germinado, que consiste em utilizar sementes pré-germinadas, em área com vegetação dessecada e previamente inundada. O sistema apresenta vantagens técnicas e econômicas na cadeia de produção. Entretanto, a decomposição anaeróbia da palha presente na área, após o alagamento, pode provocar a formação de substâncias tóxicas afetando o estabelecimento das plântulas. Este trabalho teve como objetivo determinar o efeito do manejo da água de irrigação e das quantidades de palha de azevém no rendimento de grãos e componentes de produção do arroz irrigado no sistema mix de pré-germinado. O experimento foi conduzido em casa de vegetação, no ano agrícola 1998/99, em PLANOSSOLO HIDROMÓRFICO Eutrófico arênico, pertencente à unidade de mapeamento Vacacaí, na Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, em Santa Maria. - RS, utilizando-se a cultivar IRGA 417, em resteva de azevém. Os tratamentos foram avaliados em delineamento inteiramente casualizado, no arranjo fatorial (3x3, com dois fatores: (i manejo da água em três níveis (lâmina estagnada, com drenagem e com fluxo de superfície e (ii palha de azevém em três quantidades (0,00 t ha-1, 3,43 t ha-1 e 6,86 t ha-1. Os resultados evidenciam que, no sistema mix de pré-germinado, mantendo-se uma lâmina estagnada sobre o solo, reduz-se a massa seca total e o rendimento de grãos de arroz em relação ao manejo da água com drenagem e com fluxo de superfície. O aumento na quantidade de palha de azevém na cultura do arroz no sistema de cultivo mix de pré-germinado, sem fluxo de água em superfície ou drenagem, reduz o rendimento de grãos.The incidence of red rice on flooded rice production is a

  13. Non-flood season neap tides in the Yangtze estuary offshore: Flow mixing processes and its potential impacts on adjacent wetlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Taoyuan; Wang, Zhanghua; Chen, Jing; Li, Maotian

    2018-02-01

    How flow mixing process influences the wetlands of the Yangtze Estuary is still poorly understood. Hydrological fieldwork was conducted on five vessel-anchored sites (S1-S2; M1-M2-M3) near the major wetlands of the Yangtze Estuary offshore (121°57‧-122°30‧E, 30°50‧-31°23‧N) on May 8-11 2004, to examine the dynamics of neap tides in the non-flood season of the Yangtze (∼24, 700 m3s-1 at Datong) and their impacts on adjacent wetlands. Based on the measurement of the acoustic Doppler current profiler (aDcp), direct-reading current meter and optical backscattering sensor (OBS-3A), two flow patterns were revealed: 1) well mixing flow pattern caused by the turbulent tidal currents, and 2) weak mixing flow pattern resulted by the estuarine circulation in the North Port of the estuary. The characteristics of such different flow patterns were analyzed and resultant sediment dispersals were discussed in relation to the adjacent wetlands. It is suggested that the estuarine circulation might be the important process to nourish the eastern wetland of the Yangtze Estuary which has been neglected before.

  14. Quantification of Uncertainty in the Flood Frequency Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasiapillai Sudalaimuthu, K.; He, J.; Swami, D.

    2017-12-01

    Flood frequency analysis (FFA) is usually carried out for planning and designing of water resources and hydraulic structures. Owing to the existence of variability in sample representation, selection of distribution and estimation of distribution parameters, the estimation of flood quantile has been always uncertain. Hence, suitable approaches must be developed to quantify the uncertainty in the form of prediction interval as an alternate to deterministic approach. The developed framework in the present study to include uncertainty in the FFA discusses a multi-objective optimization approach to construct the prediction interval using ensemble of flood quantile. Through this approach, an optimal variability of distribution parameters is identified to carry out FFA. To demonstrate the proposed approach, annual maximum flow data from two gauge stations (Bow river at Calgary and Banff, Canada) are used. The major focus of the present study was to evaluate the changes in magnitude of flood quantiles due to the recent extreme flood event occurred during the year 2013. In addition, the efficacy of the proposed method was further verified using standard bootstrap based sampling approaches and found that the proposed method is reliable in modeling extreme floods as compared to the bootstrap methods.

  15. Indirect Damage of Urban Flooding: Investigation of Flood-Induced Traffic Congestion Using Dynamic Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jingxuan Zhu

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In many countries, industrialization has led to rapid urbanization. Increased frequency of urban flooding is one consequence of the expansion of urban areas which can seriously affect the productivity and livelihoods of urban residents. Therefore, it is of vital importance to study the effects of rainfall and urban flooding on traffic congestion and driver behavior. In this study, a comprehensive method to analyze the influence of urban flooding on traffic congestion was developed. First, a flood simulation was conducted to predict the spatiotemporal distribution of flooding based on Storm Water Management Model (SWMM and TELAMAC-2D. Second, an agent-based model (ABM was used to simulate driver behavior during a period of urban flooding, and a car-following model was established. Finally, in order to study the mechanisms behind how urban flooding affects traffic congestion, the impact of flooding on urban traffic was investigated based on a case study of the urban area of Lishui, China, covering an area of 4.4 km2. It was found that for most events, two-hour rainfall has a certain impact on traffic congestion over a five-hour period, with the greatest impact during the hour following the cessation of the rain. Furthermore, the effects of rainfall with 10- and 20-year return periods were found to be similar and small, whereas the effects with a 50-year return period were obvious. Based on a combined analysis of hydrology and transportation, the proposed methods and conclusions could help to reduce traffic congestion during flood seasons, to facilitate early warning and risk management of urban flooding, and to assist users in making informed decisions regarding travel.

  16. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) of paddy fields: A water-saving technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salim, M.; Shehzad, F.D.

    2008-01-01

    Rice productivity in Pakistan is lower than in various rice-producing countries of the World. One of the major reasons of low productivity is the shortage of water. It is, therefore, imperative to increase water-use efficiency. Various studies in China and elsewhere have revealed that continuous flooding is not necessary for getting high yield of rice. In China, lot of effort has been made to develop water- saving rice-production technologies. The most important of these is alternate wetting and drying (AWD) of rice-fields, instead of keeping them continuously flooded or submerged. In the present article, salient advantages and disadvantages have been discussed. The advantages include less water-use for paddy-production, high paddy-productivity, and improvement in the environment, with enhanced efficiency of nutrient-use, better utilization of rainwater, less infestation/ population of insect pests. The technology may affect the grain-quality of Basmati rice in Pakistan. It is suggested that studies. on various aspects of the technology should be carried out, in various ecological zones and in different soil-types. The adoption of the technology may prove helpful to enhance rice-productivity and improve the rural economy in Pakistan. (author)

  17. Flood inundation maps and water-surface profiles for tropical storm Irene and selected annual exceedance probability floods for Flint Brook and the Third Branch White River in Roxbury, Vermont

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahearn, Elizabeth A.; Lombard, Pamela J.

    2014-01-01

    for the 10-, 2-, 1, or 0.2-percent annual exceedance probabilities. The simulated water-surface elevations for August 2011 flood equal the elevations of State Route 12A about 500 ft downstream of Thurston Hill Road adjacent to the troughs between the rearing ponds. Four flood mitigation alternatives being considered by the Vermont Agency of Transportation to improve the hydraulic performance of Flint Brook and reduce the risk of flooding at the hatchery include: (A) no changes to the infrastructure or existing alignment of Flint Brook (existing conditions [2014]), (B) structural changes to the bridges and the existing retaining wall along Flint Brook, (C) realignment of Flint Brook to flow along the south side of Oxbow Road to accommodate larger stream discharges, and (D) a diversion channel for flows greater than 1-percent annual exceedance probability. Although the 10-, 2-, and 1-percent AEP floods do not flood the hatchery under alternative A (no changes to the infrastructure), the 0.2-percent AEP flow still poses a flooding threat to the hatchery because flow will continue to overtop the existing retaining wall and flood the hatchery. Under the other mitigation alternatives (B, C, and D) that include some variation of structural changes to bridges, a retaining wall, and (or) channel, the peak discharges for the 10-, 2-, 1-, and 0.2-percent annual exceedance probabilities do not flood the hatchery. Water-surface profiles and flood inundation maps of the August 2011 flood and the 10-, 2-, 1-, and 0.2-percent AEPs for four mitigation alternatives were developed for Flint Brook and the Third Branch White River in the vicinity of the hatchery and can be used by the Federal, State, and local agencies to better understand the potential for future flooding at the hatchery.

  18. Application of optimization technique for flood damage modeling in river system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barman, Sangita Deb; Choudhury, Parthasarathi

    2018-04-01

    A river system is defined as a network of channels that drains different parts of a basin uniting downstream to form a common outflow. An application of various models found in literatures, to a river system having multiple upstream flows is not always straight forward, involves a lengthy procedure; and with non-availability of data sets model calibration and applications may become difficult. In the case of a river system the flow modeling can be simplified to a large extent if the channel network is replaced by an equivalent single channel. In the present work optimization model formulations based on equivalent flow and applications of the mixed integer programming based pre-emptive goal programming model in evaluating flood control alternatives for a real life river system in India are proposed to be covered in the study.

  19. Use of Conventional and Alternative Tobacco and Nicotine Products Among a Sample of Canadian Youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Czoli, Christine D; Hammond, David; Reid, Jessica L; Cole, Adam G; Leatherdale, Scott T

    2015-07-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the use of conventional and alternative tobacco and nicotine products among secondary school students. Respondents were 44,163 grade 9-12 students who participated in Year 2 (2013-2014) of COMPASS, a cohort study of 89 purposefully sampled secondary schools in Ontario and Alberta, Canada. Past-month use of various tobacco and nicotine products was assessed, as well as correlates of use, using a generalized linear mixed effects model. Overall, 21.2% of the sample reported past-month use of any tobacco or nicotine product, with 7.2% reporting past-month use of e-cigarettes. E-cigarette users reported significantly greater prevalence of current use for all products. Students who were male, white, had more spending money, and had a history of tobacco use were more likely to report past-month use of e-cigarettes. Approximately one fifth of youth reported past-month use of a nicotine product, with e-cigarettes being the third most common product. Overall, the findings suggest a rapidly evolving nicotine market. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Mixed Solvent Reactive Recrystallization of Sodium Carbonate

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gaertner, R.S.

    2005-01-01

    Investigation of the reactive recrystallization of trona (sodium sesquicarbonate) and sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate (soda) in a mixed solvent led to the design of several alternative, less energy consumptive, economically very attractive process routes for the production of soda from all

  1. Production Costs of Alternative Transportation Fuels. Influence of Crude Oil Price and Technology Maturity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cazzola, Pierpaolo; Morrison, Geoff; Kaneko, Hiroyuki; Cuenot, Francois; Ghandi, Abbas; Fulton, Lewis

    2013-07-01

    This study examines the production costs of a range of transport fuels and energy carriers under varying crude oil price assumptions and technology market maturation levels. An engineering ''bottom-up'' approach is used to estimate the effect of the input cost of oil and of various technological assumptions on the finished price of these fuels. In total, the production costs of 20 fuels are examined for crude oil prices between USD 60 and USD 150 per barrel. Some fuel pathways can be competitive with oil as their production, transport and storage technology matures, and as oil price increases. Rising oil prices will offer new opportunities to switch to alternative fuels for transport, to diversify the energy mix of the transport sector, and to reduce the exposure of the whole system to price volatility and potential distuption of supply. In a time of uncertainty about the leading vehicle technology to decarbonize the transport sector, looking at the fuel cost brings key information to be considered to keep mobility affordable yet sustainable.

  2. A review on applications of nanotechnology in the enhanced oil recovery part B: effects of nanoparticles on flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheraghian, Goshtasp; Hendraningrat, Luky

    2016-11-01

    Chemical flooding is of increasing interest and importance due to high oil prices and the need to increase oil production. Research in nanotechnology in the petroleum industry is advancing rapidly, and an enormous progress in the application of nanotechnology in this area is to be expected. The nanotechnology has been widely used in several other industries, and the interest in the oil industry is increasing. Nanotechnology has the potential to profoundly change enhanced oil recovery and to improve mechanism of recovery, and it is chosen as an alternative method to unlock the remaining oil resources and applied as a new enhanced oil recovery method in last decade. This paper therefore focuses on the reviews of the application of nanotechnology in chemical flooding process in oil recovery and reviews the applications of nanomaterials for improving oil recovery that have been proposed to explain oil displacement by polymer flooding within oil reservoirs, and also this paper highlights the research advances of polymer in oil recovery. Nanochemical flooding is an immature method from an application point of view.

  3. Using Polymer Alternating Gas to Enhance Oil Recovery in Heavy Oil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yongzhi; Li, Weirong; Zhou, Tiyao; Dong, Zhenzhen

    2018-02-01

    CO2 has been used to recover oil for more than 40 years. Currently, about 43% of EOR production in U.S. is from CO2 flooding. CO2 flooding is a well-established EOR technique, but its density and viscosity nature are challenges for CO2 projects. Low density (0.5 to 0.8 g/cm3) causes gas to rise upward in reservoirs and bypass many lower portions of the reservoir. Low viscosity (0.02 to 0.08 cp) leads to poor volumetric sweep efficiency. So water-alternating-gas (WAG) method was used to control the mobility of CO2 and improve sweep efficiency. However, WAG process has some other problems in heavy oil reservoir, such as poor mobility ratio and gravity overriding. To examine the applicability of carbon dioxide to recover viscous oil from highly heterogeneous reservoirs, this study suggests a new EOR method--polymer-alternating gas (PAG) process. The process involves a combination of polymer flooding and CO2 injection. To confirm the effectiveness of PAG process in heavy oils, a reservoir model from Liaohe Oilfield is used to compare the technical and economic performance among PAG, WAG and polymer flooding. Simulation results show that PAG method would increase oil recovery over 10% compared with other EOR methods and PAG would be economically success based on assumption in this study. This study is the first to apply PAG to enhance oil recovery in heavy oil reservoir with highly heterogeneous. Besides, this paper provides detailed discussions and comparison about PAG with other EOR methods in this heavy oil reservoir.

  4. Virtual reality in urban water management: communicating urban flooding with particle-based CFD simulations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winkler, Daniel; Zischg, Jonatan; Rauch, Wolfgang

    2018-01-01

    For communicating urban flood risk to authorities and the public, a realistic three-dimensional visual display is frequently more suitable than detailed flood maps. Virtual reality could also serve to plan short-term flooding interventions. We introduce here an alternative approach for simulating three-dimensional flooding dynamics in large- and small-scale urban scenes by reaching out to computer graphics. This approach, denoted 'particle in cell', is a particle-based CFD method that is used to predict physically plausible results instead of accurate flow dynamics. We exemplify the approach for the real flooding event in July 2016 in Innsbruck.

  5. [A systematic review of the effectiveness of alternative weight-loss products' ingredients].

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Lira-García, Cynthia; Souto-Gallardo, María; Bacardí-Gascón, Monserrat; Jiménez-Cruz, Arturo

    2008-01-01

    The high demand for obesity treatment and conventional therapies' lack of effectiveness increases the use of alternative products. This study was aimed at assessing evidence from randomised clinical trials regarding the effectiveness of alternative weight-loss products' ingredients. A survey was conducted in Ensenada, Baja California, to assess the frequency of consuming alternative products used for weight reduction. The ingredients in the products most in demand were included in this review. The Pubmed database was searched for all randomised clinical trial papers including these ingredients and assessing weight loss. Thirty-six percent of the subjects questioned had used alternative methods for weight-loss, 83% of them being women. The most frequently used products were shakes, tea, pills and flaxseed/linseed. Sixteen randomised clinical trials using four ingredients were used: Garcinia cambogia, green tea, L-carnitina and flaxseed. Only two studies (green tea and Garcinia cambogia) showed significant weight-loss (25%) amongst control and experimental groups. There was no significant difference between the groups in the studies regarding L-carnitina and flaxseed. There is a lack of evidence regarding quality studies justifying the use of alternative products for weight loss.

  6. Flooding and its Effect on Trees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephen Bratkovich; Lisa Burban; Steven Katovich; Craig Locey; Jill Pokorny; Richard Wiest

    1993-01-01

    The 1993 floods along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and their tributaries have caused tremendous losses in terms of human life, homes, businesses and crop production. Bottomland areas have been under water for many weeks. Landowners, homeowners, foresters, park managers, and others are concerned about the long-term effect of the flooding on the forests of the...

  7. Production of new vector bosons from alternative models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chiappetta, P.; Fiandrino, A.; Taxil, P.

    1992-01-01

    Some effective alternative models are considered, introduced on the basis of compositeness, which are based on SU(2) WI weak isospin symmetry broken down explicitly to U(1) em via the mixing of the photon with the mental member W (3) of on SU(2) WI triplet of vector bosons. Besides W + ,W - and Z isoscalar neutral vectors, Y(Y L ) can be added which couple to the fuel hypercharge current or only to its left-handed part. Both Y and Y L models are tested. (K.A.) 9 refs., 4 figs

  8. The Importance of Studying Past Extreme Floods to Prepare for Uncertain Future Extremes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burges, S. J.

    2016-12-01

    Hoyt and Langbein, 1955 in their book `Floods' wrote: " ..meteorologic and hydrologic conditions will combine to produce superfloods of unprecedented magnitude. We have every reason to believe that in most rivers past floods may not be an accurate measure of ultimate flood potentialities. It is this superflood with which we are always most concerned". I provide several examples to offer some historical perspective on assessing extreme floods. In one example, flooding in the Miami Valley, OH in 1913 claimed 350 lives. The engineering and socio-economic challenges facing the Morgan Engineering Co in how to mitigate against future flood damage and loss of life when limited information was available provide guidance about ways to face an uncertain hydroclimate future, particularly one of a changed climate. A second example forces us to examine mixed flood populations and illustrates the huge uncertainty in assigning flood magnitude and exceedance probability to extreme floods in such cases. There is large uncertainty in flood frequency estimates; knowledge of the total flood hydrograph, not the peak flood flow rate alone, is what is needed for hazard mitigation assessment or design. Some challenges in estimating the complete flood hydrograph in an uncertain future climate, including demands on hydrologic models and their inputs, are addressed.

  9. Species mixing effects on forest productivity in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lu, Huicui

    2017-01-01

    Many monoculture forests (dominated by a single tree species) have been converted to mixed-species forests (dominated by more than one tree species) in Europe over the last decades. The main reason for this conversion was to increase productivity, including timber production, and enhance other

  10. Introduction to SNPP/VIIRS Flood Mapping Software Version 1.0

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, S.; Sun, D.; Goldberg, M.; Sjoberg, W.; Santek, D.; Hoffman, J.

    2017-12-01

    Near real-time satellite-derived flood maps are invaluable to river forecasters and decision-makers for disaster monitoring and relief efforts. With support from the JPSS (Joint Polar Satellite System) Proving Ground and Risk Reduction (PGRR) Program, flood detection software has been developed using Suomi-NPP/VIIRS (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership/Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) imagery to automatically generate near real-time flood maps for National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFC) in the USA. The software, which is called VIIRS NOAA GMU Flood Version 1.0 (hereafter referred to as VNG Flood V1.0), consists of a series of algorithms that include water detection, cloud shadow removal, terrain shadow removal, minor flood detection, water fraction retrieval, and floodwater determination. The software is designed for flood detection in any land region between 80°S and 80°N, and it has been running routinely with direct broadcast SNPP/VIIRS data at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW/SSEC) and the Geographic Information Network of Alaska at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF/GINA) since 2014. Near real-time flood maps are distributed via the Unidata Local Data Manager (LDM), reviewed by river forecasters in AWIPS-II (the second generation of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System) and applied in flood operations. Initial feedback from operational forecasters on the product accuracy and performance has been largely positive. The software capability has also been extended to areas outside of the USA via a case-driven mode to detect major floods all over the world. Offline validation efforts include the visual inspection of over 10,000 VIIRS false-color composite images, an inter-comparison with MODIS automatic flood products and a quantitative evaluation using Landsat imagery. The steady performance from the 3-year routine process and the promising validation results

  11. Study on Applicability of Conceptual Hydrological Models for Flood Forecasting in Humid, Semi-Humid Semi-Arid and Arid Basins in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guangyuan Kan

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Flood simulation and forecasting in various types of watersheds is a hot issue in hydrology. Conceptual hydrological models have been widely applied to flood forecasting for decades. With the development of economy, modern China faces with severe flood disasters in all types of watersheds include humid, semi-humid semi-arid and arid watersheds. However, conceptual model-based flood forecasting in semi-humid semi-arid and arid regions is still challenging. To investigate the applicability of conceptual hydrological models for flood forecasting in the above mentioned regions, three typical conceptual models, include Xinanjiang (XAJ, mix runoff generation (MIX and northern Shannxi (NS, are applied to 3 humid, 3 semi-humid semi-arid, and 3 arid watersheds. The rainfall-runoff data of the 9 watersheds are analyzed based on statistical analysis and information theory, and the model performances are compared and analyzed based on boxplots and scatter plots. It is observed the complexity of drier watershed data is higher than that of the wetter watersheds. This indicates the flood forecasting is harder in drier watersheds. Simulation results indicate all models perform satisfactorily in humid watersheds and only NS model is applicable in arid watersheds. Model with consideration of saturation excess runoff generation (XAJ and MIX perform better than the infiltration excess-based NS model in semi-humid semi-arid watersheds. It is concluded more accurate mix runoff generation theory, more stable and efficient numerical solution of infiltration equation and rainfall data with higher spatial-temporal resolution are main obstacles for conceptual model-based flood simulation and forecasting.

  12. Mixed Waste Management Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brummond, W.; Celeste, J.; Steenhoven, J.

    1993-08-01

    The DOE has developed a National Mixed Waste Strategic Plan which calls for the construction of 2 to 9 mixed waste treatment centers in the Complex in the near future. LLNL is working to establish an integrated mixed waste technology development and demonstration system facility, the Mixed Waste Management Facility (MWMF), to support the DOE National Mixed Waste Strategic Plan. The MWMF will develop, demonstrate, test, and evaluate incinerator-alternatives which will comply with regulations governing the treatment and disposal of organic mixed wastes. LLNL will provide the DOE with engineering data for design and operation of new technologies which can be implemented in their mixed waste treatment centers. MWMF will operate under real production plant conditions and process samples of real LLNL mixed waste. In addition to the destruction of organic mixed wastes, the development and demonstration will include waste feed preparation, material transport systems, aqueous treatment, off-gas treatment, and final forms, thus making it an integrated ''cradle to grave'' demonstration. Technologies from offsite as well as LLNL's will be tested and evaluated when they are ready for a pilot scale demonstration, according to the needs of the DOE

  13. Sustainability Concept in Decision-Making: Carbon Tax Consideration for Joint Product Mix Decision

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wen-Hsien Tsai

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Carbon emissions are receiving greater scrutiny in many countries due to international forces to reduce anthropogenic global climate change. Carbon taxation is one of the most common carbon emission regulation policies, and companies must incorporate it into their production and pricing decisions. Activity-based costing (ABC and the theory of constraints (TOC have been applied to solve product mix problems; however, a challenging aspect of the product mix problem involves evaluating joint manufactured products, while reducing carbon emissions and environmental pollution to fulfill social responsibility. The aim of this paper is to apply ABC and TOC to analyze green product mix decision-making for joint products using a mathematical programming model and the joint production data of pharmaceutical industry companies for the processing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs in drugs for medical use. This paper illustrates that the time-driven ABC model leads to optimal joint product mix decisions and performs sensitivity analysis to study how the optimal solution will change with the carbon tax. Our findings provide insight into ‘sustainability decisions’ and are beneficial in terms of environmental management in a competitive pharmaceutical industry.

  14. Flood effects on efflux and net production of nitrous oxide in river floodplain soils

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riaz, Muhammad; Bruderer, Christian; Niklaus, Pascal A.; Luster, Jörg

    2016-04-01

    Floodplain soils are often rich in nutrients and exhibit high spatial heterogeneity in terms of geomorphology, soil environmental conditions and substrate availability for processes involved in carbon and nutrient cycling. In addition, fluctuating water tables lead to temporally changing redox conditions. In such systems, there are ideal conditions for the occurrence of hot spots and moments of nitrous oxide emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. The factors that govern the spatial heterogeneity and dynamics of N2O formation in floodplain soils and the surface efflux of this gas are not fully understood. A particular issue is the contribution of N2O formation in the subsoil to surface efflux. We studied this question in the floodplain of a restored section of the Thur river (NE Switzerland) which is characterized by a flashy flow regime. As a consequence, the floodplain soils are unsaturated most of the time. We showed earlier that saturation during flood pulses leads to short phases of generally anoxic conditions followed by a drying phase with anoxic conditions within aggregates and oxic conditions in larger soil pores. The latter conditions are conducive for spatially closely-coupled nitrification-denitrification and related hot moments of nitrous oxide formation. In a floodplain zone characterized by about one meter of young, sandy sediments, that are mostly covered by the tall grass Phalaris arundinacea, we measured at several time points before and after a small flood event N2O surface efflux with the closed-chamber method, and assessed N2O concentrations in the soil air at four different depths using gas-permeable tubings. In addition, we calculated the N2O diffusivity in the soil from Radon diffusivity. The latter was estimated in-situ from the recovery of Radon concentration in the gas-permeable tubings after purging with ambient air. All these data were then used to calculate net N2O production rates at different soil depths with the gradient method. In

  15. Levee Setbacks: An Innovative, Cost Effective, and Sustainable Solution for Improved Flood Risk management

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-06-30

    ER D C/ EL S R- 17 -3 Levee Setbacks: An Innovative , Cost-Effective, and Sustainable Solution for Improved Flood Risk Management En vi...EL SR-17-3 June 2017 Levee Setbacks: An Innovative , Cost-Effective, and Sustainable Solution for Improved Flood Risk Management David L. Smith...alternative view point is necessary. ERDC/EL SR-17-3 4 Levee setbacks are a relatively recent innovation in Corps flood risk management practice

  16. Alternative solvents for natural products extraction

    CERN Document Server

    Chemat, Farid

    2014-01-01

    This book presents a complete picture of the current state-of-the-art in alternative and green solvents used for laboratory and industrial natural product extraction in terms of the latest innovations, original methods and safe products. It provides the necessary theoretical background and details on extraction, techniques, mechanisms, protocols, industrial applications, safety precautions and environmental impacts. This book is aimed at professionals from industry, academicians engaged in extraction engineering or natural product chemistry research, and graduate level students. The individual chapters complement one another, were written by respected international researchers and recognized professionals from the industry, and address the latest efforts in the field. It is also the first sourcebook to focus on the rapid developments in this field.

  17. Hydrogen Production by Geobacter Species and a Mixed Consortium in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell

    KAUST Repository

    Call, D. F.

    2009-10-09

    A hydrogen utilizing exoelectrogenic bacterium (Geobacter sulfurreducens) was compared to both a nonhydrogen oxidizer (Geobacter metallireducens) and a mixed consortium in order to compare the hydrogen production rates and hydrogen recoveries of pure and mixed cultures in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). At an applied voltage of 0.7 V, both G. sulfurreducens and the mixed culture generated similar current densities (ca. 160 A/m3), resulting in hydrogen production rates of ca. 1.9 m3 H2/m 3/day, whereas G. metallireducens exhibited lower current densities and production rates of 110 ± 7 A/m3 and 1.3 ± 0.1 m3 H2/m3/day, respectively. Before methane was detected in the mixed-culture MEC, the mixed consortium achieved the highest overall energy recovery (relative to both electricity and substrate energy inputs) of 82% ± 8% compared to G. sulfurreducens (77% ± 2%) and G. metallireducens (78% ± 5%), due to the higher coulombic efficiency of the mixed consortium. At an applied voltage of 0.4 V, methane production increased in the mixed-culture MEC and, as a result, the hydrogen recovery decreased and the overall energy recovery dropped to 38% ± 16% compared to 80% ± 5% for G. sulfurreducens and 76% ± 0% for G. metallireducens. Internal hydrogen recycling was confirmed since the mixed culture generated a stable current density of 31 ± 0 A/m3 when fed hydrogen gas, whereas G. sulfurreducens exhibited a steady decrease in current production. Community analysis suggested that G. sulfurreducens was predominant in the mixed-culture MEC (72% of clones) despite its relative absence in the mixed-culture inoculum obtained from a microbial fuel cell reactor (2% of clones). These results demonstrate that Geobacter species are capable of obtaining similar hydrogen production rates and energy recoveries as mixed cultures in an MEC and that high coulombic efficiencies in mixed culture MECs can be attributed in part to the recycling of hydrogen into current. Copyright

  18. Hydrogen Production by Geobacter Species and a Mixed Consortium in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell▿

    Science.gov (United States)

    Call, Douglas F.; Wagner, Rachel C.; Logan, Bruce E.

    2009-01-01

    A hydrogen utilizing exoelectrogenic bacterium (Geobacter sulfurreducens) was compared to both a nonhydrogen oxidizer (Geobacter metallireducens) and a mixed consortium in order to compare the hydrogen production rates and hydrogen recoveries of pure and mixed cultures in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). At an applied voltage of 0.7 V, both G. sulfurreducens and the mixed culture generated similar current densities (ca. 160 A/m3), resulting in hydrogen production rates of ca. 1.9 m3 H2/m3/day, whereas G. metallireducens exhibited lower current densities and production rates of 110 ± 7 A/m3 and 1.3 ± 0.1 m3 H2/m3/day, respectively. Before methane was detected in the mixed-culture MEC, the mixed consortium achieved the highest overall energy recovery (relative to both electricity and substrate energy inputs) of 82% ± 8% compared to G. sulfurreducens (77% ± 2%) and G. metallireducens (78% ± 5%), due to the higher coulombic efficiency of the mixed consortium. At an applied voltage of 0.4 V, methane production increased in the mixed-culture MEC and, as a result, the hydrogen recovery decreased and the overall energy recovery dropped to 38% ± 16% compared to 80% ± 5% for G. sulfurreducens and 76% ± 0% for G. metallireducens. Internal hydrogen recycling was confirmed since the mixed culture generated a stable current density of 31 ± 0 A/m3 when fed hydrogen gas, whereas G. sulfurreducens exhibited a steady decrease in current production. Community analysis suggested that G. sulfurreducens was predominant in the mixed-culture MEC (72% of clones) despite its relative absence in the mixed-culture inoculum obtained from a microbial fuel cell reactor (2% of clones). These results demonstrate that Geobacter species are capable of obtaining similar hydrogen production rates and energy recoveries as mixed cultures in an MEC and that high coulombic efficiencies in mixed culture MECs can be attributed in part to the recycling of hydrogen into current. PMID:19820150

  19. Evaluation of the efficiency of alternative enzyme production technologies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Albæk, Mads Orla

    Enzymes are used in an increasing number of industries. The application of enzymes is extending into the production of lignocellulosic ethanol in processes that economically can compete with fossil fuels. Since lignocellulosic ethanol is based on renewable resources it will have a positive impact...... production of cellulases and hemi-cellulases. The aim of the thesiswas to use modeling tools to identify alternative technologies that have higher energy or raw material efficiency than the current technology. The enzyme production by T. reesei was conducted as an aerobic fed-batch fermentation. The process...... of the uncertainty and sensitivity of the model indicated the biological parameters to be responsible for most of the model uncertainty. A number of alternative fermentation technologies for enzyme production were identified in the open literature. Their mass transfer capabilities and their energy efficiencies were...

  20. Biotechnological processes for biodiesel production using alternative oils

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Azocar, Laura; Ciudad, Gustavo [La Frontera Univ., Temuco (Chile). Nucleo Cietifico Tecnologico en Biorrecursos; Heipieper, Hermann J. [Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Leipzig (Germany). Dept. of Environmental Biotechnology; Navia, Rodrigo [La Frontera Univ., Temuco (Chile). Nucleo Cietifico Tecnologico en Biorrecursos; La Frontera Univ., Temuco (Chile). Dept. de Ingenieria Quimica

    2010-10-15

    As biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester (FAME)) is mainly produced from edible vegetable oils, crop soils are used for its production, increasing deforestation and producing a fuel more expensive than diesel. The use of waste lipids such as waste frying oils, waste fats, and soapstock has been proposed as low-cost alternative feedstocks. Non-edible oils such as jatropha, pongamia, and rubber seed oil are also economically attractive. In addition, microalgae, bacteria, yeast, and fungi with 20% or higher lipid content are oleaginous microorganisms known as single cell oil and have been proposed as feedstocks for FAME production. Alternative feedstocks are characterized by their elevated acid value due to the high level of free fatty acid (FFA) content, causing undesirable saponification reactions when an alkaline catalyst is used in the transesterification reaction. The production of soap consumes the conventional catalyst, diminishing FAME production yield and simultaneously preventing the effective separation of the produced FAME from the glycerin phase. These problems could be solved using biological catalysts, such as lipases or whole-cell catalysts, avoiding soap production as the FFAs are esterified to FAME. In addition, by-product glycerol can be easily recovered, and the purification of FAME is simplified using biological catalysts. (orig.)

  1. Alternative indicators for measuring hospital productivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serway, G D; Strum, D W; Haug, W F

    1987-08-01

    This article explores the premise that the appropriateness and usefulness of typical hospital productivity measures have been affected by three changes in delivery: Organizational restructuring and other definition and data source changes that make full-time equivalent employee (FTE) measurements ambiguous. Transition to prospective payment (diagnosis-related groups). Increase in capitation (prepaid, at risk) programs. The effects of these changes on productivity management indicate the need for alternative productivity indicators. Several productivity measures that complement these changes in internal operations and the external hospital business environment are presented. These are based on an analysis of four hospitals within a multihospital system, and an illustration and interpretation of an array of measures, based on ten months of actual data, is provided. In conclusion, the recommendation is made for hospital management to collect an expanded set of productivity measures and review them in light of changing expense and revenue management schemes inherent in new payment modes.

  2. Effect of seasonal flooding cycle on litterfall production in alluvial rainforest on the middle Xingu River (Amazon basin, Brazil).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camargo, M; Giarrizzo, T; Jesus, A J S

    2015-08-01

    The assumption for this study was that litterfall in floodplain environments of the middle Xingu river follows a pattern of seasonal variation. According to this view, litterfall production (total and fractions) was estimated in four alluvial rainforest sites on the middle Xingu River over an annual cycle, and examined the effect of seasonal flooding cycle. The sites included two marginal flooded forests of insular lakes (Ilha Grande and Pimentel) and two flooded forests on the banks of the Xingu itself (Boa Esperança and Arroz Cru). Total litterfall correlated with rainfall and river levels, but whereas the leaf and fruit fractions followed this general pattern, the flower fraction presented an inverse pattern, peaking in the dry season. The litterfall patterns recorded in the present study were consistent with those recorded at other Amazonian sites, and in some other tropical ecosystems.

  3. PLC based automatic control of pasteurize mix in ice cream production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Xudong; Liang, Kai

    2013-03-01

    This paper describes the automatic control device of pasteurized mix in the ice cream production process.We design a scheme of control system using FBD program language and develop the programmer in the STEP 7-Micro/WIN software, check for any bugs before downloading into PLC .These developed devices will able to provide flexibility and accuracy to control the step of pasteurized mix. The operator just Input the duration and temperature of pasteurized mix through control panel. All the steps will finish automatically without any intervention in a preprogrammed sequence stored in programmable logic controller (PLC). With the help of this equipment we not only can control the quality of ice cream for various conditions, but also can simplify the production process. This control system is inexpensive and can be widely used in ice cream production industry.

  4. Uncertainty and Sensitivity of Direct Economic Flood Damages: the FloodRisk Free and Open-Source Software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albano, R.; Sole, A.; Mancusi, L.; Cantisani, A.; Perrone, A.

    2017-12-01

    The considerable increase of flood damages in the the past decades has shifted in Europe the attention from protection against floods to managing flood risks. In this context, the expected damages assessment represents a crucial information within the overall flood risk management process. The present paper proposes an open source software, called FloodRisk, that is able to operatively support stakeholders in the decision making processes with a what-if approach by carrying out the rapid assessment of the flood consequences, in terms of direct economic damage and loss of human lives. The evaluation of the damage scenarios, trough the use of the GIS software proposed here, is essential for cost-benefit or multi-criteria analysis of risk mitigation alternatives. However, considering that quantitative assessment of flood damages scenarios is characterized by intrinsic uncertainty, a scheme has been developed to identify and quantify the role of the input parameters in the total uncertainty of flood loss model application in urban areas with mild terrain and complex topography. By the concept of parallel models, the contribution of different module and input parameters to the total uncertainty is quantified. The results of the present case study have exhibited a high epistemic uncertainty on the damage estimation module and, in particular, on the type and form of the utilized damage functions, which have been adapted and transferred from different geographic and socio-economic contexts because there aren't depth-damage functions that are specifically developed for Italy. Considering that uncertainty and sensitivity depend considerably on local characteristics, the epistemic uncertainty associated with the risk estimate is reduced by introducing additional information into the risk analysis. In the light of the obtained results, it is evident the need to produce and disseminate (open) data to develop micro-scale vulnerability curves. Moreover, the urgent need to push

  5. Field-flood requirements for emission computed tomography with an Anger camer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rogers, W.L.; Clinthorne, N.H.; Harkness, B.A.; Koral, K.F.; Keyes, J.W. Jr.

    1982-01-01

    Emission computed tomography with a rotating camera places stringent requirements on camera uniformity and the stability of camera response. In terms of clinical tomographic imaging, we have studied the statistical accuracy required for camera flood correction, the requirements for flood accuracy, the utility and validity of flood and data image smoothing to reduce random noise effects, and the magnitude and effect of camera variations as a function of angular position, energy window, and tuning. Uniformity of the corrected flood response must be held to better than 1% to eliminate image artifacts that are apparent in a million-count image of a liver slice. This requires calibration with an accurate, well-mixed flood source. Both random fluctuations and variations in camera response with rotation must be kept below 1%. To meet the statistical limit, one requires at least 30 million counts for the flod-correction image. Smoothing the flood image alone introduces unacceptable image artifacts. Smoothing both the flood image and data, however, appears to be a good approach toward reducing noise effects. Careful camera tuning and magnetic shield design provide camera stability suitable for present clinical applications

  6. Flood hazard assessment in areas prone to flash flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kvočka, Davor; Falconer, Roger A.; Bray, Michaela

    2016-04-01

    Contemporary climate projections suggest that there will be an increase in the occurrence of high-intensity rainfall events in the future. These precipitation extremes are usually the main cause for the emergence of extreme flooding, such as flash flooding. Flash floods are among the most unpredictable, violent and fatal natural hazards in the world. Furthermore, it is expected that flash flooding will occur even more frequently in the future due to more frequent development of extreme weather events, which will greatly increase the danger to people caused by flash flooding. This being the case, there will be a need for high resolution flood hazard maps in areas susceptible to flash flooding. This study investigates what type of flood hazard assessment methods should be used for assessing the flood hazard to people caused by flash flooding. Two different types of flood hazard assessment methods were tested: (i) a widely used method based on an empirical analysis, and (ii) a new, physically based and experimentally calibrated method. Two flash flood events were considered herein, namely: the 2004 Boscastle flash flood and the 2007 Železniki flash flood. The results obtained in this study suggest that in the areas susceptible to extreme flooding, the flood hazard assessment should be conducted using methods based on a mechanics-based analysis. In comparison to standard flood hazard assessment methods, these physically based methods: (i) take into account all of the physical forces, which act on a human body in floodwater, (ii) successfully adapt to abrupt changes in the flow regime, which often occur for flash flood events, and (iii) rapidly assess a flood hazard index in a relatively short period of time.

  7. Airports offer unrealized potential for alternative energy production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeVault, Travis L; Belant, Jerrold L; Blackwell, Bradley F; Martin, James A; Schmidt, Jason A; Wes Burger, L; Patterson, James W

    2012-03-01

    Scaling up for alternative energy such as solar, wind, and biofuel raises a number of environmental issues, notably changes in land use and adverse effects on wildlife. Airports offer one of the few land uses where reductions in wildlife abundance and habitat quality are necessary and socially acceptable, due to risk of wildlife collisions with aircraft. There are several uncertainties and limitations to establishing alternative energy production at airports, such as ensuring these facilities do not create wildlife attractants or other hazards. However, with careful planning, locating alternative energy projects at airports could help mitigate many of the challenges currently facing policy makers, developers, and conservationists.

  8. Weighted normalized risk factor for floods risk assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashraf Mohamed Elmoustafa

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA describes any structured approach used to determine overall preferences among alternative options, where options accomplish certain or several objectives. The flood protection of properties is a highly important issue due to the damage, danger and other hazards associated to it to human life, properties, and environment. To determine the priority of execution of protection works for any project, many aspects should be considered in order to decide the areas to start the data collection and analysis with. Multi criteria analysis techniques were tested and evaluated for the purpose of flood risk assessment, hydro-morphological parameters were used in this analysis. Finally a suitable technique was chosen and tested to be adopted as a mark of flood risk level and results were presented.

  9. Improving Flood Damage Assessment Models in Italy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amadio, M.; Mysiak, J.; Carrera, L.; Koks, E.

    2015-12-01

    The use of Stage-Damage Curve (SDC) models is prevalent in ex-ante assessments of flood risk. To assess the potential damage of a flood event, SDCs describe a relation between water depth and the associated potential economic damage over land use. This relation is normally developed and calibrated through site-specific analysis based on ex-post damage observations. In some cases (e.g. Italy) SDCs are transferred from other countries, undermining the accuracy and reliability of simulation results. Against this background, we developed a refined SDC model for Northern Italy, underpinned by damage compensation records from a recent flood event. Our analysis considers both damage to physical assets and production losses from business interruptions. While the first is calculated based on land use information, production losses are measured through the spatial distribution of Gross Value Added (GVA). An additional component of the model assesses crop-specific agricultural losses as a function of flood seasonality. Our results show an overestimation of asset damage from non-calibrated SDC values up to a factor of 4.5 for tested land use categories. Furthermore, we estimate that production losses amount to around 6 per cent of the annual GVA. Also, maximum yield losses are less than a half of the amount predicted by the standard SDC methods.

  10. Lactic acid production from submerged fermentation of broken rice using undefined mixed culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nunes, Luiza Varela; de Barros Correa, Fabiane Fernanda; de Oliva Neto, Pedro; Mayer, Cassia Roberta Malacrida; Escaramboni, Bruna; Campioni, Tania Sila; de Barros, Natan Roberto; Herculano, Rondinelli Donizetti; Fernández Núñez, Eutimio Gustavo

    2017-04-01

    The present work aimed to characterize and optimize the submerged fermentation of broken rice for lactic acid (LA) production using undefined mixed culture from dewatered activated sludge. A microorganism with amylolytic activity, which also produces LA, Lactobacillus amylovorus, was used as a control to assess the extent of mixed culture on LA yield. Three level full factorial designs were performed to optimize and define the influence of fermentation temperature (20-50 °C), gelatinization time (30-60 min) and broken rice concentration in culture medium (40-80 g L -1 ) on LA production in pure and undefined mixed culture. LA production in mixed culture (9.76 g L -1 ) increased in sixfold respect to pure culture in optimal assessed experimental conditions. The optimal conditions for maximizing LA yield in mixed culture bioprocess were 31 °C temperature, 45 min gelatinization time and 79 g L -1 broken rice concentration in culture medium. This study demonstrated the positive effect of undefined mixed culture from dewatered activated sludge to produce LA from culture medium formulated with broken rice. In addition, this work establishes the basis for an efficient and low-cost bioprocess to manufacture LA from this booming agro-industrial by-product.

  11. Core clock, SUB1, and ABAR genes mediate flooding and drought responses via alternative splicing in soybean.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Syed, Naeem H; Prince, Silvas J; Mutava, Raymond N; Patil, Gunvant; Li, Song; Chen, Wei; Babu, Valliyodan; Joshi, Trupti; Khan, Saad; Nguyen, Henry T

    2015-12-01

    Circadian clocks are a great evolutionary innovation and provide competitive advantage during the day/night cycle and under changing environmental conditions. The circadian clock mediates expression of a large proportion of genes in plants, achieving a harmonious relationship between energy metabolism, photosynthesis, and biotic and abiotic stress responses. Here it is shown that multiple paralogues of clock genes are present in soybean (Glycine max) and mediate flooding and drought responses. Differential expression of many clock and SUB1 genes was found under flooding and drought conditions. Furthermore, natural variation in the amplitude and phase shifts in PRR7 and TOC1 genes was also discovered under drought and flooding conditions, respectively. PRR3 exhibited flooding- and drought-specific splicing patterns and may work in concert with PRR7 and TOC1 to achieve energy homeostasis under flooding and drought conditions. Higher expression of TOC1 also coincides with elevated levels of abscisic acid (ABA) and variation in glucose levels in the morning and afternoon, indicating that this response to abiotic stress is mediated by ABA, endogenous sugar levels, and the circadian clock to fine-tune photosynthesis and energy utilization under stress conditions. It is proposed that the presence of multiple clock gene paralogues with variation in DNA sequence, phase, and period could be used to screen exotic germplasm to find sources for drought and flooding tolerance. Furthermore, fine tuning of multiple clock gene paralogues (via a genetic engineering approach) should also facilitate the development of flooding- and drought-tolerant soybean varieties. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  12. Evaluation of Fermentative Hydrogen Production from Single and Mixed Fruit Wastes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julius Akinbomi

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The economic viability of employing dark fermentative hydrogen from whole fruit wastes as a green alternative to fossil fuels is limited by low hydrogen yield due to the inhibitory effect of some metabolites in the fermentation medium. In exploring means of increasing hydrogen production from fruit wastes, including orange, apple, banana, grape and melon, the present study assessed the hydrogen production potential of singly-fermented fruits as compared to the fermentation of mixed fruits. The fruit feedstock was subjected to varying hydraulic retention times (HRTs in a continuous fermentation process at 55 °C for 47 days. The weight distributions of the first, second and third fruit mixtures were 70%, 50% and 20% orange share, respectively, while the residual weight was shared equally by the other fruits. The results indicated that there was an improvement in cumulative hydrogen yield from all of the feedstock when the HRT was five days. Based on the results obtained, apple as a single fruit and a fruit mixture with 20% orange share have the most improved cumulative hydrogen yields of 504 (29.5% of theoretical yield and 513 mL/g volatile solid (VS (30% of theoretical yield , respectively, when compared to other fruits.

  13. Bio-hydrogen production from waste fermentation. Mixing and static conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gomez, X.; Cuetos, M.J.; Prieto, J.I.; Moran, A. [Chemical Engineering Dept. IRENA, University of Leon, Avda. de Portugal 41, 24071 Leon (Spain)

    2009-04-15

    One of the main disadvantages of the dark fermentation process is the cost associated with the stages needed for obtaining H{sub 2} producing microorganisms. Using anaerobic microflora in fermentation systems directly is an alternative which is gaining special interest when considering the implementation of large-scale plants and the use of wastes as substrate material. The performance of two H{sub 2} producing microflora obtained from different anaerobic cultures was studied in this paper. Inoculum obtained from a waste sludge digester and from a laboratory digester treating slaughterhouse wastes were used to start up H{sub 2} fermentation systems. Inoculum acclimatized to slaughterhouse wastes gave better performance in terms of stability. However, due to the limited availability of this seed material, further work was performed to study the behaviour of the inoculum obtained from the municipal wastewater treatment plant. The process was evaluated under static and mixing conditions. It was found that application of a low organic loading rate favoured the performance of the fermentation systems, and that agitation of the reacting mass could alleviate unsteady performance. Specific H{sub 2} production obtained was in the range of 19-26 L/kg SV{sub fed} with maximum peak production of 38-67 L/kg SV{sub fed}. Although the performance of the systems was unsteady, recovery could be achieved by suspending the feeding process and controlling the pH in the range of 5.0-5.5. Testing the recovery capacity of the systems under temperature shocks resulted in total stoppage of H{sub 2} production. (author)

  14. Cocktails of ramsons and acidic berries kill E. coli in a piglet gastrointestinal model: an alternative to antibiotics?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Højberg, Ole; Canibe, Nuria; Grevsen, Kai

    2017-01-01

    Mixing ramsons and acidic berries enhances, in a synergistic manner, the antimicrobial activity observed for the plants separately, and make the plant cocktails of interest as a feed additives as an alternative to antibiotics in both organic and conventional pig production.......Mixing ramsons and acidic berries enhances, in a synergistic manner, the antimicrobial activity observed for the plants separately, and make the plant cocktails of interest as a feed additives as an alternative to antibiotics in both organic and conventional pig production....

  15. Alternatives to L startup: new production reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hostetler, D.E.

    1983-01-01

    An alternative to renewed operation of L Reactor for increased production of nuclear materials would be the construction and operation of a New Production Reactor (NPR). This report describes a conceptual design for a low temperature heavy water reactor with no electricity generation (LTHWR-NE) to be built as a new production reactor at the Savannah River Plant (SRP). The reactor design is based on the proven SRP reactor design with enhancements and state-of-the-art equipment. Aluminum cladding temperatures would be the same as with current operations. The power and productivity of the new reactor would be greater than L Reactor by about 30%. However, the estimated time from authorization to startup is 10 years. Thus an NPR could not contribute to material production until late 1993 at the earliest

  16. First evaluation of the utility of GPM precipitation in global flood monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, H.; Yan, Y.; Gao, Z.

    2017-12-01

    The Global Flood Monitoring System (GFMS) has been developed and used to provide real-time flood detection and streamflow estimates over the last few years with significant success shown by validation against global flood event data sets and observed streamflow variations (Wu et al., 2014). It has become a tool for various national and international organizations to appraise flood conditions in various areas, including where rainfall and hydrology information is limited. The GFMS has been using the TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) as its main rainfall input. Now, with the advent of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission there is an opportunity to significantly improve global flood monitoring and forecasting. GPM's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) multi-satellite product is designed to take advantage of various technical advances in the field and combine that with an efficient processing system producing "early" (4 hrs) and "late" (12 hrs) products for operational use. Specifically, this study is focused on (1) understanding the difference between the new IMERG products and other existing satellite precipitation products, e.g., TMPA, CMORPH, and ground observations; (2) addressing the challenge in the usage of the IMERG for flood monitoring through hydrologic models, given that only a short period of precipitation data record has been accumulated since the lunch of GPM in 2014; and (3) comparing the statistics of flood simulation based on the DRIVE model with IMERG, TMPA, CMORPH etc. as precipitation inputs respectively. Derivation of a global threshold map is a necessary step to define flood events out of modelling results, which requires a relatively longer historic information. A set of sensitivity tests are conducted by adjusting IMERG's light, moderate, heavy rain to existing precipitation products with long-term records separately, to optimize the strategy of PDF matching. Other aspects are also examined

  17. The Effects of Floods on the Incidence of Bacillary Dysentery in Baise (Guangxi Province, China) from 2004 to 2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xuena; Liu, Zhidong; Zhang, Ying; Jiang, Baofa

    2017-02-12

    Research shows potential effects of floods on intestinal infections. Baise, a city in Guangxi Province (China) had experienced several floods between 2004 and 2012 due to heavy and constant precipitation. This study aimed to examine the relationship between floods and the incidence of bacillary dysentery in Baise. A mixed generalized additive model and Spearman correlation were applied to analyze the relationship between monthly incidence of bacillary dysentery and 14 flood events with two severity levels. Data collected from 2004 to 2010 were utilized to estimate the parameters, whereas data from 2011 to 2012 were used to validate the model. There were in total 9255 cases of bacillary dysentery included in our analyses. According to the mixed generalized additive model, the relative risks (RR) of moderate and severe floods on the incidence of bacillary dysentery were 1.40 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16-1.69) and 1.78 (95% CI: 1.61-1.97), respectively. The regression analysis also indicated that the flood duration was negatively associated with the incidence of bacillary dysentery (with RR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.40-0.86). Therfore, this research suggests that floods exert a significant part in enhancing the risk of bacillary dysentery in Baise. Moreover, severe floods have a higher proportional contribution to the incidence of bacillary dysentery than moderate floods. In addition, short-term floods may contribute more to the incidence of bacillary dysentery than a long-term flood. The findings from this research will provide more evidence to reduce health risks related to floods.

  18. The Effects of Floods on the Incidence of Bacillary Dysentery in Baise (Guangxi Province, China from 2004 to 2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuena Liu

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Research shows potential effects of floods on intestinal infections. Baise, a city in Guangxi Province (China had experienced several floods between 2004 and 2012 due to heavy and constant precipitation. This study aimed to examine the relationship between floods and the incidence of bacillary dysentery in Baise. A mixed generalized additive model and Spearman correlation were applied to analyze the relationship between monthly incidence of bacillary dysentery and 14 flood events with two severity levels. Data collected from 2004 to 2010 were utilized to estimate the parameters, whereas data from 2011 to 2012 were used to validate the model. There were in total 9255 cases of bacillary dysentery included in our analyses. According to the mixed generalized additive model, the relative risks (RR of moderate and severe floods on the incidence of bacillary dysentery were 1.40 (95% confidence interval (CI: 1.16–1.69 and 1.78 (95% CI: 1.61–1.97, respectively. The regression analysis also indicated that the flood duration was negatively associated with the incidence of bacillary dysentery (with RR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.40–0.86. Therfore, this research suggests that floods exert a significant part in enhancing the risk of bacillary dysentery in Baise. Moreover, severe floods have a higher proportional contribution to the incidence of bacillary dysentery than moderate floods. In addition, short-term floods may contribute more to the incidence of bacillary dysentery than a long-term flood. The findings from this research will provide more evidence to reduce health risks related to floods.

  19. Production, decay, and mixing models of the iota meson

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Palmer, W.F.; Pinsky, S.S.; Bender, C.

    1984-01-01

    We solve a five-channel mixing problem involving eta, eta', zeta(1275), iota(1440), and a new hypothetical high-mass pseudoscalar state between 1600 and 1900 MeV. We obtain the quark and glue content of iota(1440). We compare two solutions to the mixing problem with iota(1440) production and decay data, and with quark-model predictions for bare masses. In one solution the iota(1440) is primarily a glueball. This solution is preferred by the production and decay data. In the other solution the iota(1440) is a radially excited (ss-bar) state. This solution is preferred by the quark-model picture for the bare masses. We judge the weight of the combined evidence to favor the glueball interpretation

  20. Temporal clustering of floods in Germany: Do flood-rich and flood-poor periods exist?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merz, Bruno; Nguyen, Viet Dung; Vorogushyn, Sergiy

    2016-10-01

    The repeated occurrence of exceptional floods within a few years, such as the Rhine floods in 1993 and 1995 and the Elbe and Danube floods in 2002 and 2013, suggests that floods in Central Europe may be organized in flood-rich and flood-poor periods. This hypothesis is studied by testing the significance of temporal clustering in flood occurrence (peak-over-threshold) time series for 68 catchments across Germany for the period 1932-2005. To assess the robustness of the results, different methods are used: Firstly, the index of dispersion, which quantifies the departure from a homogeneous Poisson process, is investigated. Further, the time-variation of the flood occurrence rate is derived by non-parametric kernel implementation and the significance of clustering is evaluated via parametric and non-parametric tests. Although the methods give consistent overall results, the specific results differ considerably. Hence, we recommend applying different methods when investigating flood clustering. For flood estimation and risk management, it is of relevance to understand whether clustering changes with flood severity and time scale. To this end, clustering is assessed for different thresholds and time scales. It is found that the majority of catchments show temporal clustering at the 5% significance level for low thresholds and time scales of one to a few years. However, clustering decreases substantially with increasing threshold and time scale. We hypothesize that flood clustering in Germany is mainly caused by catchment memory effects along with intra- to inter-annual climate variability, and that decadal climate variability plays a minor role.

  1. Multi-dimensional perspectives of flood risk - using a participatory framework to develop new approaches to flood risk communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rollason, Edward; Bracken, Louise; Hardy, Richard; Large, Andy

    2017-04-01

    Flooding is a major hazard across Europe which, since, 1998 has caused over €52 million in damages and displaced over half a million people. Climate change is predicted to increase the risks posed by flooding in the future. The 2007 EU Flood Directive cemented the use of flood risk maps as a central tool in understanding and communicating flood risk. Following recent flooding in England, an urgent need to integrate people living at risk from flooding into flood management approaches, encouraging flood resilience and the up-take of resilient activities has been acknowledged. The effective communication of flood risk information plays a major role in allowing those at risk to make effective decisions about flood risk and increase their resilience, however, there are emerging concerns over the effectiveness of current approaches. The research presented explores current approaches to flood risk communication in England and the effectiveness of these methods in encouraging resilient actions before and during flooding events. The research also investigates how flood risk communications could be undertaken more effectively, using a novel participatory framework to integrate the perspectives of those living at risk. The research uses co-production between local communities and researchers in the environmental sciences, using a participatory framework to bring together local knowledge of flood risk and flood communications. Using a local competency group, the research explores what those living at risk from flooding want from flood communications in order to develop new approaches to help those at risk understand and respond to floods. Suggestions for practice are refined by the communities to co-produce recommendations. The research finds that current approaches to real-time flood risk communication fail to forecast the significance of predicted floods, whilst flood maps lack detailed information about how floods occur, or use scientific terminology which people at risk

  2. Modelling the interaction between flooding events and economic growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grames, Johanna; Grass, Dieter; Prskawetz, Alexia; Blöschl, Günther

    2015-04-01

    Socio-hydrology describes the interaction between the socio-economy, water and population dynamics. Recent models analyze the interplay of community risk-coping culture, flooding damage and economic growth (Di Baldassarre, 2013, Viglione, 2014). These models descriptively explain the feedbacks between socio-economic development and natural disasters like floods. Contrary to these descriptive models, our approach develops an optimization model, where the intertemporal decision of an economic agent interacts with the hydrological system. This is the first economic growth model describing the interaction between the consumption and investment decisions of an economic agent and the occurrence of flooding events: Investments in defense capital can avoid floods even when the water level is high, but on the other hand such investment competes with investment in productive capital and hence may reduce the level of consumption. When floods occur, the flood damage therefore depends on the existing defense capital. The aim is to find an optimal tradeoff between investments in productive versus defense capital such as to optimize the stream of consumption in the long-term. We assume a non-autonomous exogenous periodic rainfall function (Yevjevich et.al. 1990, Zakaria 2001) which implies that the long-term equilibrium will be periodic . With our model we aim to derive mechanisms that allow consumption smoothing in the long term, and at the same time allow for optimal investment in flood defense to maximize economic output. We choose an aggregate welfare function that depends on the consumption level of the society as the objective function. I.e. we assume a social planer with perfect foresight that maximizes the aggregate welfare function. Within our model framework we can also study whether the path and level of defense capital (that protects people from floods) is related to the time preference rate of the social planner. Our model also allows to investigate how the frequency

  3. Study of Advanced Reactor Mixed Oxide Fuel Production of (U,Th)O2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Busron-Masduki; Damunir; Pristi-Hartati; R-Sukarsono; Bangun-Wasito

    2000-01-01

    The high price and starting scarcity of reserved of oil drive the people to drill the alternative nuclear energy. Accelerator-driven Transmutation Waste (ATW) is a prospective technology to solve the problem of used fuel waste, to reduce the anxiety of long term disposal waste, to increase the public acceptance of nuclear energy enter into the third millennium. The future of large nuclear energy appears in many-branched industry will depend on the capability to generate relatively low priced fuel on the basis of commercial nuclear energy. Utilization of uranium-233 -thorium cycle insures long-term fuel supply, makes the nuclear energy production more flexible and enables the self-provision regime to be realized in future. Flowsheet of mixed oxide fuel production for advanced reactor of (U,Th)O 2 is a combination of existing manufacturing equipment and quality assurance program from commercial LWR and HTR. The front-end of flowsheet using sol-gel process. The external sol-gel process is chosen due to simple equipment can anticipate refabrication of U-233 which always contains a few hundred ppm of U-232 and its gamma-emitting daughters, besides yielding smaller waste. The decision to choose external sol-gel process encourages to develop External Gelation Thorium (EGT). In order to get higher density and relatively low compaction pressures (i.e. for advanced LWR) adopted flowsheet EGT is developed to be Sol-Gel Microsphere Pelletization (SGMP). Using the optimal parameters, SGMP become established flowsheet for producing mixed oxide fuel of (U,Th)O 2 for advanced reactor. (author)

  4. Estimating Coastal Lagoon Tidal Flooding and Repletion with Multidate ASTER Thermal Imagery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas R. Allen

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Coastal lagoons mix inflowing freshwater and tidal marine waters in complex spatial patterns. This project sought to detect and measure temperature and spatial variability of flood tides for a constricted coastal lagoon using multitemporal remote sensing. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Radiometer (ASTER thermal infrared data provided estimates of surface temperature for delineation of repletion zones in portions of Chincoteague Bay, Virginia. ASTER high spatial resolution sea-surface temperature imagery in conjunction with in situ observations and tidal predictions helped determine the optimal seasonal data for analyses. The selected time series ASTER satellite data sets were analyzed at different tidal phases and seasons in 2004–2006. Skin surface temperatures of ocean and estuarine waters were differentiated by flood tidal penetration and ebb flows. Spatially variable tidal flood penetration was evaluated using discrete seed-pixel area analysis and time series Principal Components Analysis. Results from these techniques provide spatial extent and variability dynamics of tidal repletion, flushing, and mixing, important factors in eutrophication assessment, water quality and resource monitoring, and application of hydrodynamic modeling for coastal estuary science and management.

  5. Make to stock and mix to order : choosing intermediate products in the food-processing industry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Akkerman, Renzo; van der Meer, Dirk; van Donk, Dirk Pieter

    2010-01-01

    In contrast to discrete manufacturers, food-processing companies can sometimes produce the same end products in different ways: either mix first and then process, or process first and mix later. Moreover, a final product can be mixed from different raw materials or intermediates. That adds a new

  6. Innovative Equipment and Production Method for Mixed Fodder in the Conditions of Agricultural Enterprises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabiev, U. K.; Demchuk, E. V.; Myalo, V. V.; Soyunov, A. S.

    2017-07-01

    It is recommended to feed the cattle and poultry with grain fodder in the form of feed mixture balanced according to the content. Feeding of grain fodder in the form of stock feed is inefficient and economically unreasonable. The article is devoted to actual problem - the preparation of mixed fodder in the conditions of agricultural enterprises. Review and critical analyses of mixed fodder assemblies and aggregates are given. Structural and technical schemes of small-size mixed fodder aggregate with intensified attachments of vibrating and percussive action for preparation of bulk feed mixture in the conditions of agricultural enterprises were developed. The mixed fodder aggregate for its preparation in the places of direct consumption from own grain fodder production and purchased protein and vitamin supplements is also suggested. Mixed fodder aggregate allows to get prepared mixed fodder of high uniformity at low cost of energy and price of production that is becoming profitable for livestock breeding. Model line-up of suggested mixed fodder aggregate with different productivity both for small and big agricultural enterprises is considered.

  7. Computer-aided Framework for Design of Pure, Mixed and Blended Products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cignitti, Stefano; Zhang, Lei; Gani, Rafiqul

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a framework for computer-aided design of pure, mixed and blended chemical based products. The framework is a systematic approach to convert a Computer-aided Molecular, Mixture and Blend Design (CAMbD) formulation, based on needs and target properties, into a mixed integer non...

  8. Model of Ciliwung River Flood Diversion Tunnel Using HEC-RAS Software

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nugroho Joko

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available As a coastal city which lies in lowland area, Jakarta is prone to flooding. One major river which flow through Jakarta is Ciliwung River. There are alternatives to reduce flood risk, such as: river capacity improvement, existing natural reservoir and polder system improvement, upstream reservoir construction, city drainage improvement, flood channel construction and flood diversion. This paper presents capacity analysis of a proposed flood diversion of Ciliwung River to Cipinang River. Cipinang River has its downstream end at Eastern Flood Canal (Kanal Banjir Timur, KBT. This diversion is based on the available capacity of KBT. A 1-D numerical hydraulic model using HEC-RAS based on a proposed design is used to assess the performance of the diversion system in any combination of upstream and downstream boundary condition. Simulations were done for steady condition. The results show that capacity of the system can be achieved for certain condition at upstream and downstream boundary. The effects at the downstream reach of Ciliwung and Cipinang River due to the diversion are also obtained.

  9. Floods and mangrove forests, friends or foes? Perceptions of relationships and risks in Cameroon coastal mangroves

    Science.gov (United States)

    Munji, Cecilia A.; Bele, Mekou Y.; Idinoba, Monica E.; Sonwa, Denis J.

    2014-03-01

    Faced with the growing influence of climate change on climate driven perturbations such as flooding and biodiversity loss, managing the relationship between mangroves and their environment has become imperative for their protection. Hampering this is the fact that the full scope of the threats faced by specific mangrove forests is not yet well documented. Amongst some uncertainties is the nature of the relationship/interaction of mangroves with climate driven perturbations prevalent in their habitat such as coastal floods. We investigated the relationship between coastal flooding and mangrove forest stabilization, identify perceptions of flood risk and responses to offset identified effects. Random household surveys were carried out within four communities purposively sampled within the Cap Cameroon. Coastal changes were investigated over a period of 43 years (1965-2008). Seasonal flooding improved access to mangrove forests and hence promoted their exploitation for non-timber forest products (NTFPs) such as fuel wood and mangrove poles. 989 ha of mangrove forests were estimated to be lost over a period of 43 years in Cap Cameroon with implications on forest resources base, ecosystem stability, and livelihoods. Alternative livelihood activities were found to be carried out to moderate interruptions in fishing, with associated implications for mangrove forest dynamics. Respondents were of the opinion that risks associated with floods and mangrove deforestation will pose a major challenge for sustainable management of mangroves. These locally relevant perceptions and responses should however enable the identification of pertinent needs, challenges and opportunities to inform and orient effective decision-making, and to facilitate the development and participation in adaptive management strategies.

  10. Flood Forecasting Based on TIGGE Precipitation Ensemble Forecast

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinyin Ye

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available TIGGE (THORPEX International Grand Global Ensemble was a major part of the THORPEX (Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment. It integrates ensemble precipitation products from all the major forecast centers in the world and provides systematic evaluation on the multimodel ensemble prediction system. Development of meteorologic-hydrologic coupled flood forecasting model and early warning model based on the TIGGE precipitation ensemble forecast can provide flood probability forecast, extend the lead time of the flood forecast, and gain more time for decision-makers to make the right decision. In this study, precipitation ensemble forecast products from ECMWF, NCEP, and CMA are used to drive distributed hydrologic model TOPX. We focus on Yi River catchment and aim to build a flood forecast and early warning system. The results show that the meteorologic-hydrologic coupled model can satisfactorily predict the flow-process of four flood events. The predicted occurrence time of peak discharges is close to the observations. However, the magnitude of the peak discharges is significantly different due to various performances of the ensemble prediction systems. The coupled forecasting model can accurately predict occurrence of the peak time and the corresponding risk probability of peak discharge based on the probability distribution of peak time and flood warning, which can provide users a strong theoretical foundation and valuable information as a promising new approach.

  11. Software Development: A Product Life-Cycle Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    1990-05-01

    Positioning ..................14 Decide Segmentation Strategy .................15 Design Marketing Mix Strategy ................16 Product Strategy... marketing mix for each. (Peter and Donnelly 1988, 100-101) 4 Once an alternative has been selected and a segment defined, the segment must be evaluated...15 Design Marketing Mix Strategy The marketing mix strategy incorporates the remainder of the marketing segmentation process. The marketing mix includes

  12. Linear Optimization Techniques for Product-Mix of Paints Production in Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sulaimon Olanrewaju Adebiyi

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Many paint producers in Nigeria do not lend themselves to flexible production process which is important for them to manage the use of resources for effective optimal production. These goals can be achieved through the application of optimization models in their resources allocation and utilisation. This research focuses on linear optimization for achieving product- mix optimization in terms of the product identification and the right quantity in paint production in Nigeria for better profit and optimum firm performance. The computational experiments in this research contains data and information on the units item costs, unit contribution margin, maximum resources capacity, individual products absorption rate and other constraints that are particular to each of the five products produced in the company employed as case study. In data analysis, linear programming model was employed with the aid LINDO 11 software to analyse the data. The result has showed that only two out of the five products under consideration are profitable. It also revealed the rate to which the company needs to reduce cost incurred on the three other products before making them profitable for production.

  13. SUSY Higgs at the LHC large stop mixing effects and associated production

    CERN Document Server

    Bélanger, G; Sridhar, K

    2000-01-01

    We revisit the effect of the large stop mixing on the decay and production of the lightest SUSY Higgs at the LHC. We stress that whenever the inclusive 2-photon signature is substantially reduced, associated production, $Wh$ and $t\\bar t h$, with the subsequent decay of the Higgs into photons is enhanced and becomes an even more important discovery channel. We also point out that these reductions in the inclusive channel do not occur for the smallest Higgs mass where the significance is known to be lowest. We show that in such scenarios the Higgs can be produced in the decay of the heaviest stop. For not too heavy masses of the pseudo-scalar Higgs where the inclusive channel is even further reduced, we show that large stop mixing also allows the production of the pseudo-scalar Higgs through stop decays. These large mixing scenarios therefore offer much better prospects than previously thought. As a by-product we have recalculated stop1-stop1-h production at the LHC and give a first evaluation of stop1-stop1-Z...

  14. Crowdsourcing detailed flood data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walliman, Nicholas; Ogden, Ray; Amouzad*, Shahrzhad

    2015-04-01

    Over the last decade the average annual loss across the European Union due to flooding has been 4.5bn Euros, but increasingly intense rainfall, as well as population growth, urbanisation and the rising costs of asset replacements, may see this rise to 23bn Euros a year by 2050. Equally disturbing are the profound social costs to individuals, families and communities which in addition to loss of lives include: loss of livelihoods, decreased purchasing and production power, relocation and migration, adverse psychosocial effects, and hindrance of economic growth and development. Flood prediction, management and defence strategies rely on the availability of accurate information and flood modelling. Whilst automated data gathering (by measurement and satellite) of the extent of flooding is already advanced it is least reliable in urban and physically complex geographies where often the need for precise estimation is most acute. Crowdsourced data of actual flood events is a potentially critical component of this allowing improved accuracy in situations and identifying the effects of local landscape and topography where the height of a simple kerb, or discontinuity in a boundary wall can have profound importance. Mobile 'App' based data acquisition using crowdsourcing in critical areas can combine camera records with GPS positional data and time, as well as descriptive data relating to the event. This will automatically produce a dataset, managed in ArcView GIS, with the potential for follow up calls to get more information through structured scripts for each strand. Through this local residents can provide highly detailed information that can be reflected in sophisticated flood protection models and be core to framing urban resilience strategies and optimising the effectiveness of investment. This paper will describe this pioneering approach that will develop flood event data in support of systems that will advance existing approaches such as developed in the in the UK

  15. The use of Natural Flood Management to mitigate local flooding in the rural landscape

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkinson, Mark; Quinn, Paul; Ghimire, Sohan; Nicholson, Alex; Addy, Steve

    2014-05-01

    conditions, by providing base flows during drought conditions. Ongoing research using hydrological datasets aims to assess how these features function during low flow conditions and how storage ponds could be used as irrigation ponds in arable areas. To allow for effective implementation and upkeep of NFM measures on the ground, demonstration sites have been developed through a process of iterative stakeholder engagement. Coupled with the use of novel visualisation techniques, results are currently being communicated to a wider community of local landowners and catchment managers. The approach of using networks of interception bunds and offline storage areas in the rural landscape could potentially provide a cost effective means to reduce flood risk in small responsive catchments across Europe. As such it could provide an alternative or addition to traditional engineering techniques, while also effectively managing catchments to achieve multiple environmental objectives.

  16. Redesigning the marketing mix for eco-friendly product consumption among non-purchasers in India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chockalingam Senthil Nathan

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The present study was created in order to customise the marketing mix for non-purchasers of eco-friendly products by studying their perspectives on the introduction of eco-friendly variants of the regular products that they are using in particular product categories (personal care and home care. Overall previous literature reviews in this area imply that there is a gap in the scientific literature on the marketing mix formulation for converting non-purchasers into purchasers of eco-friendly products to augment eco-friendly product sales and adopt green marketing. As literature reviews had clearly indicated that green purchasers have a very low percentage when compared to non-purchasers, the purpose is to create new opportunities for successful green marketing as the study tries to convert non-purchasers into purchasers. We used descriptive research design to study a sample of 885 respondents, who were surveyed in 2 cities in the Tamil Nadu state in India, to acquire an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour that would enable the consumption of eco-friendly products among non-purchasers. The results reveal the marketing mix requirement and the eco-friendly aspects needed by the non-purchasers in order to buy the eco-friendly variants. The research sheds light on the product, price and promotion components that will attract non-purchases of eco-friendly products to buy eco-friendly products, thus facilitating green marketing mix adaptation. The study will provide valuable input for further research in formulating the marketing mix necessary to enable consumption of eco-friendly products in different geographical locations and various product categories.

  17. Dissemination of satellite-based river discharge and flood data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kettner, A. J.; Brakenridge, G. R.; van Praag, E.; de Groeve, T.; Slayback, D. A.; Cohen, S.

    2014-12-01

    In collaboration with NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center and the European Commission Joint Research Centre, the Dartmouth Flood Observatory (DFO) daily measures and distributes: 1) river discharges, and 2) near real-time flood extents with a global coverage. Satellite-based passive microwave sensors and hydrological modeling are utilized to establish 'remote-sensing based discharge stations', and observed time series cover 1998 to the present. The advantages over in-situ gauged discharges are: a) easy access to remote or due to political reasons isolated locations, b) relatively low maintenance costs to maintain a continuous observational record, and c) the capability to obtain measurements during floods, hazardous conditions that often impair or destroy in-situ stations. Two MODIS instruments aboard the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites provide global flood extent coverage at a spatial resolution of 250m. Cloud cover hampers flood extent detection; therefore we ingest 6 images (the Terra and Aqua images of each day, for three days), in combination with a cloud shadow filter, to provide daily global flood extent updates. The Flood Observatory has always made it a high priority to visualize and share its data and products through its website. Recent collaborative efforts with e.g. GeoSUR have enhanced accessibility of DFO data. A web map service has been implemented to automatically disseminate geo-referenced flood extent products into client-side GIS software. For example, for Latin America and the Caribbean region, the GeoSUR portal now displays current flood extent maps, which can be integrated and visualized with other relevant geographical data. Furthermore, the flood state of satellite-observed river discharge sites are displayed through the portal as well. Additional efforts include implementing Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to incorporate Water Markup Language (WaterML) data exchange mechanisms to further facilitate the distribution of the satellite

  18. Sustainability Concept in Decision-Making: Carbon Tax Consideration for Joint Product Mix Decision

    OpenAIRE

    Wen-Hsien Tsai; Jui-Chu Chang; Chu-Lun Hsieh; Tsen-Shu Tsaur; Chung-Wei Wang

    2016-01-01

    Carbon emissions are receiving greater scrutiny in many countries due to international forces to reduce anthropogenic global climate change. Carbon taxation is one of the most common carbon emission regulation policies, and companies must incorporate it into their production and pricing decisions. Activity-based costing (ABC) and the theory of constraints (TOC) have been applied to solve product mix problems; however, a challenging aspect of the product mix problem involves evaluating joint m...

  19. Use of alternative raw materials for yoghurt production | Farinde ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Soymilk and maize steep water were used as alternative raw materials to cow milk and commercial starter, respectively, for production of yoghurt. The cow milk used was both Fresh milk and dried powdered milk (DANO). The cost of production of the yoghurt samples as well as their chemical, microbial and organoleptic ...

  20. Quantitative analysis of burden of infectious diarrhea associated with floods in northwest of anhui province, china: a mixed method evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Guoyong; Zhang, Ying; Gao, Lu; Ma, Wei; Li, Xiujun; Liu, Jing; Liu, Qiyong; Jiang, Baofa

    2013-01-01

    Persistent and heavy rainfall in the upper and middle Huaihe River of China brought about severe floods during the end of June and July 2007. However, there has been no assessment on the association between the floods and infectious diarrhea. This study aimed to quantify the impact of the floods in 2007 on the burden of disease due to infectious diarrhea in northwest of Anhui Province. A time-stratified case-crossover analysis was firstly conducted to examine the relationship between daily cases of infectious diarrhea and the 2007 floods in Fuyang and Bozhou of Anhui Province. Odds ratios (ORs) of the flood risk were quantified by conditional logistic regression. The years lived with disability (YLDs) of infectious diarrhea attributable to floods were then estimated based on the WHO framework of the calculating potential impact fraction in the Burden of Disease study. A total of 197 infectious diarrheas were notified during the exposure and control periods in the two study areas. The strongest effect was shown with a 2-day lag in Fuyang and a 5-day lag in Bozhou. Multivariable analysis showed that floods were significantly associated with an increased risk of the number cases of infectious diarrhea (OR = 3.175, 95%CI: 1.126-8.954 in Fuyang; OR = 6.754, 95%CI: 1.954-23.344 in Bozhou). Attributable YLD per 1000 of infectious diarrhea resulting from the floods was 0.0081 in Fuyang and 0.0209 in Bozhou. Our findings confirm that floods have significantly increased the risks of infectious diarrhea in the study areas. In addition, prolonged moderate flood may cause more burdens of infectious diarrheas than severe flood with a shorter duration. More attention should be paid to particular vulnerable groups, including younger children and elderly, in developing public health preparation and intervention programs. Findings have significant implications for developing strategies to prevent and reduce health impact of floods.

  1. Application of Flood Nomograph for Flood Forecasting in Urban Areas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eui Hoon Lee

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Imperviousness has increased due to urbanization, as has the frequency of extreme rainfall events by climate change. Various countermeasures, such as structural and nonstructural measures, are required to prepare for these effects. Flood forecasting is a representative nonstructural measure. Flood forecasting techniques have been developed for the prevention of repetitive flood damage in urban areas. It is difficult to apply some flood forecasting techniques using training processes because training needs to be applied at every usage. The other flood forecasting techniques that use rainfall data predicted by radar are not appropriate for small areas, such as single drainage basins. In this study, a new flood forecasting technique is suggested to reduce flood damage in urban areas. The flood nomograph consists of the first flooding nodes in rainfall runoff simulations with synthetic rainfall data at each duration. When selecting the first flooding node, the initial amount of synthetic rainfall is 1 mm, which increases in 1 mm increments until flooding occurs. The advantage of this flood forecasting technique is its simple application using real-time rainfall data. This technique can be used to prepare a preemptive response in the process of urban flood management.

  2. Study on effectiveness of flood control based on risk level: case study of Kampung Melayu Village and Bukit Duri Village

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farid Mohammad

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, experiences flood which causes activities disruption and losses almost every year. Many studies have been done to mitigate the impact of flooding. Most of them focus on reducing the inundated area as an indicator of the effectiveness of flood control. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of several flood control alternatives based on risk level reduction. The case study is located in Kampung Melayu Village and Bukit Duri Village which are densely populated with several economic area and almost every year experiencing severe flooding in Jakarta. Risk level analysis was carried out by the method based on guidelines issued by the Head of National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB No. 2/2012 with few modifications. The analysis is conducted on five alternatives of flood control which are diversion channel to East Flood Canal (KBT, diversion channel to the West Flood Canal (KBB in Pasar Minggu, river improvement, capacity enhancement on all components, and capacity enhancement focusing on one component. From the results, it is showed that enhancing capacity which focus on preparedness component by two levels are the best in terms of investment value to risk level reduction.

  3. Quantitative flood risk assessment for Polders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Manen, Sipke E. van; Brinkhuis, Martine

    2005-01-01

    In the Netherlands, the design of dikes and other water retaining structures is based on an acceptable probability (frequency) of overtopping. In 1993 a new safety concept was introduced based on total flood risk. Risk was defined as the product of probability and consequences. In recent years advanced tools have become available to calculate the actual flood risk of a polder. This paper describes the application of these tools to an existing lowland river area. The complete chain of calculations necessary to estimate the risk of flooding of a polder (or dike ring) is presented. The difficulties in applying the present day tools and the largest uncertainties in the calculations are shown

  4. Quantitative flood risk assessment for Polders

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Manen, Sipke E. van [Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, Bouwdienst Rijkswaterstaat, Griffioenlaan 2, Utrecht 3526 (Netherlands)]. E-mail: s.e.vmanen@bwd.rws.minvenw.nl; Brinkhuis, Martine [Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, Delft (Netherlands)

    2005-12-01

    In the Netherlands, the design of dikes and other water retaining structures is based on an acceptable probability (frequency) of overtopping. In 1993 a new safety concept was introduced based on total flood risk. Risk was defined as the product of probability and consequences. In recent years advanced tools have become available to calculate the actual flood risk of a polder. This paper describes the application of these tools to an existing lowland river area. The complete chain of calculations necessary to estimate the risk of flooding of a polder (or dike ring) is presented. The difficulties in applying the present day tools and the largest uncertainties in the calculations are shown.

  5. Banana production systems: identification of alternative systems for more sustainable production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellamy, Angelina Sanderson

    2013-04-01

    Large-scale, monoculture production systems dependent on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, increase yields, but are costly and have deleterious impacts on human health and the environment. This research investigates variations in banana production practices in Costa Rica, to identify alternative systems that combine high productivity and profitability, with reduced reliance on agrochemicals. Farm workers were observed during daily production activities; 39 banana producers and 8 extension workers/researchers were interviewed; and a review of field experiments conducted by the National Banana Corporation between 1997 and 2002 was made. Correspondence analysis showed that there is no structured variation in large-scale banana producers' practices, but two other banana production systems were identified: a small-scale organic system and a small-scale conventional coffee-banana intercropped system. Field-scale research may reveal ways that these practices can be scaled up to achieve a productive and profitable system producing high-quality export bananas with fewer or no pesticides.

  6. Mixed grazing systems benefit both upland biodiversity and livestock production.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariecia D Fraser

    Full Text Available With world food demand expected to double by 2050, identifying farming systems that benefit both agricultural production and biodiversity is a fundamentally important challenge for the 21(st century, but this has to be achieved in a sustainable way. Livestock grazing management directly influences both economic outputs and biodiversity on upland farms while contributing to potentially damaging greenhouse gas emissions, yet no study has attempted to address these impacts simultaneously.Using a replicated, landscape-scale field experiment consisting of five management 'systems' we tested the effects of progressively altering elements within an upland farming system, viz i incorporating cattle grazing into an upland sheep system, ii integrating grazing of semi-natural rough grazing into a mixed grazing system based on improved pasture, iii altering the stocking ratio within a mixed grazing system, and iv replacing modern crossbred cattle with a traditional breed. We quantified the impacts on livestock productivity and numbers of birds and butterflies over four years.We found that management systems incorporating mixed grazing with cattle improve livestock productivity and reduce methane emissions relative to sheep only systems. Systems that also included semi-natural rough grazing consistently supported more species of birds and butterflies, and it was possible to incorporate bouts of summer grazing of these pastures by cattle to meet habitat management prescriptions without compromising cattle performance overall. We found no evidence that the system incorporating a cattle breed popular as a conservation grazer was any better for bird and butterfly species richness than those based on a mainstream breed, yet methane emissions from such a system were predicted to be higher. We have demonstrated that mixed upland grazing systems not only improve livestock production, but also benefit biodiversity, suggesting a 'win-win' solution for farmers and

  7. Wastes and by-products - alternatives for agricultural use

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boles, J.L.; Craft, D.J.; Parker, B.R.

    1994-01-01

    Top address a growing national problem with generation of wastes and by-products, TVA has been involved for several years with developing and commercializing environmentally responsible practices for eliminating, minimizing, or utilizing various wastes/by-products. In many cases, reducing waste generation is impractical, but the wastes/by-products can be converted into other environmentally sound products. In some instances, conversion of safe, value-added agricultural products in the best or only practical alternative. TVA is currently involved with a diversity of projects converting wastes/by-products into safe, economical, and agriculturally beneficial products. Environmental improvement projects have involved poultry litter, cellulosic wastes, used battery acid, ammonium sulfate fines, lead smelting effluents, deep-welled sulfuric acid/ammonium bisulfate solutions, wood ash, waste magnesium ammonium sulfate slurry from recording tape production, and ammunition plant waste sodium nitrate/ammonium nitrate streams

  8. Simulating Catchment Scale Afforestation for Mitigating Flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnes, M. S.; Bathurst, J. C.; Quinn, P. F.; Birkinshaw, S.

    2016-12-01

    After the 2013-14, and the more recent 2015-16, winter floods in the UK there were calls to 'forest the uplands' as a solution to reducing flood risk across the nation. However, the role of forests as a natural flood management practice remains highly controversial, due to a distinct lack of robust evidence into its effectiveness in reducing flood risk during extreme events. This project aims to improve the understanding of the impacts of upland afforestation on flood risk at the sub-catchment and full catchment scales. This will be achieved through an integrated fieldwork and modelling approach, with the use of a series of process based hydrological models to scale up and examine the effects forestry can have on flooding. Furthermore, there is a need to analyse the extent to which land management practices, catchment system engineering and the installation of runoff attenuation features (RAFs), such as engineered log jams, in headwater catchments can attenuate flood-wave movement, and potentially reduce downstream flood risk. Additionally, the proportion of a catchment or riparian reach that would need to be forested in order to achieve a significant impact on reducing downstream flooding will be defined. The consequential impacts of a corresponding reduction in agriculturally productive farmland and the potential decline of water resource availability will also be considered in order to safeguard the UK's food security and satisfy the global demand on water resources.

  9. A sensitivity study of an evaluation of alternatives for disposal of INEL low-level waste and low-level mixed waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roesener, W.S.; Smith, T.H.; Jorgenson-Waters, M.J.; Sherick, M.J.

    1995-01-01

    This paper presents insights gained from an informal sensitivity study of an evaluation of disposal alternatives for Idaho National Engineering Laboratory low-level waste and low-level mixed waste. The insights relate to the sensitivity of the alternative rankings to changes in assumptions identified as open-quotes key uncertaintiesclose quotes. The result of the sensitivity study is that significant changes occur in the rankings when selected open-quotes key uncertaintiesclose quotes are varied over reasonable ranges. Three alternatives involving the use of (a) shallow land burial and boreholes or (b) greater-depth burial and boreholes rank high for all cases investigated. The other alternatives rank low in some or all cases

  10. Local adaptive capacity as an alternative approach in dealing with hydrometeorological risk at Depok Peri-Urban City

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitrinitia, I. S.; Junadi, P.; Sutanto, E.; Nugroho, D. A.; Zubair, A.; Suyanti, E.

    2018-03-01

    Located in a tropical area, cities in Indonesia are vulnerable to hydrometeorological risks such as flood and landslide and thus become prone to the climate change effects. Moreover, peri-urban cities had double burden as the consequences of main city spill over and also lack of urban facilities in overcoming the disaster. In another perspective, the city has many alternative resources to recover, so its create urban resiliency. Depok city becomes a case study of this research regarding with its development following the impact of Jakarta growth. This research purposes to capture how the local city dwellers could anticipate and adaptive with flood and landslide with their own mitigation version. Through mix method and spatial analysis using GIS techniques, it derives the two comparison approach, the normative and alternative that had been done by the city dwellers. It uses a spatial analysis to have a big picture of Depok and its environmental changing. It also divided into 4 local group of communities as a representative of city dwellers regarding the characteristic of a settlement with their level of risk. The result found type or characteristic of settlement which influenced the local adaptive capacity, from the establishment of infrastructure, health fulfillment and social livelihood with different kind of methods.

  11. Implications of using on-farm flood flow capture to recharge groundwater and mitigate flood risks along the Kings River, CA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bachand, Philip A M; Roy, Sujoy B; Choperena, Joe; Cameron, Don; Horwath, William R

    2014-12-02

    The agriculturally productive San Joaquin Valley faces two severe hydrologic issues: persistent groundwater overdraft and flooding risks. Capturing flood flows for groundwater recharge could help address both of these issues, yet flood flow frequency, duration, and magnitude vary greatly as upstream reservoir releases are affected by snowpack, precipitation type, reservoir volume, and flood risks. This variability makes dedicated, engineered recharge approaches expensive. Our work evaluates leveraging private farmlands in the Kings River Basin to capture flood flows for direct and in lieu recharge, calculates on-farm infiltration rates, assesses logistics, and considers potential water quality issues. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soil series suggested that a cementing layer would hinder recharge. The standard practice of deep ripping fractured the layer, resulting in infiltration rates averaging 2.5 in d(-1) (6 cm d(-1)) throughout the farm. Based on these rates 10 acres are needed to infiltrate 1 cfs (100 m(3) h(-1)) of flood flows. Our conceptual model predicts that salinity and nitrate pulses flush initially to the groundwater but that groundwater quality improves in the long term due to pristine flood flows low in salts or nitrate. Flood flow capture, when integrated with irrigation, is more cost-effective than groundwater pumping.

  12. Bottom quark anti-quark production and mixing in proton anti-proton collisions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yu, Zhaoou [Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)

    2003-03-01

    The studies of bottom quark-antiquark production in proton-antiproton collisions play an important role in testing perturbative QCD. Measuring the mixing parameter of B mesons imposes constraints on the quark mixing (CKM) matrix and enhances the understanding of the Standard Model. Multi-GeV p$\\bar{p}$ colliders produce a significant amount of b$\\bar{b}$ pairs and thus enable studies in both of these fields. This thesis presents results of the b$\\bar{b}$ production cross section from p$\\bar{p}$ collisions at √s = 1.8 TeV and the time-integrated average B$\\bar{B}$ mixing parameter ($\\bar{χ}$) using highmass dimuon d a ta collected by CDF during its Run IB.

  13. Peak oil demand: the role of fuel efficiency and alternative fuels in a global oil production decline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandt, Adam R; Millard-Ball, Adam; Ganser, Matthew; Gorelick, Steven M

    2013-07-16

    Some argue that peak conventional oil production is imminent due to physical resource scarcity. We examine the alternative possibility of reduced oil use due to improved efficiency and oil substitution. Our model uses historical relationships to project future demand for (a) transport services, (b) all liquid fuels, and (c) substitution with alternative energy carriers, including electricity. Results show great increases in passenger and freight transport activity, but less reliance on oil. Demand for liquids inputs to refineries declines significantly after 2070. By 2100 transport energy demand rises >1000% in Asia, while flattening in North America (+23%) and Europe (-20%). Conventional oil demand declines after 2035, and cumulative oil production is 1900 Gbbl from 2010 to 2100 (close to the U.S. Geological Survey median estimate of remaining oil, which only includes projected discoveries through 2025). These results suggest that effort is better spent to determine and influence the trajectory of oil substitution and efficiency improvement rather than to focus on oil resource scarcity. The results also imply that policy makers should not rely on liquid fossil fuel scarcity to constrain damage from climate change. However, there is an unpredictable range of emissions impacts depending on which mix of substitutes for conventional oil gains dominance-oil sands, electricity, coal-to-liquids, or others.

  14. Rapid-response flood mapping during Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria by the Global Flood Partnership (GFP)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, S.; Alfieri, L.; Brakenridge, G. R.; Coughlan, E.; Galantowicz, J. F.; Hong, Y.; Kettner, A.; Nghiem, S. V.; Prados, A. I.; Rudari, R.; Salamon, P.; Trigg, M.; Weerts, A.

    2017-12-01

    The Global Flood Partnership (GFP; https://gfp.jrc.ec.europa.eu) is a multi-disciplinary group of scientists, operational agencies and flood risk managers focused on developing efficient and effective global flood management tools. Launched in 2014, its aim is to establish a partnership for global flood forecasting, monitoring and impact assessment to strengthen preparedness and response and to reduce global disaster losses. International organizations, the private sector, national authorities, universities and research agencies contribute to the GFP on a voluntary basis and benefit from a global network focused on flood risk reduction. At the onset of Hurricane Harvey, GFP was `activated' using email requests via its mailing service. Soon after, flood inundation maps, based on remote sensing analysis and modeling, were shared by different agencies, institutions, and individuals. These products were disseminated, to varying degrees of effectiveness, to federal, state and local agencies via emails and data-sharing services. This generated a broad data-sharing network which was utilized at the early stages of Hurricane Irma's impact, just two weeks after Harvey. In this presentation, we will describe the extent and chronology of the GFP response to both Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. We will assess the potential usefulness of this effort for event managers in various types of organizations and discuss future improvements to be implemented.

  15. Quantifying the Impact of Floods on Bacillary Dysentery in Dalian City, China, From 2004 to 2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Xin; Ding, Guoyong; Zhang, Ying; Liu, Zhidong; Liu, Qiyong; Jiang, Baofa

    2017-04-01

    Studies quantifying relationships between floods and diarrheal diseases have mainly been conducted in low-latitude regions. It's therefore increasingly important to examine these relationships in midlatitude regions, where they may have significant public health implications. This study aimed to examine the association between floods and bacillary dysentery in the city of Dalian, China. A generalized additive mixed model was applied to examine the association between floods and bacillary dysentery. The relative risk (RR) of flood impact on bacillary dysentery was estimated. A total of 18,976 cases of bacillary dysentery were reported in Dalian during the study period. Two weeks' lagged effect was detected from the impact of floods on bacillary dysentery. The RR of flood impact on bacillary dysentery was 1.17 (95% CI: 1.03-1.33). Floods have significantly increased the risk of bacillary dysentery in Dalian. More studies should focus on the association between floods and infectious diseases in different regions. Our findings have significant implications for managing the negative health impact of floods in the midlatitude region of China. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:190-195).

  16. Lactic acid production from potato peel waste by anaerobic sequencing batch fermentation using undefined mixed culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Shaobo; McDonald, Armando G; Coats, Erik R

    2015-11-01

    Lactic acid (LA) is a necessary industrial feedstock for producing the bioplastic, polylactic acid (PLA), which is currently produced by pure culture fermentation of food carbohydrates. This work presents an alternative to produce LA from potato peel waste (PPW) by anaerobic fermentation in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) inoculated with undefined mixed culture from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. A statistical design of experiments approach was employed using set of 0.8L SBRs using gelatinized PPW at a solids content range from 30 to 50 g L(-1), solids retention time of 2-4 days for yield and productivity optimization. The maximum LA production yield of 0.25 g g(-1) PPW and highest productivity of 125 mg g(-1) d(-1) were achieved. A scale-up SBR trial using neat gelatinized PPW (at 80 g L(-1) solids content) at the 3 L scale was employed and the highest LA yield of 0.14 g g(-1) PPW and a productivity of 138 mg g(-1) d(-1) were achieved with a 1 d SRT. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Mapping flood and flooding potential indices: a methodological approach to identifying areas susceptible to flood and flooding risk. Case study: the Prahova catchment (Romania)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaharia, Liliana; Costache, Romulus; Prăvălie, Remus; Ioana-Toroimac, Gabriela

    2017-04-01

    Given that floods continue to cause yearly significant worldwide human and material damages, flood risk mitigation is a key issue and a permanent challenge in developing policies and strategies at various spatial scales. Therefore, a basic phase is elaborating hazard and flood risk maps, documents which are an essential support for flood risk management. The aim of this paper is to develop an approach that allows for the identification of flash-flood and flood-prone susceptible areas based on computing and mapping of two indices: FFPI (Flash-Flood Potential Index) and FPI (Flooding Potential Index). These indices are obtained by integrating in a GIS environment several geographical variables which control runoff (in the case of the FFPI) and favour flooding (in the case of the FPI). The methodology was applied in the upper (mountainous) and middle (hilly) catchment of the Prahova River, a densely populated and socioeconomically well-developed area which has been affected repeatedly by water-related hazards over the past decades. The resulting maps showing the spatialization of the FFPI and FPI allow for the identification of areas with high susceptibility to flashfloods and flooding. This approach can provide useful mapped information, especially for areas (generally large) where there are no flood/hazard risk maps. Moreover, the FFPI and FPI maps can constitute a preliminary step for flood risk and vulnerability assessment.

  18. Use of deep soil mixing as an alternate verticle barrier to slurry walls

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, A.D.

    1997-01-01

    Slurry walls have become an accepted subsurface remediation technique to contain contaminated zones. However, situations develop where conventional slurry wall excavation techniques are not suitable. The use of conventional containment wall construction methods may involve removal and disposal of contaminated soils, stability concerns and the risk of open excavations. For these reasons, other installation techniques have received further consideration. Deep Soil Mixing (DSM) has emerged as a viable alternative to conventional slurry wall techniques. In situations dictating limited soil removal for contamination or stability concerns, or where space is a limitation, DSM can be used for installation of the barrier. Proper installation of a DSM wall requires sufficient monitoring and sampling to evaluate the continuity, mixing effectiveness, permeability and key into the confining layer. This paper describes a case study where DSM was used to cross major highways to avoid open excavation, and along slopes to reduce stability concerns. The DSM barrier was tied to an existing conventional slurry wall that had been installed in more stable areas without highway traffic

  19. Introducing non-flooded crops in rice-dominated landscapes: Impact on carbon, nitrogen and water budgets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jauker, Frank; Wassmann, Reiner; Amelung, Wulf; Breuer, Lutz; Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus; Conrad, Ralf; Ekschmitt, Klemens; Goldbach, Heiner; He, Yao; John, Katharina; Kiese, Ralf; Kraus, David; Reinhold-Hurek, Barbara; Siemens, Jan; Weller, Sebastian; Wolters, Volkmar

    2013-04-01

    Rice production consumes about 30% of all freshwater used worldwide and 45% in Asia. Turning away from permanently flooded rice cropping systems for mitigating future water scarcity and reducing methane emissions, however, will alter a variety of ecosystem services with potential adverse effects to both the environment and agricultural production. Moreover, implementing systems that alternate between flooded and non-flooded crops increases the risk of disruptive effects. The multi-disciplinary DFG research unit ICON aims at exploring and quantifying the ecological consequences of altered water regimes (flooded vs. non-flooded), crop diversification (irrigated rice vs. aerobic rice vs. maize), and different fertilization strategies (conventional, site-specific, and zero N fertilization). ICON particularly focuses on the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen, green-house gas (GHG) emissions, water balance, soil biotic processes and other important ecosystem services. The overarching goal is to provide the basic process understanding that is necessary for balancing the revenues and environmental impacts of high-yield rice cropping systems while maintaining their vital ecosystem services. To this aim, a large-scale field experiment has been established at the experimental farm of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, Philippines). Ultimately, the experimental results are analyzed in the context of management scenarios by an integrated modeling of crop development (ORYZA), carbon and nitrogen cycling (MoBiLE-DNDC), and water fluxes (CMF), providing the basis for developing pathways to a conversion of rice-based systems towards higher yield potentials under minimized environmental impacts. In our presentation, we demonstrate the set-up of the controlled large-scale field experiment for simultaneous assessment of carbon and nitrogen fluxes and water budgets. We show and discuss first results for: - Quantification and assessment of the net-fluxes of CH4

  20. Exploitation of Documented Historical Floods for Achieving Better Flood Defense

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Slobodan Kolaković

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Establishing Base Flood Elevation for a stream network corresponding to a big catchment is feasible by interdisciplinary approach, involving stochastic hydrology, river hydraulics, and computer aided simulations. A numerical model calibrated by historical floods has been exploited in this study. The short presentation of the catchment of the Tisza River in this paper is followed by the overview of historical floods which hit the region in the documented period of 130 years. Several well documented historical floods provided opportunity for the calibration of the chosen numerical model. Once established, the model could be used for investigation of different extreme flood scenarios and to establish the Base Flood Elevation. The calibration has shown that the coefficient of friction in case of the Tisza River is dependent both on the actual water level and on the preceding flood events. The effect of flood plain maintenance as well as the activation of six potential detention ponds on flood mitigation has been examined. Furthermore, the expected maximum water levels have also been determined for the case if the ever observed biggest 1888 flood hit the region again. The investigated cases of flood superposition highlighted the impact of tributary Maros on flood mitigation along the Tisza River.

  1. Oil palm waste and synthetic zeolite: an alternative soil-less growth substrate for lettuce production as a waste management practice

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jayasinghe, G.Y.; Tokashiki, Y.; Kitou, M.; Kinjo, K. [Kagoshima University, Kagoshima (Japan). United Graduate School of Agricultural Science

    2008-12-15

    A study was conducted to assess the characteristics and the prospective utilization of oil palm waste (OP) and synthetic zeolite (SZ) developed by coal fly ash, as an alternative substrate to peat and commercial perlite for lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) production. The SZ, OP, sphagnum peat (PE), perlite (PL) and two different SZ-OP mixtures (v/v) at the ratio of 1 : 3 and 1 : 10 were utilized as the substrates under this study. The substrates formulated by mixing SZ with OP at the ratio of 1 : 3 and 1 : 10 showed improved substrate physical and chemical properties such as air space, bulk density, particle density, water-holding capacity, pH and electrical conductivity (EC), which were in the ideal substrate range when compared with PL. Furthermore, the water-holding capacity of the substrate having a 1 : 10 mixing ratio of SZ with OP was higher than that of the PL by 28.23%, whereas the bulk density was lower than that of PL by 35%. A greenhouse experiment was carried out to assess the influence of the substrates on the growth and development of lettuce. The results of the study suggest that the SZ-OP-based substrates and OP can be successfully utilized as alternatives to the commercial perlite and to substitute the conventional peat substrate for lettuce cultivation. In addition, this can be proposed as an alternative waste management practice.

  2. Influence of Flood Detention Capability in Flood Prevention for Flood Disaster of Depression Area

    OpenAIRE

    Chia Lin Chan; Yi Ju Yang; Chih Chin Yang

    2011-01-01

    Rainfall records of rainfall station including the rainfall potential per hour and rainfall mass of five heavy storms are explored, respectively from 2001 to 2010. The rationalization formula is to investigate the capability of flood peak duration of flood detention pond in different rainfall conditions. The stable flood detention model is also proposed by using system dynamic control theory to get the message of flood detention pond in this research. When rainfall freque...

  3. Social vulnerability analysis of the event flood puddle (case study in Lamongan regency, East Java province)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soegiyanto; Rindawati

    2018-01-01

    This research was conducted in the flood plain Bonorowo in Lamongan East Java Province. The area was inundated almost every year, but people still survive and remain settled at the sites. This research is to identify and analyze the social vulnerability in the flood plains on the characteristics puddle Bonorowo This research method is the study of the characteristics and livelihood strategies of the communities living on marginal lands (floodplains Bonorowo) are regions prone to flooding / inundation. Based on the object of this study is a survey research method mix / mix method, which merge or combination of methods of quantitative and qualitative methods, so it will be obtained a description of a more comprehensive and holistic. The results obtained in this study are; Social vulnerability is not affected by the heightened puddles. Social capital is abundant making society safer and more comfortable to keep their activities and settle in the region

  4. Satellite images of the September 2013 flood event in Lyons, Colorado

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cole, Christopher J.; Friesen, Beverly A.; Wilds, Stanley; Noble, Suzanne; Warner, Harumi; Wilson, Earl M.

    2013-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Special Applications Science Center (SASC) produced an image base map showing high-resolution remotely sensed data over Lyons, Colorado—a city that was severely affected by the flood event that occurred throughout much of the Colorado Front Range in September of 2013. The 0.5-meter WorldView-2 data products were created from imagery collected by DigitalGlobe on September 13 and September 24, 2013, during and following the flood event. The images shown on this map were created to support flood response efforts, specifically for use in determining damage assessment and mitigation decisions. The raw, unprocessed imagery were orthorectified and pan-sharpened to enhance mapping accuracy and spatial resolution, and reproduced onto a cartographic base map. These maps are intended to provide a snapshot representation of post-flood ground conditions, which may be useful to decisionmakers and the general public. The SASC also provided data processing and analysis support for other Colorado flood-affected areas by creating cartographic products, geo-corrected electro-optical and radar image mosaics, and GIS water cover files for use by the Colorado National Guard, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the flood response community. All products for this International Charter event were uploaded to the USGS Hazards Data Distribution System (HDDS) website (http://hdds.usgs.gov/hdds2/) for distribution.

  5. Distributed lag effects and vulnerable groups of floods on bacillary dysentery in Huaihua, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhi-Dong; Li, Jing; Zhang, Ying; Ding, Guo-Yong; Xu, Xin; Gao, Lu; Liu, Xue-Na; Liu, Qi-Yong; Jiang, Bao-Fa

    2016-01-01

    Understanding the potential links between floods and bacillary dysentery in China is important to develop appropriate intervention programs after floods. This study aimed to explore the distributed lag effects of floods on bacillary dysentery and to identify the vulnerable groups in Huaihua, China. Weekly number of bacillary dysentery cases from 2005–2011 were obtained during flood season. Flood data and meteorological data over the same period were obtained from the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System. To examine the distributed lag effects, a generalized linear mixed model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model were developed to assess the relationship between floods and bacillary dysentery. A total of 3,709 cases of bacillary dysentery were notified over the study period. The effects of floods on bacillary dysentery continued for approximately 3 weeks with a cumulative risk ratio equal to 1.52 (95% CI: 1.08–2.12). The risks of bacillary dysentery were higher in females, farmers and people aged 15–64 years old. This study suggests floods have increased the risk of bacillary dysentery with 3 weeks’ effects, especially for the vulnerable groups identified. Public health programs should be taken to prevent and control a potential risk of bacillary dysentery after floods. PMID:27427387

  6. Effects of Flood Control Strategies on Flood Resilience Under Sociohydrological Disturbances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sung, Kyungmin; Jeong, Hanseok; Sangwan, Nikhil; Yu, David J.

    2018-04-01

    A community capacity to cope with flood hazards, or community flood resilience, emerges from the interplay of hydrological and social processes. This interplay can be significantly influenced by the flood control strategy adopted by a society, i.e., how a society sets its desired flood protection level and strives to achieve this goal. And this interplay can be further complicated by rising land-sea level differences, seasonal water level fluctuations, and economic change. But not much research has been done on how various forms of flood control strategies affect human-flood interactions under these disturbances and therefore flood resilience in the long run. The current study is an effort to address these issues by developing a conceptual model of human-flood interaction mediated by flood control strategies. Our model extends the existing model of Yu et al. (2017), who investigated the flood resilience of a community-based flood protection system in coastal Bangladesh. The major extensions made in this study are inclusions of various forms of flood control strategies (both adaptive and nonadaptive ones), the challenge of rising land-sea level differences, and various high tide level scenarios generated from modifying the statistical variances and averages. Our results show that adaptive forms of flood control strategies tend to outperform nonadaptive ones for maintaining the model community's flood protection system. Adaptive strategies that dynamically adjust target flood protection levels through close monitoring of flood damages and social memories of flood risk can help the model community deal with various disturbances.

  7. Public perception of flood risks, flood forecasting and mitigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Brilly

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available A multidisciplinary and integrated approach to the flood mitigation decision making process should provide the best response of society in a flood hazard situation including preparation works and post hazard mitigation. In Slovenia, there is a great lack of data on social aspects and public response to flood mitigation measures and information management. In this paper, two studies of flood perception in the Slovenian town Celje are represented. During its history, Celje was often exposed to floods, the most recent serious floods being in 1990 and in 1998, with a hundred and fifty return period and more than ten year return period, respectively. Two surveys were conducted in 1997 and 2003, with 157 participants from different areas of the town in the first, and 208 in the second study, aiming at finding the general attitude toward the floods. The surveys revealed that floods present a serious threat in the eyes of the inhabitants, and that the perception of threat depends, to a certain degree, on the place of residence. The surveys also highlighted, among the other measures, solidarity and the importance of insurance against floods.

  8. Capturing changes in flood risk with Bayesian approaches for flood damage assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogel, Kristin; Schröter, Kai; Kreibich, Heidi; Thieken, Annegret; Müller, Meike; Sieg, Tobias; Laudan, Jonas; Kienzler, Sarah; Weise, Laura; Merz, Bruno; Scherbaum, Frank

    2016-04-01

    Flood risk is a function of hazard as well as of exposure and vulnerability. All three components are under change over space and time and have to be considered for reliable damage estimations and risk analyses, since this is the basis for an efficient, adaptable risk management. Hitherto, models for estimating flood damage are comparatively simple and cannot sufficiently account for changing conditions. The Bayesian network approach allows for a multivariate modeling of complex systems without relying on expert knowledge about physical constraints. In a Bayesian network each model component is considered to be a random variable. The way of interactions between those variables can be learned from observations or be defined by expert knowledge. Even a combination of both is possible. Moreover, the probabilistic framework captures uncertainties related to the prediction and provides a probability distribution for the damage instead of a point estimate. The graphical representation of Bayesian networks helps to study the change of probabilities for changing circumstances and may thus simplify the communication between scientists and public authorities. In the framework of the DFG-Research Training Group "NatRiskChange" we aim to develop Bayesian networks for flood damage and vulnerability assessments of residential buildings and companies under changing conditions. A Bayesian network learned from data, collected over the last 15 years in flooded regions in the Elbe and Danube catchments (Germany), reveals the impact of many variables like building characteristics, precaution and warning situation on flood damage to residential buildings. While the handling of incomplete and hybrid (discrete mixed with continuous) data are the most challenging issues in the study on residential buildings, a similar study, that focuses on the vulnerability of small to medium sized companies, bears new challenges. Relying on a much smaller data set for the determination of the model

  9. Joint projections of sea level and storm surge using a flood index

    Science.gov (United States)

    Little, C. M.; Lin, N.; Horton, R. M.; Kopp, R. E.; Oppenheimer, M.

    2016-02-01

    Capturing the joint influence of sea level rise (SLR) and tropical cyclones (TCs) on future coastal flood risk poses significant challenges. To address these difficulties, Little et al. (2015) use a proxy of tropical cyclone activity and a probabilistic flood index that aggregates flood height and duration over a wide area (the US East and Gulf coasts). This technique illuminates the individual impacts of TCs and SLR and their correlation across different coupled climate models. By 2080-2099, changes in the flood index relative to 1986-2005 are substantial and positively skewed: a 10th-90th percentile range of 35-350x higher for a high-end business-as-usual emissions scenario (see figure). This aggregated flood index: 1) is a means to consistently combine TC-driven storm surges and SLR; 2) provides a more robust description of historical surge-climate relationships than is available at any one location; and 3) allows the incorporation of a larger climate model ensemble - which is critical to uncertainty characterization. It does not provide a local view of the complete spectrum of flood severity (i.e. return curves). However, alternate techniques that provide localized return curves (e.g. Lin et al., 2012) are computationally intensive, limiting the set of large-scale climate models that can be incorporated, and require several linked statistical and dynamical models, each with structural uncertainties that are difficult to quantify. Here, we present the results of Little et al. (2015) along with: 1) alternate formulations of the flood index; 2) strategies to localize the flood index; and 3) a comparison of flood index projections to those provided by model-based return curves. We look to this interdisciplinary audience for feedback on the advantages and disadvantages of each tool for coastal planning and decision-making. Lin, N., K. Emanuel, M. Oppenheimer, and E. Vanmarcke, 2012: Physically based assessment of hurricane surge threat under climate change. Nature

  10. Elasticity and electrical resistivity of chalk and greensand during water flooding with selective ions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Katika, Konstantina; Alam, Mohammad Monzurul; Alexeev, Artem

    2018-01-01

    is water-wet after flooding. Greensand remained mixed wet throughout the experiments. Electrical resistivity data are in agreement with this interpretation. The electrical resistivity data during flooding revealed that the formation brine is not fully replaced by the injected water in both chalk......Water flooding with selective ions has in some cases lead to increased oil recovery. We investigate the physical processes on a pore scale that are responsible for changes in petrophysical and mechanical properties of four oil-bearing chalk and four oil-bearing greensand samples caused by flooding...... with brines containing varying amounts of dissolved NaCl, Na2SO4, MgCl2 and MgSO4. Ultrasonic P-wave velocity and AC resistivity measurements were performed prior to, during and after flow through experiments in order to identify and quantify the processes related to water flooding with selective ions. Low...

  11. Defining the formative discharge for alternate bars in alluvial rivers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Redolfi, M.; Carlin, M.; Tubino, M.; Adami, L.; Zolezzi, G.

    2017-12-01

    We investigate the properties of alternate bars in long straight reaches of channelized streams subject to an unsteady, irregular flow regime. To this aim we propose a novel integration of a statistical approach with the analytical perturbation model of Tubino (1991) which predicts the evolution of bar properties (namely amplitude and wavelength) as consequence of a flood. The outcomes of our integrated modelling approach are probability distribution of the bar properties, which depend essentially on two ingredients: (i) the statistical properties of the flow regime (duration, frequency and magnitude of the flood events, and (ii) the reach-averaged hydro-geomorphic characteristics of the channel (bed material, channel gradient and width). This allows to define a "bar-forming" discharge value as the flow value which would reproduce the most likely bar properties in a river reach under unsteady flow. Alternate bars are often migrating downstream and growing or declining during flood events. The timescale of bar growth and migration is often comparable with the duration of the floods: consequently, bar properties such as height and wavelength do not respond instantaneously to discharge variations (i.e. quasi-equilibrium response) but may depend on previous flood events. Theoretical results are compared with observations in three Alpine, channelized gravel bed rivers with encouraging outcomes.png" class="documentimage" >

  12. Lithologic and hydrologic controls of mixed alluvial-bedrock channels in flood-prone fluvial systems: bankfull and macrochannels in the Llano River watershed, central Texas, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heitmuller, Frank T.; Hudson, Paul F.; Asquith, William H.

    2015-01-01

    The rural and unregulated Llano River watershed located in central Texas, USA, has a highly variable flow regime and a wide range of instantaneous peak flows. Abrupt transitions in surface lithology exist along the main-stem channel course. Both of these characteristics afford an opportunity to examine hydrologic, lithologic, and sedimentary controls on downstream changes in channel morphology. Field surveys of channel topography and boundary composition are coupled with sediment analyses, hydraulic computations, flood-frequency analyses, and geographic information system mapping to discern controls on channel geometry (profile, pattern, and shape) and dimensions along the mixed alluvial-bedrock Llano River and key tributaries. Four categories of channel classification in a downstream direction include: (i) uppermost ephemeral reaches, (ii) straight or sinuous gravel-bed channels in Cretaceous carbonate sedimentary zones, (iii) straight or sinuous gravel-bed or bedrock channels in Paleozoic sedimentary zones, and (iv) straight, braided, or multithread mixed alluvial–bedrock channels with sandy beds in Precambrian igneous and metamorphic zones. Principal findings include: (i) a nearly linear channel profile attributed to resistant bedrock incision checkpoints; (ii) statistically significant correlations of both alluvial sinuosity and valley confinement to relatively high f (mean depth) hydraulic geometry values; (iii) relatively high b (width) hydraulic geometry values in partly confined settings with sinuous channels upstream from a prominent incision checkpoint; (iv) different functional flow categories including frequently occurring events (high f values (most ≤ 0.45) that develop at sites with unit stream power values in excess of 200 watts per square meter (W/m2); and (vi) downstream convergence of hydraulic geometry exponents for bankfull and macrochannels, explained by co-increases of flood magnitude and noncohesive sandy sediments that collectively

  13. Understanding flood-induced water chemistry variability extracting temporal patterns with the LDA method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aubert, A. H.; Tavenard, R.; Emonet, R.; De Lavenne, A.; Malinowski, S.; Guyet, T.; Quiniou, R.; Odobez, J.; Merot, P.; Gascuel-odoux, C.

    2013-12-01

    Studying floods has been a major issue in hydrological research for years, both in quantitative and qualitative hydrology. Stream chemistry is a mix of solutes, often used as tracers, as they originate from various sources in the catchment and reach the stream by various flow pathways. Previous studies (for instance (1)) hypothesized that stream chemistry reaction to a rainfall event is not unique but varies seasonally, and according to the yearly meteorological conditions. Identifying a typology of flood temporal chemical patterns is a way to better understand catchment processes at the flood and seasonal time scale. We applied a probabilistic model (Latent Dirichlet Allocation or LDA (2)) mining recurrent sequential patterns from a dataset of floods. A set of 472 floods was automatically extracted from a daily 12-year long record of nitrate, dissolved organic carbon, sulfate and chloride concentrations. Rainfall, discharge, water table depth and temperature are also considered. Data comes from a long-term hydrological observatory (AgrHys, western France) located at Kervidy-Naizin. From each flood, a document has been generated that is made of a set of "hydrological words". Each hydrological word corresponds to a measurement: it is a triplet made of the considered variable, the time at which the measurement is made (relative to the beginning of the flood), and its magnitude (that can be low, medium or high). The documents and the number of pattern to be mined are used as input data to the LDA algorithm. LDA relies on spotting co-occurrences (as an alternative to the more traditional study of correlation) between words that appear within the flood documents. It has two nice properties that are its ability to easily deal with missing data and its additive property that allows a document to be seen as a mixture of several flood patterns. The output of LDA is a set of patterns easily represented in graphics. These patterns correspond to typical reactions to rainfall

  14. Financial products as alternatives to traditional deposits

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina Lidia MANEA

    2016-05-01

    In this context, increasing the safety of depositors appears as an undisputed necessity, which translates to our approach in the development of a constructive type applied research that takes into account the following stages: short description of risks and uncertainties characterizing the economic environment with emphasis on the importance of the financial instruments; analysis of empirical data on deposits in lei and euro at national level, identifying possible causes which led to one preference or another and finding the causes underlying the different options manifested in the capital, as compared to other counties; identifying the products that offer a dangerous alternative to traditional deposits from the Romanian banking market and describing these products and their related risks; the proposal of a new product, demonstrating its effectiveness by testing and confirmation of two hypotheses.

  15. Natural resources management in flood-prone fragile ecology of Eastern India

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singh, S.S.; Khan, A.R.

    2001-04-01

    On most of the flood-prone areas in India no crops other than rice can be grown in wet seasons. Productivity is however poor due to unpredictable growing conditions. One of the options to increase productivity is to devise effective flood control measure and develop better water management practices. This option would require an enormous investment. Agricultural scientists consider another option of productivity increase through developing suitable crop technologies without changing the existing crop growing conditions

  16. Urban Floods in Lowlands—Levee Systems, Unplanned Urban Growth and River Restoration Alternative: A Case Study in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Gomes Miguez

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The development of cities has always had a very close relation with water. However, cities directly impact land use patterns and greatly change natural landscapes, aggravating floods. Considering this situation, this paper intends to discuss lowland occupation and city sustainability in what regards urban stormwater management, fluvial space, and river restoration, aiming at minimizing flood risks and improving natural and built environment conditions. River plains tend to be attractive places for a city to grow. From ancient times, levees have been used to protect lowland areas along major watercourses to allow their occupation. However, urban rivers demand space for temporary flood storage. From a systemic point of view, levees along extensive river reaches act as canalization works, limiting river connectivity with flood plains, rising water levels, increasing overtopping risks and transferring floods downstream. Departing from this discussion, four case studies in the Iguaçu-Sarapuí River Basin, a lowland area of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, are used to compose a perspective in which the central point refers to the need of respecting watershed limits and giving space to rivers. Different aspects of low-lying city planning are discussed and analyzed concerning the integration of the built and natural environments.

  17. Development of a mixed culture chain elongation process based on municipal solid waste and ethanol

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Grootscholten, T.I.M.

    2013-01-01

    Keywords: mixed culture fermentation; Carboxylates; Caproate; Heptanoate; ethanol; OFMSW

    To reduce dependence on oil, alternative fuel and chemical production processes are investigates. In this thesis, we investigated the production of medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) using an anaerobic

  18. Error Analysis of Satellite Precipitation-Driven Modeling of Flood Events in Complex Alpine Terrain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yiwen Mei

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The error in satellite precipitation-driven complex terrain flood simulations is characterized in this study for eight different global satellite products and 128 flood events over the Eastern Italian Alps. The flood events are grouped according to two flood types: rain floods and flash floods. The satellite precipitation products and runoff simulations are evaluated based on systematic and random error metrics applied on the matched event pairs and basin-scale event properties (i.e., rainfall and runoff cumulative depth and time series shape. Overall, error characteristics exhibit dependency on the flood type. Generally, timing of the event precipitation mass center and dispersion of the time series derived from satellite precipitation exhibits good agreement with the reference; the cumulative depth is mostly underestimated. The study shows a dampening effect in both systematic and random error components of the satellite-driven hydrograph relative to the satellite-retrieved hyetograph. The systematic error in shape of the time series shows a significant dampening effect. The random error dampening effect is less pronounced for the flash flood events and the rain flood events with a high runoff coefficient. This event-based analysis of the satellite precipitation error propagation in flood modeling sheds light on the application of satellite precipitation in mountain flood hydrology.

  19. 7 CFR 58.149 - Alternate quality control programs for dairy products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Alternate quality control programs for dairy products... for dairy products. (a) When a plant has in operation an acceptable quality control program which is... (CONTINUED) REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS UNDER THE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACT OF 1946 AND THE EGG PRODUCTS...

  20. Impacts of Floods Events on Food Security

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caporali, E.; Pacetti, T.; Rulli, M. C.

    2017-12-01

    The analysis of the interactions among natural disasters and food security is particularly significant for developing countries where food availability (one of the four pillars of food security together with access, utilization and stability) can be highly jeopardize by extreme events that damage the primary access to food, i.e. the agriculture. The main objective of this study is to analyze the impact of flood events on food security for two disastrous flood events in Bangladesh on 2007 and in Pakistan on 2010, selected here as case studies based on the existing literature related to extreme floods.The adopted methodology integrates remote sensing data, agricultural statistics, and water footprint values in order to (i) evaluating the potentially affected agricultural areas; (ii) converting the affected areas into crop loss; (iii) estimating the associated calories and water footprint losses. In Bangladesh, the estimated lost rice is around 12.5% of the total potential production, which implies a 5.3% calories loss with respect to the total potential energy provided by rice and 4.4% of total WF associated to national food supply. In Pakistan, the results show a crops loss of 19% for sugarcane and 40% for rice, with a related calories loss of 8.5% and a WF loss of 13.5%.The results highlight the countries vulnerability to flood, being both countries strongly dependent on local agricultural production. The 2007 flood event reflected critically upon Bangladeshi food security, almost doubling the existing food deficit. The same happened in Pakistan where an already scarce food supply has been worsened by the 2010 flood.Method results are fully repeatable; whereas, for remote sensed data the sources of data are valid worldwide and the data regarding land use and crops characteristics are strongly site specific, which need to be carefully evaluated.These case studies stress the importance of integrating different analysis approaches to carry out an assessment of the

  1. Alternative realities : from augmented reality to mobile mixed reality

    OpenAIRE

    Claydon, Mark

    2015-01-01

    This thesis provides an overview of (mobile) augmented and mixed reality by clarifying the different concepts of reality, briefly covering the technology behind mobile augmented and mixed reality systems, conducting a concise survey of existing and emerging mobile augmented and mixed reality applications and devices. Based on the previous analysis and the survey, this work will next attempt to assess what mobile augmented and mixed reality could make possible, and what related applications an...

  2. Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for production of mixed-acid fermentation end products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas Hartmut Förster

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Mixed-acid fermentation end products have numerous applications in biotechnology. This is probably the main driving force for the development of multiple strains that are supposed to produce individual end products with high yields. The process of engineering Escherichia coli strains for applied production of ethanol, lactate, succinate, or acetate was initiated several decades ago and is still ongoing. This review follows the path of strain development from the general characteristics of aerobic versus anaerobic metabolism over the regulatory machinery that enables the different metabolic routes. Thereafter, major improvements for broadening the substrate spectrum of Escherichia coli towards cheap carbon sources like molasses or lignocellulose are highlighted before major routes of strain development for the production of ethanol, acetate, lactate and succinate are presented.

  3. Effects of mixed substrates on growth and vitamin production by ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    SERVER

    2007-10-16

    Oct 16, 2007 ... The cells were grown mixotrophically in glucose (G), ethanol ... Key words: mixed substrate culture, Euglena gracilis, cell growth, vitamin production. ..... Biological elimination of nitric oxide from fuel gas by marine micro-.

  4. Helium production in mixed spectrum reactor-irradiated pure elements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kneff, D.W.; Oliver, B.M.; Skowronski, R.P.

    1986-01-01

    The objectives of this work are to apply helium accumulation neutron dosimetry to the measurement of neutron fluences and energy spectra in mixed-spectrum fission reactors utilized for fusion materials testing, and to measure helium generation rates of materials in these irradiation environments. Helium generation measurements have been made for several Fe, Cu Ti, Nb, Cr, and Pt samples irradiated in the mixed-spectrum High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Oak Ridge Research Reactor (ORR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The results have been used to integrally test the ENDF/B-V Gas Production File, by comparing the measurements with helium generation predictions made by Argonne National Laboratory using ENDF/B-V cross sections and adjusted reactor spectra. The comparisons indicate consistency between the helium measurements and ENDF/B-V for iron, but cross section discrepancies exist for helium production by fast neutrons in Cu, Ti, Nb, and Cr (the latter for ORR). The Fe, Cu, and Ti work updates and extends previous measurements

  5. Decommissioning planning and the assessment of alternatives for the Hanford production reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, C.E. Jr.; Potter, R.F.

    1985-01-01

    Several years ago, the US Department of Energy began assessing alternatives and planning the decommissioning of eight shut-down plutonium production reactors located on the DOE Hanford Site in Washington State. The first of these graphite-moderated, water-cooled, reactors was built and started up in 1944 as part of the World War II Manhattan Project. The last of them started up in 1955. The eight reactors each operated for 12 to 24 years, with all eight operating simultaneously for about 10 years. In the 1960's, production needs declined and the reactors were one-by-one permanently shut down, the last of them in 1971. (A ninth Hanford production reactor, N Reactor, was started up in 1963; it is still operating and is not within the scope of the decommissioning planning and alternatives assessment work reported in this paper). This paper provides an overview description of the decommissioning plan for the eight shut-down Hanford production reactors and their associated fuel storage basins. Included are descriptions of the decommissioning alternatives considered for the facilities, along with discussions of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process activities applicable to the Hanford decommissioning work. The criteria used in assessing decommissioning alternatives and the assumptions used in the decommissioning planning are identified. 4 refs., 8 figs., 3 tabs

  6. Proteomic Techniques and Management of Flooding Tolerance in Soybean.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Komatsu, Setsuko; Tougou, Makoto; Nanjo, Yohei

    2015-09-04

    Climate change is considered a major threat to world agriculture and food security. To improve the agricultural productivity and sustainability, the development of high-yielding stress-tolerant, and climate-resilient crops is essential. Of the abiotic stresses, flooding stress is a very serious hazard because it markedly reduces plant growth and grain yield. Proteomic analyses indicate that the effects of flooding stress are not limited to oxygen deprivation but include many other factors. Although many flooding response mechanisms have been reported, flooding tolerance mechanisms have not been fully clarified for soybean. There were limitations in soybean materials, such as mutants and varieties, while they were abundant in rice and Arabidopsis. In this review, plant proteomic technologies are introduced and flooding tolerance mechanisms of soybeans are summarized to assist in the improvement of flooding tolerance in soybeans. This work will expedite transgenic or marker-assisted genetic enhancement studies in crops for developing high-yielding stress-tolerant lines or varieties under abiotic stress.

  7. Assessing coastal flood risk and sea level rise impacts at New York City area airports

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohman, K. A.; Kimball, N.; Osler, M.; Eberbach, S.

    2014-12-01

    Flood risk and sea level rise impacts were assessed for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) at four airports in the New York City area. These airports included John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, Newark International, and Teterboro Airports. Quantifying both present day and future flood risk due to climate change and developing flood mitigation alternatives is crucial for the continued operation of these airports. During Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 all four airports were forced to shut down, in part due to coastal flooding. Future climate change and sea level rise effects may result in more frequent shutdowns and disruptions in travel to and from these busy airports. The study examined the effects of the 1%-annual-chance coastal flooding event for present day existing conditions and six different sea level rise scenarios at each airport. Storm surge model outputs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided the present day storm surge conditions. 50th and 90thpercentile sea level rise projections from the New York Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) 2013 report were incorporated into storm surge results using linear superposition methods. These projections were evaluated for future years 2025, 2035, and 2055. In addition to the linear superposition approach for storm surge at airports where waves are a potential hazard, one dimensional wave modeling was performed to get the total water level results. Flood hazard and flood depth maps were created based on these results. In addition to assessing overall flooding at each airport, major at-risk infrastructure critical to the continued operation of the airport was identified and a detailed flood vulnerability assessment was performed. This assessment quantified flood impacts in terms of potential critical infrastructure inundation and developed mitigation alternatives to adapt to coastal flooding and future sea level changes. Results from this project are advancing the PANYNJ

  8. Make or mix to order: Determining the type of intermediate products in a flour mill

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Akkerman, Renzo; van der Meer, Dirk; van Donk, Dirk Pieter

    2008-01-01

    In contrast to discrete manufacturers, food-processing companies can sometimes produce the same end products in different ways: either mix early and process or process first and mix later. Moreover, a product can be mixed from different raw materials or intermediates. That implies that choices can...... be made not only with regard to where to store, but also what to store, which is currently not covered in Decoupling Point (DP) theory. This paper explores this joint problem for a flour mill. The number and type of intermediate products in the DP is determined using a two-stage mathematical program...

  9. Ecosystem ecology meets adaptive management: food web response to a controlled flood on the Colorado River, Glen Canyon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cross, Wyatt F.; Baxter, Colden V.; Donner, Kevin C.; Rosi-Marshall, Emma J.; Kennedy, Theodore A.; Hall, Robert O.; Wellard Kelly, Holly A.; Rogers, R. Scott

    2011-01-01

    Large dams have been constructed on rivers to meet human demands for water, electricity, navigation, and recreation. As a consequence, flow and temperature regimes have been altered, strongly affecting river food webs and ecosystem processes. Experimental high-flow dam releases, i.e., controlled floods, have been implemented on the Colorado River, USA, in an effort to reestablish pulsed flood events, redistribute sediments, improve conditions for native fishes, and increase understanding of how dam operations affect physical and biological processes. We quantified secondary production and organic matter flows in the food web below Glen Canyon dam for two years prior and one year after an experimental controlled flood in March 2008. Invertebrate biomass and secondary production declined significantly following the flood (total biomass, 55% decline; total production, 56% decline), with most of the decline driven by reductions in two nonnative invertebrate taxa, Potamopyrgus antipodarum and Gammarus lacustris. Diatoms dominated the trophic basis of invertebrate production before and after the controlled flood, and the largest organic matter flows were from diatoms to the three most productive invertebrate taxa (P. antipodarum, G. lacustris, and Tubificida). In contrast to invertebrates, production of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) increased substantially (194%) following the flood, despite the large decline in total secondary production of the invertebrate assemblage. This counterintuitive result is reconciled by a post-flood increase in production and drift concentrations of select invertebrate prey (i.e., Chironomidae and Simuliidae) that supported a large proportion of trout production but had relatively low secondary production. In addition, interaction strengths, measured as species impact values, were strongest between rainbow trout and these two taxa before and after the flood, demonstrating that the dominant consumer—resource interactions were not

  10. Flood Risk Management In Europe: European flood regulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hegger, D.L.T.; Bakker, M.H.; Green, C.; Driessen, Peter; Delvaux, B.; Rijswick, H.F.M.W. van; Suykens, C.; Beyers, J-C.; Deketelaere, K.; Doorn-Hoekveld, W. van; Dieperink, C.

    2013-01-01

    In Europe, water management is moving from flood defense to a risk management approach, which takes both the probability and the potential consequences of flooding into account. In this report, we will look at Directives and (non-)EU- initiatives in place to deal with flood risk in Europe indirectly

  11. Citizen involvement in flood risk governance: flood groups and networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Twigger-Ross Clare

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Over the past decade has been a policy shift withinUK flood risk management towards localism with an emphasis on communities taking ownership of flood risk. There is also an increased focus on resilience and, more specifically, on community resilience to flooding. This paper draws on research carried out for UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to evaluate the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder (FRCP scheme in England. Resilience is conceptualised as multidimensional and linked to exisiting capacities within a community. Creating resilience to flooding is an ongoing process of adaptation, learning from past events and preparing for future risks. This paper focusses on the development of formal and informal institutions to support improved flood risk management: institutional resilience capacity. It includes new institutions: e.g. flood groups, as well as activities that help to build inter- and intra- institutional resilience capacity e.g. community flood planning. The pathfinder scheme consisted of 13 projects across England led by local authorities aimed at developing community resilience to flood risk between 2013 – 2015. This paper discusses the nature and structure of flood groups, the process of their development, and the extent of their linkages with formal institutions, drawing out the barriers and facilitators to developing institutional resilience at the local level.

  12. Resolution Enhancement of MODIS-Derived Water Indices for Studying Persistent Flooding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Underwood, L. W.; Kalcic, Maria; Fletcher, Rose

    2012-01-01

    Monitoring coastal marshes for persistent flooding and salinity stress is a high priority issue in Louisiana. Remote sensing can identify environmental variables that can be indicators of marsh habitat conditions, and offer timely and relatively accurate information for aiding wetland vegetation management. Monitoring activity accuracy is often limited by mixed pixels which occur when areas represented by the pixel encompasses more than one cover type. Mixtures of marsh grasses and open water in 250m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data can impede flood area estimation. Flood mapping of such mixtures requires finer spatial resolution data to better represent the cover type composition within 250m MODIS pixel. Fusion of MODIS and Landsat can improve both spectral and temporal resolution of time series products to resolve rapid changes from forcing mechanisms like hurricane winds and storm surge. For this study, using a method for estimating sub-pixel values from a MODIS time series of a Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), using temporal weighting, was implemented to map persistent flooding in Louisiana coastal marshes. Ordinarily NDWI computed from daily 250m MODIS pixels represents a mixture of fragmented marshes and water. Here, sub-pixel NDWI values were derived for MODIS data using Landsat 30-m data. Each MODIS pixel was disaggregated into a mixture of the eight cover types according to the classified image pixels falling inside the MODIS pixel. The Landsat pixel means for each cover type inside a MODIS pixel were computed for the Landsat data preceding the MODIS image in time and for the Landsat data succeeding the MODIS image. The Landsat data were then weighted exponentially according to closeness in date to the MODIS data. The reconstructed MODIS data were produced by summing the product of fractional cover type with estimated NDWI values within each cover type. A new daily time series was produced using both the reconstructed 250

  13. Biodiesel and bioethanol production: A sustainable alternative for the energy crisis?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia Castro Martínez

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available The present contribution intends to give an overview of the current -status of the energy crisis and suggest some sustainable alternatives for energy production. In first place, a brief summary of the history about resources for energy production is presented. The high dependency of fossil combustibles it is well known and has been estimated that more than 90% of the used energy comes from non-renewable resources such as oil, gas and carbon. In the same way, here, it is described that oil is, by far, the main source of energy used to date and as a consequence, this resource is, unavoidably,coming to an end and at the same time is causing and increasing environmental pollution problems. Later in this work, it is suggested that in order to achieve the energetic sustainability, the development of alternative sources that will allow the reduction of toxic greenhouse gas (GHG emissions as well as a decrease of water usage along with a decrease in the energy production costs are needed. One of the alternatives that have been proposed is the production of biofuels, such as biodiesel and bioethanol. Here, some of the main properties at the level of the employed raw materials and production systems are cited. Finally, this work suggests some solutions that are under development worldwide in order to face thiscurrent energy situation.

  14. Comparative life-cycle cost analysis for low-level mixed waste remediation alternatives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jackson, J.A.; White, T.P.; Kloeber, J.M.; Toland, R.J.; Cain, J.P.; Buitrago, D.Y.

    1995-03-01

    The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to develop a generic, life-cycle cost model for evaluating low-level, mixed waste remediation alternatives, and (2) to apply the model specifically, to estimate remediation costs for a site similar to the Fernald Environmental Management Project near Cincinnati, OH. Life-cycle costs for vitrification, cementation, and dry removal process technologies are estimated. Since vitrification is in a conceptual phase, computer simulation is used to help characterize the support infrastructure of a large scale vitrification plant. Cost estimating relationships obtained from the simulation data, previous cost estimates, available process data, engineering judgment, and expert opinion all provide input to an Excel based spreadsheet for generating cash flow streams. Crystal Ball, an Excel add-on, was used for discounting cash flows for net present value analysis. The resulting LCC data was then analyzed using multi-attribute decision analysis techniques with cost and remediation time as criteria. The analytical framework presented allows alternatives to be evaluated in the context of budgetary, social, and political considerations. In general, the longer the remediation takes, the lower the net present value of the process. This is true because of the time value of money and large percentage of the costs attributed to storage or disposal

  15. Collaborative modelling for active involvement of stakeholders in urban flood risk management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Evers

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an approach to enhance the role of local stakeholders in dealing with urban floods. The concept is based on the DIANE-CM project (Decentralised Integrated Analysis and Enhancement of Awareness through Collaborative Modelling and Management of Flood Risk of the 2nd ERANET CRUE funding initiative. The main objective of the project was to develop and test an advanced methodology for enhancing the resilience of local communities to flooding. Through collaborative modelling, a social learning process was initiated that enhances the social capacity of the stakeholders due to the interaction process. The other aim of the project was to better understand how data from hazard and vulnerability analyses and improved maps, as well as from the near real-time flood prediction, can be used to initiate a public dialogue (i.e. collaborative mapping and planning activities in order to carry out more informed and shared decision-making processes and to enhance flood risk awareness. The concept of collaborative modelling was applied in two case studies: (1 the Cranbrook catchment in the UK, with focus on pluvial flooding; and (2 the Alster catchment in Germany, with focus on fluvial flooding. As a result of the interactive and social learning process, supported by sociotechnical instruments, an understanding of flood risk was developed amongst the stakeholders and alternatives for flood risk management for the respective case study area were jointly developed and ranked as a basis for further planning and management.

  16. Adaptation and Mitigation Model for People to Restore Their Ecosystem from Flood in Semarang, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muzakar Isa

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The northern coast of Central Java province is considered as the critical area of flood path. Semarang as capital city of this province with its junction area of Kendal and Demak always suffering from flood due to rain and or high tide seawater. It is realised that infrastructures’ capacity for flood control, awareness of people and other multi-factors are significantly contributed on the flood problem in these area. Mixed-methods of quantitative and qualitative are employed to analyze the data. The study found that there was a decline in quality of - people’s life, environment and its ecosystem. Awareness and responsiveness of people and also the other stakeholders are not progressive to overcome the problem of flood. This study is trying to contribute in outlining a model of adaptation and mitigation for the people to restore their ecosystem from the perspective of economist.

  17. Augmenting Austrian flood management practices through geospatial predictive analytics: a study in Carinthia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, S. M.; Paulus, G.

    2013-06-01

    The Danube River basin has long been the location of significant flooding problems across central Europe. The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the frequency, duration and intensity of these flood events, unveiling a dire need for enhanced flood management policy and tools in the region. Located in the southern portion of Austria, the state of Carinthia has experienced a significant volume of intense flood impacts over the last decade. Although the Austrian government has acknowledged these issues, their remedial actions have been primarily structural to date. Continued focus on controlling the natural environment through infrastructure while disregarding the need to consider alternative forms of assessing flood exposure will only act as a provisional solution to this inescapable risk. In an attempt to remedy this flaw, this paper highlights the application of geospatial predictive analytics and spatial recovery index as a proxy for community resilience, as well as the cultural challenges associated with the application of foreign models within an Austrian environment.

  18. Augmenting Austrian flood management practices through geospatial predictive analytics: a study in Carinthia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. M. Ward

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The Danube River basin has long been the location of significant flooding problems across central Europe. The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the frequency, duration and intensity of these flood events, unveiling a dire need for enhanced flood management policy and tools in the region. Located in the southern portion of Austria, the state of Carinthia has experienced a significant volume of intense flood impacts over the last decade. Although the Austrian government has acknowledged these issues, their remedial actions have been primarily structural to date. Continued focus on controlling the natural environment through infrastructure while disregarding the need to consider alternative forms of assessing flood exposure will only act as a provisional solution to this inescapable risk. In an attempt to remedy this flaw, this paper highlights the application of geospatial predictive analytics and spatial recovery index as a proxy for community resilience, as well as the cultural challenges associated with the application of foreign models within an Austrian environment.

  19. Brand emotional credibility: effects of mixed emotions about branded products with varying credibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mileti, Antonio; Prete, M Irene; Guido, Gianluigi

    2013-10-01

    This research investigates the effects of mixed emotions on the positioning and on the intention to purchase different categories of branded products (i.e., Attractiveness-products, Expertise-products, and Trustworthiness-products), in relation to their main component of credibility (Ohanian, 1990). On the basis of a focus group (n = 12) aimed to identify the three branded products used as stimuli and a pre-test (n = 240) directed to discover emotions elicited by them, two studies (n = 630; n = 240) were carried out. Positioning and multiple regression analyses showed that positive and negative emotions are positively related with the positioning and the purchase intention of Attractiveness-products, and, respectively, positively and negatively related with those of Trustworthiness-products; whereas negative emotions are negatively associated with those of Expertise-products. Brand Emotional Credibility--i.e., the emotional believability of the brand positioning signals--may help to identify unconscious elements and the simultaneous importance of mixed emotions associated with different products to match consumers' desires and expectations.

  20. Evaluation of Satellite Rainfall Estimates for Drought and Flood Monitoring in Mozambique

    OpenAIRE

    Carolien Toté; Domingos Patricio; Hendrik Boogaard; Raymond van der Wijngaart; Elena Tarnavsky; Chris Funk

    2015-01-01

    Satellite derived rainfall products are useful for drought and flood early warning and overcome the problem of sparse, unevenly distributed and erratic rain gauge observations, provided their accuracy is well known. Mozambique is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events such as major droughts and floods and thus, an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different rainfall products is valuable. Three dekadal (10-day) gridded satellite rainfall products (TAMSAT African Rainfall Cl...

  1. Electricity mix and ecological assessments. Consequences of the choice of specific electricity mixes in analyses of the environmental performance of products and services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Menard, M.; Dones, R.; Gantner, U.

    1998-12-01

    The study aims at analysing the methodological issues associated with the definition of electricity mixes and discussing the consequences of the choice of specific electricity mixes in analyses of the environmental performance of products and services, based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This report has been designed as a guideline to support LCA practitioners in the systematic identification of the most appropriate electricity mixes for LCA applications. A detailed checklist has been developed for this purpose. It includes the following items: type of electricity supply (from the net, self production, direct contracts); voltage level; country/place of utilisation; year of utilisation; season/daytime of utilisation; import/export model; and, marginal vs. average approach. A few examples, utilising published LCA studies, illustrate the impacts of the insights gained in the present work. Although primarily aimed at applications in Switzerland, the main concepts, the modelling and parts of the information provided can also be applied to other European countries. In addition to the three models proposed earlier for the assessment of the Swiss yearly average electricity mix, a new model (M4) has been developed in the frame of the present task in order to take into account the conditions characteristic for Switzerland as a transit land for electricity trades between its neighbour countries. All existing electricity mix models as well as selected environmental inventories are described and compared in the report. As an example of results, the CO 2 emissions calculated for the Swiss yearly electricity supply mix are relatively small (48 g/kWh with model M4, as compared with 497 g/kWh for the average UCPTE mix). Key information on the structure of electricity generation and trade in Europe is provided. The modelling of the electricity supply for most of the European countries is less sensitive to the choice of an electricity model than for Switzerland. Considering that

  2. Sociocultural attitudes surrounding menstruation and alternative menstrual products: the explanatory role of self-objectification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grose, Rose Grace; Grabe, Shelly

    2014-01-01

    We extend objectification theory research to consider the relationship between self-objectification and attitudes toward an alternative menstrual product in a diverse sample of female undergraduates from the United States (N = 151). We use a survey design to investigate attitudes toward one's menstruation as a potential mechanism that may explain this relationship. Reactions to an alternative menstrual product were predominantly negative, supporting prior research on stigma and shame surrounding menstruation. Exploratory structural equation modeling revealed attitudes toward one's menstruation mediated the relationship between self-objectification and participants' reactions to an alternative menstrual product. Implications for women's health are discussed.

  3. Impact of Alternative Environmental Flow Prescriptions on Hydropower Production and Fish Habitat Suitability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castellarin, A.; Ceola, S.; Pugliese, A.; Galeati, G. A.

    2015-12-01

    Anthropogenic activities along streams and rivers are increasingly recognized to be a major concern for fluvial ecosystems. The management of water resources, by means of e.g. flow diversions and dams, for industrial, agricultural, water-supply, hydropower production and flood protection purposes induces significant changes to the natural streamflow regime of a river. Indeed, the river flow regime is known to be a major abiotic factor influencing fluvial ecosystems. An established approach aimed at preserving the behaviour and distribution of fluvial species relies on the definition of minimum streamflow requirements (i.e., environmental flows) downstream of dams and diversion structures. Such environmental flows are normally identified through methodologies that have an empirical nature and may not be representative of local ecological and hydraulic conditions. While the effect of imposing a minimum discharge release is easily predictable in terms of e.g. loss of hydropower production, the advantages in terms of species preferences are often poorly understood and seldom assessed. To analyze the interactions between flow releases and the behaviour and distribution of fluvial species (i.e., from periphyton, to benthic invertebrate and fish), one may use a habitat suitability curve, which is a fundamental tool capable of describing species preferences influenced by any generic environmental variable. The outcomes of a real case study applied to several Italian rivers, located in the Marche administrative district in Central Italy (∽10000km2), in which we quantitatively assess the effects of alternative environmental flow scenarios on the existing hydropower network and on two fish species that are quite abundant in the study area (i.e., Leuciscus cephalus cabeda and Barbus barbus plebejus), will be presented and discussed. The proposed analysis, which can be easily adapted to different riparian habitats and hydrological contexts, is a useful tool to guide the

  4. Participatory approaches to understanding practices of flood management across borders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bracken, L. J.; Forrester, J.; Oughton, E. A.; Cinderby, S.; Donaldson, A.; Anness, L.; Passmore, D.

    2012-04-01

    The aim of this paper is to outline and present initial results from a study designed to identify principles of and practices for adaptive co-management strategies for resilience to flooding in borderlands using participatory methods. Borderlands are the complex and sometimes undefined spaces existing at the interface of different territories and draws attention towards messy connections and disconnections (Strathern 2004; Sassen 2006). For this project the borderlands concerned are those between professional and lay knowledge, between responsible agencies, and between one nation and another. Research was focused on the River Tweed catchment, located on the Scottish-English border. This catchment is subject to complex environmental designations and rural development regimes that make integrated management of the whole catchment difficult. A multi-method approach was developed using semi-structured interviews, Q methodology and participatory GIS in order to capture wide ranging practices for managing flooding, the judgements behind these practices and to 'scale up' participation in the study. Professionals and local experts were involved in the research. The methodology generated a useful set of options for flood management, with research outputs easily understood by key management organisations and the wider public alike. There was a wide endorsement of alternative flood management solutions from both managers and local experts. The role of location was particularly important for ensuring communication and data sharing between flood managers from different organisations and more wide ranging stakeholders. There were complex issues around scale; both the mismatch between communities and evidence of flooding and the mismatch between governance and scale of intervention for natural flood management. The multi-method approach was essential in capturing practice and the complexities around governance of flooding. The involvement of key flood management organisations was

  5. Extending flood forecasting lead time in a large watershed by coupling WRF QPF with a distributed hydrological model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ji; Chen, Yangbo; Wang, Huanyu; Qin, Jianming; Li, Jie; Chiao, Sen

    2017-03-01

    Long lead time flood forecasting is very important for large watershed flood mitigation as it provides more time for flood warning and emergency responses. The latest numerical weather forecast model could provide 1-15-day quantitative precipitation forecasting products in grid format, and by coupling this product with a distributed hydrological model could produce long lead time watershed flood forecasting products. This paper studied the feasibility of coupling the Liuxihe model with the Weather Research and Forecasting quantitative precipitation forecast (WRF QPF) for large watershed flood forecasting in southern China. The QPF of WRF products has three lead times, including 24, 48 and 72 h, with the grid resolution being 20 km  × 20 km. The Liuxihe model is set up with freely downloaded terrain property; the model parameters were previously optimized with rain gauge observed precipitation, and re-optimized with the WRF QPF. Results show that the WRF QPF has bias with the rain gauge precipitation, and a post-processing method is proposed to post-process the WRF QPF products, which improves the flood forecasting capability. With model parameter re-optimization, the model's performance improves also. This suggests that the model parameters be optimized with QPF, not the rain gauge precipitation. With the increasing of lead time, the accuracy of the WRF QPF decreases, as does the flood forecasting capability. Flood forecasting products produced by coupling the Liuxihe model with the WRF QPF provide a good reference for large watershed flood warning due to its long lead time and rational results.

  6. Flood-rich and flood-poor periods in Spain in 1942-2009

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mediero, Luis; Santillán, David; Garrote, Luis

    2016-04-01

    Several studies to detect trends in flood series at either national or trans-national scales have been conducted. Mediero et al. (2015) studied flood trends by using the longest streamflow records available in Europe. They found a decreasing trend in the Atlantic, Continental and Scandinavian regions. More specifically, Mediero et al. (2014) found a general decreasing trend in flood series in Spain in the period 1959-2009. Trends in flood series are usually detected by the Mann-Kendall test applied to a given period. However, the result of the Mann-Kendall test can change in terms of the starting and ending year of the series. Flood oscillations can occur and flood-rich and flood-poor periods could condition the results, especially when they are located at the beginning or end of the series. A methodology to identify statistically significant flood-rich and flood-poor periods is developed, based on the comparison between the expected sampling variability of floods when stationarity is assumed and the observed variability of floods in a given series. The methodology is applied to the longest series of annual maximum floods, peaks over threshold and counts of annual occurrences in peaks over threshold series observed in Spain in the period 1942-2009. A flood-rich period in 1950-1970 and a flood-poor period in 1970-1990 are identified in most of the selected sites. The generalised decreasing trend in flood series found by Mediero et al. (2014) could be explained by a flood-rich period placed at the beginning of the series and a flood-poor period located at the end of the series. References: Mediero, L., Kjeldsen, T.R., Macdonald, N., Kohnova, S., Merz, B., Vorogushyn, S., Wilson, D., Alburquerque, T., Blöschl, G., Bogdanowicz, E., Castellarin, A., Hall, J., Kobold, M., Kriauciuniene, J., Lang, M., Madsen, H., Onuşluel Gül, G., Perdigão, R.A.P., Roald, L.A., Salinas, J.L., Toumazis, A.D., Veijalainen, N., Óðinn Þórarinsson. Identification of coherent flood

  7. Recent advances in flood forecasting and flood risk assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Arduino

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Recent large floods in Europe have led to increased interest in research and development of flood forecasting systems. Some of these events have been provoked by some of the wettest rainfall periods on record which has led to speculation that such extremes are attributable in some measure to anthropogenic global warming and represent the beginning of a period of higher flood frequency. Whilst current trends in extreme event statistics will be difficult to discern, conclusively, there has been a substantial increase in the frequency of high floods in the 20th century for basins greater than 2x105 km2. There is also increasing that anthropogenic forcing of climate change may lead to an increased probability of extreme precipitation and, hence, of flooding. There is, therefore, major emphasis on the improvement of operational flood forecasting systems in Europe, with significant European Community spending on research and development on prototype forecasting systems and flood risk management projects. This Special Issue synthesises the most relevant scientific and technological results presented at the International Conference on Flood Forecasting in Europe held in Rotterdam from 3-5 March 2003. During that meeting 150 scientists, forecasters and stakeholders from four continents assembled to present their work and current operational best practice and to discuss future directions of scientific and technological efforts in flood prediction and prevention. The papers presented at the conference fall into seven themes, as follows.

  8. A method for projecting full-scale performance of CO/sub 2/ flooding in the Willard Unit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bilhartz, H.L.; Charlson, G.S.; Stalkup, F.I.; Miller, C.C.

    1985-01-01

    A non-producing CO/sub 2/ flood tertiary recovery test was recently completed in the Willard Unit of Wasson Field. Flood responses during waterflood and alternate injection of CO/sub 2/ and water were monitored at a logging observation well using compensated neutron and pulsed neutron logs. A pressure core was taken to measure residual oil saturations at the test conclusion. The overall objective of the testing was to obtain information for evaluating the potential for full-scale CO/sub 2/ flooding in the unit. Out method for making this evaluation involves: (1) defining CO/sub 2/ flood displacement efficiency and representing this efficiency in a miscible flood reservoir simulator; (2) defining a representative average reservoir description; and (3) projecting full-scale CO/sub 2/ flood performance with the simulator. The paper provides a status report on progress to assess CO/sub 2/ flooding potential for the Willard Unit in this manner

  9. Enhanced hydrogen and 1,3-propanediol production from glycerol by fermentation using mixed cultures

    KAUST Repository

    Selembo, Priscilla A.

    2009-12-15

    The conversion of glycerol into high value products, such as hydrogen gas and 1,3-propanediol (PD), was examined using anaerobic fermentation with heat-treated mixed cultures. Glycerol fermentation produced 0.28 mol-H 2/mol-glycerol (72 mL-H2/g-COD) and 0.69 mol-PD/mol-glycerol. Glucose fermentation using the same mixed cultures produced more hydrogen gas (1.06 mol-H2/mol-glucose) but no PD. Changing the source of inoculum affected gas production likely due to prior acclimation of bacteria to this type of substrate. Fermentation of the glycerol produced from biodiesel fuel production (70% glycerol content) produced 0.31 mol-H 2/mol-glycerol (43 mL H2/g-COD) and 0.59 mol-PD/mol-glycerol. These are the highest yields yet reported for both hydrogen and 1,3-propanediol production from pure glycerol and the glycerol byproduct from biodiesel fuel production by fermentation using mixed cultures. These results demonstrate that production of biodiesel can be combined with production of hydrogen and 1,3-propanediol for maximum utilization of resources and minimization of waste. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. 324 Building Compliance Project: Selection and evaluation of alternatives for the removal of solid remote-handled mixed wastes from the 324 Building

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ross, W.A.; Bierschbach, M.C.; Dukelow, J.S. Jr.

    1995-06-01

    Six alternatives for the interim storage of remote-handled mixed wastes from the 324 Building on the Hanford Site have been identified and evaluated. The alternatives focus on the interim storage facility and include use of existing facilities in the 200 Area, the construction of new facilities, and the vitrification of the wastes within the 324 Building to remove the majority of the wastes from under RCRA regulations. The six alternatives are summarized in Table S.1, which identifies the primary facilities to be utilized, the anticipated schedule for removal of the wastes, the costs of the transfer from 324 Building to the interim storage facility (including any capital costs), and an initial risk comparison of the alternatives. A recently negotiated Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) change requires the last of the mixed wastes to be removed by May 1999. The ability to use an existing facility reduces the costs since it eliminates the need for new capital construction. The basic regulatory approvals for the storage of mixed wastes are in place for the PUREX facility, but the Form HI permit will need some minor modifications since the 324 Building wastes have some additional characteristic waste codes and the current permit limits storage of wastes to those from the facility itself. Regulatory reviews have indicated that it will be best to use the tunnels to store the wastes. The PUREX alternatives will only provide storage for about 65% of the wastes. This results from the current schedule of the B-Cell Clean Out Project, which projects that dispersible debris will continue to be collected in small quantities until the year 2000. The remaining fraction of the wastes will then be stored in another facility. Central Waste Complex (CWC) is currently proposed for that residual waste storage; however, other options may also be available

  11. Use of Alternative Tobacco Products in Multiethnic Youth from Jujuy, Argentina

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alderete, E.; Alderete, E.; Kaplan, C.P.; Gregorich, S.E.; Celia Patricia Kaplan, C.P.

    2010-01-01

    This study examines alternative tobacco use among Latin American youth. A self-administered survey in a random sample of 27 schools was administered in 2004 in Jujuy, Argentina (N=3218). Prevalence of alternative tobacco product use was 24.1%; 15.3% of youth used hand-rolled cigarettes, 7.8% smoked cigars, 2.3% chewed tobacco leaf and 1.6% smoked pipe. Among youth who never smoked manufactured cigarettes, alternative product use was rare (2.9%), except for chewing tobacco (22%). In multivariate logistic regression boys were more likely than girls to smoke pipe (OR=3.1; 95% CI 1.18.7); indigenous language was associated with smoking hand-rolled cigarettes (OR=1.4; 95% CI-1.1 1.9) and pipe (OR=2.2; 95% CI 1.5 3.4). Working in tobacco sales was a risk factor for chewing tobacco (OR=2.9; 95% CI: 1.7 4.9) and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes (OR=1.4; 95% CI 1.1 1.8). Having friends who smoked was associated with chewing tobacco (OR=1.8; 95% CI 1.0 3.2) and with smoking cigars (OR=2.1; 95% CI 1.5 2.9). Current drinking and thrill-seeking orientation were associated with cigars and pipe smoking. Findings highlight the importance of surveillance of alternative tobacco products use and availability among youth and for addressing identified risk factors.

  12. Crushed rock sand – An economical and ecological alternative to natural sand to optimize concrete mix

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanjay Mundra

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The study investigates the use of crushed rock sand as viable alternative to Natural River sand that is being conventionally used as fine aggregate in cement concrete. Various mix designs were developed for different grades of concrete based on IS, ACI and British codes using Natural River sand and crushed rock sand. In each case, the cube compressive strength test, and beam flexure tests were conducted. The results of the study show that, the strength properties of concrete using crushed rock sand are nearly similar to the conventional concrete. The study has shown that crushed stone sand can be used as economic and readily available alternative to river sand and can therefore help to arrest the detrimental effects on the environment caused due to excessive mining of river sand.

  13. Rethinking the relationship between flood risk perception and flood management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Birkholz, S; Muro, M; Jeffrey, P; Smith, H M

    2014-04-15

    Although flood risk perceptions and their concomitant motivations for behaviour have long been recognised as significant features of community resilience in the face of flooding events, there has, for some time now, been a poorly appreciated fissure in the accompanying literature. Specifically, rationalist and constructivist paradigms in the broader domain of risk perception provide different (though not always conflicting) contexts for interpreting evidence and developing theory. This contribution reviews the major constructs that have been applied to understanding flood risk perceptions and contextualises these within broader conceptual developments around risk perception theory and contemporary thinking around flood risk management. We argue that there is a need to re-examine and re-invigorate flood risk perception research, in a manner that is comprehensively underpinned by more constructivist thinking around flood risk management as well as by developments in broader risk perception research. We draw attention to an historical over-emphasis on the cognitive perceptions of those at risk to the detriment of a richer understanding of a wider range of flood risk perceptions such as those of policy-makers or of tax-payers who live outside flood affected areas as well as the linkages between these perspectives and protective measures such as state-supported flood insurance schemes. Conclusions challenge existing understandings of the relationship between risk perception and flood management, particularly where the latter relates to communication strategies and the extent to which those at risk from flooding feel responsible for taking protective actions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Flood Risk, Flood Mitigation, and Location Choice: Evaluating the National Flood Insurance Program's Community Rating System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Qin; Davlasheridze, Meri

    2016-06-01

    Climate change is expected to worsen the negative effects of natural disasters like floods. The negative impacts, however, can be mitigated by individuals' adjustments through migration and relocation behaviors. Previous literature has identified flood risk as one significant driver in relocation decisions, but no prior study examines the effect of the National Flood Insurance Program's voluntary program-the Community Rating System (CRS)-on residential location choice. This article fills this gap and tests the hypothesis that flood risk and the CRS-creditable flood control activities affect residential location choices. We employ a two-stage sorting model to empirically estimate the effects. In the first stage, individuals' risk perception and preference heterogeneity for the CRS activities are considered, while mean effects of flood risk and the CRS activities are estimated in the second stage. We then estimate heterogeneous marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for the CRS activities by category. Results show that age, ethnicity and race, educational attainment, and prior exposure to risk explain risk perception. We find significant values for the CRS-creditable mitigation activities, which provides empirical evidence for the benefits associated with the program. The marginal WTP for an additional credit point earned for public information activities, including hazard disclosure, is found to be the highest. Results also suggest that water amenities dominate flood risk. Thus, high amenity values may increase exposure to flood risk, and flood mitigation projects should be strategized in coastal regions accordingly. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

  15. Physical Volcanological and Petrogenetic Implications of Intra-lava Flow Geochemical Heterogeneity in the Columbia River Flood Basalt Province, USA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vye, C. L.; Barry, T. L.; Self, S.; Gannoun, A.; Burton, K. W.

    2007-12-01

    Continental flood basalt lava flows are widely assumed to represent compositionally uniform and rapidly erupted products of large well-mixed magma reservoirs. However, this study presents new data to illustrate systematic element and isotope variations within the flow field formed by an individual flood basalt eruption, both vertically within each sheet lobe and laterally between the constituent lobes. Such variation is significant in chemostratigraphic correlation of flood basalt lava units, in identifying source variability during one eruption, and in petrogenetic modeling. We investigate the extent and cause of compositional variation through tracing lava sheet lobes in a 2,660 cubic kilometer pahoehoe flow field formed during a single eruption in the Columbia River Basalt Province, USA. This is based on features related to emplacement by the inflation mechanism. This method of emplacement is supported by small but statistically significant and systematic major and trace element variation e.g. MgO 3.09- 4.55 wt%, Ni 17.5-25.6 ppm, indicative of fractional crystallisation. Re-Os isotopes indicate progressive crustal contamination of the magma over the timescale of a single flood basalt eruption. By establishing this physical volcanological framework, we determine a temporal link with the supply of lava from the vent(s) and apply it to investigate sequential magmatic evolution during the timescale of one eruption.

  16. A Methodology to Support Decision Making in Flood Plan Mitigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biscarini, C.; di Francesco, S.; Manciola, P.

    2009-04-01

    . In the present paper we propose a novel methodology for supporting the priority setting in the assessment of such issues, beyond the typical "expected value" approach. Scientific contribution and management aspects are merged to create a simplified method for plan basin implementation, based on risk and economic analyses. However, the economic evaluation is not the sole criterion for flood-damage reduction plan selection. Among the different criteria that are relevant to the decision process, safety and quality of human life, economic damage, expenses related with the chosen measures and environmental issues should play a fundamental role on the decisions made by the authorities. Some numerical indices, taking in account administrative, technical, economical and risk aspects, are defined and are combined together in a mathematical formula that defines a Priority Index (PI). In particular, the priority index defines a ranking of priority interventions, thus allowing the formulation of the investment plan. The research is mainly focused on the technical factors of risk assessment, providing quantitative and qualitative estimates of possible alternatives, containing measures of the risk associated with those alternatives. Moreover, the issues of risk management are analyzed, in particular with respect to the role of decision making in the presence of risk information. However, a great effort is devoted to make this index easy to be formulated and effective to allow a clear and transparent comparison between the alternatives. Summarizing this document describes a major- steps for incorporation of risk analysis into the decision making process: framing of the problem in terms of risk analysis, application of appropriate tools and techniques to obtain quantified results, use of the quantified results in the choice of structural and non-structural measures. In order to prove the reliability of the proposed methodology and to show how risk-based information can be

  17. A space-time hybrid hourly rainfall model for derived flood frequency analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    U. Haberlandt

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available For derived flood frequency analysis based on hydrological modelling long continuous precipitation time series with high temporal resolution are needed. Often, the observation network with recording rainfall gauges is poor, especially regarding the limited length of the available rainfall time series. Stochastic precipitation synthesis is a good alternative either to extend or to regionalise rainfall series to provide adequate input for long-term rainfall-runoff modelling with subsequent estimation of design floods. Here, a new two step procedure for stochastic synthesis of continuous hourly space-time rainfall is proposed and tested for the extension of short observed precipitation time series.

    First, a single-site alternating renewal model is presented to simulate independent hourly precipitation time series for several locations. The alternating renewal model describes wet spell durations, dry spell durations and wet spell intensities using univariate frequency distributions separately for two seasons. The dependence between wet spell intensity and duration is accounted for by 2-copulas. For disaggregation of the wet spells into hourly intensities a predefined profile is used. In the second step a multi-site resampling procedure is applied on the synthetic point rainfall event series to reproduce the spatial dependence structure of rainfall. Resampling is carried out successively on all synthetic event series using simulated annealing with an objective function considering three bivariate spatial rainfall characteristics. In a case study synthetic precipitation is generated for some locations with short observation records in two mesoscale catchments of the Bode river basin located in northern Germany. The synthetic rainfall data are then applied for derived flood frequency analysis using the hydrological model HEC-HMS. The results show good performance in reproducing average and extreme rainfall characteristics as well as in

  18. May flood-poor periods be more dangerous than flood-rich periods?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salinas, Jose Luis; Di Baldassarre, Giuliano; Viglione, Alberto; Kuil, Linda; Bloeschl, Guenter

    2014-05-01

    River floods are among the most devastating natural hazards experienced by populations that, since the earliest recorded civilisations, have settled in floodplains because they offer favourable conditions for trade, agriculture, and economic development. The occurrence of a flood may cause loss of lives and tremendous economic damages and, therefore, is rightly seen as a very negative event by the communities involved. Occurrence of many floods in a row is, of course, even more frustrating and is rightly considered a unbearable calamity. Unfortunately, the occurrence of many floods in a limited number of consecutive years is not unusual. In many places in the world, it has been observed that extreme floods do not arrive randomly but cluster in time into flood-poor and flood-rich periods consistent with the Hurst effect. If this is the case, when are the people more in danger? When should people be more scared? In flood-poor or flood-rich periods? In this work, a Socio-Hydrology model (Di Baldassarre et al., 2013; Viglione et al., 2014) is used to show that, maybe counter-intuitively, flood-poor periods may be more dangerous than flood-rich periods. The model is a conceptualisation of a hypothetical setting of a city at a river where a community evolves, making choices between flood management options on the floodplain. The most important feedbacks between the economic, political, technological and hydrological processes of the evolution of that community are represented in the model. In particular, the model also accounts in a dynamic way for the evolution of the the community awareness to flood risk. Occurrence of floods tends to increase peoples' recognition that their property is in an area that is potentially at risk of flooding, both at the scales of individuals and communities, which is one of the main reasons why flood coping actions are taken. It is shown through examples that frequent flood events may result in moderate damages because they ensure that the

  19. The 3D Elevation Program—Flood risk management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carswell, William J.; Lukas, Vicki

    2018-01-25

    Flood-damage reduction in the United States has been a longstanding but elusive societal goal. The national strategy for reducing flood damage has shifted over recent decades from a focus on construction of flood-control dams and levee systems to a three-pronged strategy to (1) improve the design and operation of such structures, (2) provide more accurate and accessible flood forecasting, and (3) shift the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program to a more balanced, less costly flood-insurance paradigm. Expanding the availability and use of high-quality, three-dimensional (3D) elevation information derived from modern light detection and ranging (lidar) technologies to provide essential terrain data poses a singular opportunity to dramatically enhance the effectiveness of all three components of this strategy. Additionally, FEMA, the National Weather Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have developed tools and joint program activities to support the national strategy.The USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) has the programmatic infrastructure to produce and provide essential terrain data. This infrastructure includes (1) data acquisition partnerships that leverage funding and reduce duplicative efforts, (2) contracts with experienced private mapping firms that ensure acquisition of consistent, low-cost 3D elevation data, and (3) the technical expertise, standards, and specifications required for consistent, edge-to-edge utility across multiple collection platforms and public access unfettered by individual database designs and limitations.High-quality elevation data, like that collected through 3DEP, are invaluable for assessing and documenting flood risk and communicating detailed information to both responders and planners alike. Multiple flood-mapping programs make use of USGS streamflow and 3DEP data. Flood insurance rate maps, flood documentation studies, and flood-inundation map libraries are products of these

  20. Mixing and In situ product removal in micro-bioreactors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Li, X.

    2009-01-01

    Summary Of the thesis :’ Mixing and In-situ product removal in micro bioreactors’ by Xiaonan Li The work presented in this thesis is a part of a large cluster project, which was formed between DSM, Organon, Applikon and two university groups (TU Delft and University of Twente), under the ACTS and

  1. A new approach for river flood extent delineation in rural and urban areas combining RADARSAT-2 imagery and flood recurrence interval data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanguy, Marion; Bernier, Monique; Chokmani, Karem

    2015-04-01

    When a flood hits an inhabited area, managers and services responsible for public safety need precise, reliable and up to date maps of the areas affected by the flood, in order to quickly roll out and to coordinate the adequate intervention and assistance plans required to limit the human and material damages caused by the disaster. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors are now considered as one of the most adapted tool for flood detection and mapping in a context of crisis management. Indeed, due to their capacity to acquire data night and day, in almost all meteorological conditions, SAR sensors allow the acquisition of synoptic but detailed views of the areas affected by the flood, even during the active phases of the event. Moreover, new generation sensors such as RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X, COSMO-SkyMed, are providing very high resolution images of the disaster (down to 1m ground resolution). Further, critical improvements have been made on the temporal repetitivity of acquisitions and on data availability, through the development of satellite constellations (i.e the four COSMO-Skymed or the Sentinel-1A and 1B satellites) and thanks to the implementation of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters", which guarantees high priority images acquisition and delivery with 4 to 12 hours. If detection of open water flooded areas is relatively straightforward with SAR imagery, flood detection in built-up areas is often associated with important issues. Indeed, because of the side looking geometry of the SAR sensors, structures such as tall vegetation and structures parallel to the satellite direction of travel may produce shadow and layover effects, leading to important over and under-detections of flooded pixels. Besides, the numerous permanent water-surfaces like radar response areas present in built-up environments, such as parking lots, roads etc., may be mixed up with flooded areas, resulting in substantial inaccuracies in the final flood map. In spite of

  2. Floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Floods are common in the United States. Weather such as heavy rain, thunderstorms, hurricanes, or tsunamis can ... is breached, or when a dam breaks. Flash floods, which can develop quickly, often have a dangerous ...

  3. Development of Probabilistic Flood Inundation Mapping For Flooding Induced by Dam Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, C.; Yeh, J. J. J.

    2017-12-01

    A primary function of flood inundation mapping is to forecast flood hazards and assess potential losses. However, uncertainties limit the reliability of inundation hazard assessments. Major sources of uncertainty should be taken into consideration by an optimal flood management strategy. This study focuses on the 20km reach downstream of the Shihmen Reservoir in Taiwan. A dam failure induced flood herein provides the upstream boundary conditions of flood routing. The two major sources of uncertainty that are considered in the hydraulic model and the flood inundation mapping herein are uncertainties in the dam break model and uncertainty of the roughness coefficient. The perturbance moment method is applied to a dam break model and the hydro system model to develop probabilistic flood inundation mapping. Various numbers of uncertain variables can be considered in these models and the variability of outputs can be quantified. The probabilistic flood inundation mapping for dam break induced floods can be developed with consideration of the variability of output using a commonly used HEC-RAS model. Different probabilistic flood inundation mappings are discussed and compared. Probabilistic flood inundation mappings are hoped to provide new physical insights in support of the evaluation of concerning reservoir flooded areas.

  4. Sacrificial adsorbate for surfactants utilized in chemical floods of enhanced oil recovery operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Jr., James S.; Westmoreland, Clyde G.

    1982-01-01

    The present invention is directed to a sacrificial or competitive adsorbate for surfactants contained in chemical flooding emulsions for enhanced oil recovery operations. The adsorbate to be utilized in the method of the present invention is a caustic effluent from the bleach stage or the weak black liquor from the digesters and pulp washers of the kraft pulping process. This effluent or weak black liquor is injected into an oil-bearing subterranean earth formation prior to or concurrent with the chemical flood emulsion and is adsorbed on the active mineral surfaces of the formation matrix so as to effectively reduce adsorption of surfactant in the chemical flood. Alternatively, the effluent or liquor can be injected into the subterranean earth formation subsequent to a chemical flood to displace the surfactant from the mineral surfaces for the recovery thereof.

  5. Botanical alternatives to antibiotics for use in organic poultry production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diaz-Sanchez, Sandra; D'Souza, Doris; Biswas, Debrabrata; Hanning, Irene

    2015-06-01

    The development of antibiotic resistant pathogens has resulted from the use of sub-therapeutic concentrations of antibiotics delivered in poultry feed. Furthermore, there are a number of consumer concerns regarding the use of antibiotics in food animals including residue contamination of poultry products and antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens. These issues have resulted in recommendations to reduce the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock in the United States. Unlike conventional production, organic systems are not permitted to use antibiotics. Thus, both conventional and organic poultry production need alternative methods to improve growth and performance of poultry. Herbs, spices, and various other plant extracts are being evaluated as alternatives to antibiotics and some do have growth promoting effects, antimicrobial properties, and other health-related benefits. This review aims to provide an overview of herbs, spices, and plant extracts, currently defined as phytobiotics as potential feed additives. © 2015 Poultry Science Association Inc.

  6. Vegetable, livestock and agroindustrial products and byproducts: An alternative tilapia feeding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    González Salas, R.

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In the culture of tilapia limited supply and high cost of fish meal have forced nutritionists to consider alternative sources of protein. Due to the importance of the products and by-products in fish feed, this paper aims to show the alternatives that have been used to partially or totally replace fish meal and soybean meal in tilapia growing. This paper showsthe maximum or optimal use of vegetable by-products for tilapia as cottonseed meal, sunflower, canola, soybean and Leucaena. It also deals with the inclusion with agro-industrial by-product such as corn, sorghum, coffee pulp, cocoa, wheat and citrus. The present study also deals with the use of aquatic plants such as Lemna and Azolla, single-celled plant protein source as antibiotics and probiotics. Finally, this paper also refers to animal by-products as silage, manure and earthworm usage. There is a high potential for using plant, livestock and agro-industrial by-products in fresh and processed food for the tilapia, but depending on the product, pretreatment to improve its balance of nutrients or eliminate anti-nutritional factors may be required.

  7. Testing and evaluation of alternative process systems for immobilizing radioactive mixed particulate waste in cement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weingardt, K.M.; Weber, J.R.

    1994-03-01

    Radioactive and Hazardous Mixed Wastes have accumulated at the Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site in south-central Washington State. Ongoing operations and planned facilities at Hanford will also contribute to this waste stream. To meet the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Land Disposal Restrictions most of this waste will need to be treated to permit disposal. In general this treatment will need to include stabilization/solidification either as a sole method or as part of a treatment train. A planned DOE facility, the Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) Module 2A, is scoped to provide this required treatment for containerized contact-handled (CH), mixed low-level waste (MLLW) at Hanford. An engineering development program has been conducted by Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC) to select the best system for utilizing a cement based process in WRAP Module 2A. Three mixing processes were developed for analysis and testing; in-drum mixing, continuous mixing, and batch mixing. Some full scale tests were conducted and 55 gallon drums of solidified product were produced. These drums were core sampled and examined to evaluate mixing effectiveness. Total solids loading and the order of addition of waste and binder constituents were also varied. The highest confidence approach to meet the WRAP Module 2A waste immobilization system needs appears to be the out-of-drum batch mixing concept. This system is believed to offer the most flexibility and efficiency, given the highly variable and troublesome waste streams feeding the facility

  8. Impacts of dyke development in flood prone areas in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta to downstream flood hazard

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khanh Triet Nguyen, Van; Dung Nguyen, Viet; Fujii, Hideto; Kummu, Matti; Merz, Bruno; Apel, Heiko

    2016-04-01

    The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) plays an important role in food security and socio-economic development of the country. Being a low-lying coastal region, the VMD is particularly susceptible to both riverine and tidal floods, which provide, on (the) one hand, the basis for the rich agricultural production and the livelihood of the people, but on the other hand pose a considerable hazard depending on the severity of the floods. But despite of potentially hazardous flood, the area remain active as a rice granary due to its nutrient-rich soils and sediment input, and dense waterways, canals and the long standing experience of the population living with floods. In response to both farmers' requests and governmental plans, the construction of flood protection infrastructure in the delta progressed rapidly in the last twenty years, notably at areas prone to deep flooding, i.e. the Plain of Reeds (PoR) and Long Xuyen Quadrangle (LXQ). Triple rice cropping becomes possible in farmlands enclosed by "full-dykes", i.e. dykes strong and high enough to prevent flooding of the flood plains for most of the floods. In these protected flood plains rice can be grown even during the peak flood period (September to November). However, little is known about the possibly (and already alleged) negative impacts of this fully flood protection measure to downstream areas. This study aims at quantifying how the flood regime in the lower part of the VMD (e.g. Can Tho, My Thuan, …) has been changed in the last 2 recent "big flood" events of 2000 and 2011 due to the construction of the full-dyke system in the upper part. First, an evaluation of 35 years of daily water level data was performed in order to detect trends at key gauging stations: Kratie: upper boundary of the Delta, Tan Chau and Chau Doc: areas with full-dyke construction, Can Tho and My Thuan: downstream. Results from the Mann-Kendall (MK) test show a decreasing trend of the annual maximum water level at 3 stations Kratie, Tan

  9. Interactions between the flooding regime and floodplain grasslands in the Tana River Delta, in Kenya

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leauthaud, Crystele; Musila, Winfred; Duvail, Stéphanie; Kergoat, Laurent; Hiernaux, Pierre; Grippa, Manuela; Albergel, Jean

    2017-04-01

    The floodplain grasslands of the Tana River Delta, located on the East African coast in Kenya, form part of an intertwined socio-ecological deltaic system of high biodiversity value that delivers numerous goods and services. Mainly composed of Echinochloa stagnina (Retz) P. Beauv., a high-value forage species, this ecosystem is the major dry-season grazing grounds of the local pastoralist communities. The construction of hydroelectric infrastructure has led to a modification of the flooding regime. The impacts of the resulting reduction of floods in the deltaic zone on ecosystem properties and services still need to be assessed. In such a perspective, this study characterizes the link between the flooding regime of the Tana River and the growth pattern of its floodplain grassland. Aboveground dry phytomass was sampled for 15 months under a wide variety of naturally flooded and non-flooded conditions and controlled irrigation and cutting frequency treatments. Annual aboveground dry phytomass attained high values between 11 T.ha-1 and 32 T.ha-1 and annual net primary production of the grasslands reached 35 T.ha-1.year-1. Growth rates clearly depended on the flooding regime, management and climate conditions and were on average more than twice as fast during, and 50% faster after the floods, relative to pre-flood conditions. A plant growth model allowed testing the effect of different flooding regimes on plant productivity, confirming very low productivity in the absence of floods. These results suggest that rangeland and water management for the Tana River deltaic wetlands are tightly linked. The projected construction of another dam could lead to a reduction of flood extent and period and a decrease of grassland productivity and growth duration. Mitigation of this type of negative impacts, which will have direct and adverse consequences for the pastoralist communities as well as on the delivery of other goods and services, needs to be undertaken.

  10. Flood frequency analysis for nonstationary annual peak records in an urban drainage basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villarini, Gabriele; Smith, James A.; Serinaldi, Francesco; Bales, Jerad; Bates, Paul D.; Krajewski, Witold F.

    2009-08-01

    Flood frequency analysis in urban watersheds is complicated by nonstationarities of annual peak records associated with land use change and evolving urban stormwater infrastructure. In this study, a framework for flood frequency analysis is developed based on the Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape parameters (GAMLSS), a tool for modeling time series under nonstationary conditions. GAMLSS is applied to annual maximum peak discharge records for Little Sugar Creek, a highly urbanized watershed which drains the urban core of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is shown that GAMLSS is able to describe the variability in the mean and variance of the annual maximum peak discharge by modeling the parameters of the selected parametric distribution as a smooth function of time via cubic splines. Flood frequency analyses for Little Sugar Creek (at a drainage area of 110km) show that the maximum flow with a 0.01-annual probability (corresponding to 100-year flood peak under stationary conditions) over the 83-year record has ranged from a minimum unit discharge of 2.1mskm to a maximum of 5.1mskm. An alternative characterization can be made by examining the estimated return interval of the peak discharge that would have an annual exceedance probability of 0.01 under the assumption of stationarity (3.2mskm). Under nonstationary conditions, alternative definitions of return period should be adapted. Under the GAMLSS model, the return interval of an annual peak discharge of 3.2mskm ranges from a maximum value of more than 5000 years in 1957 to a minimum value of almost 8 years for the present time (2007). The GAMLSS framework is also used to examine the links between population trends and flood frequency, as well as trends in annual maximum rainfall. These analyses are used to examine evolving flood frequency over future decades.

  11. Probabilistic flood extent estimates from social media flood observations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, Tom; Eilander, Dirk; Van Loenen, Arnejan; Booij, Martijn J.; Wijnberg, Kathelijne M.; Verkade, Jan S.; Wagemaker, Jurjen

    2017-01-01

    The increasing number and severity of floods, driven by phenomena such as urbanization, deforestation, subsidence and climate change, create a growing need for accurate and timely flood maps. In this paper we present and evaluate a method to create deterministic and probabilistic flood maps from

  12. Probabilistic flood extent estimates from social media flood observations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, Tom; Eilander, Dirk; Van Loenen, Arnejan; Booij, Martijn J.; Wijnberg, Kathelijne M.; Verkade, Jan S.; Wagemaker, Jurjen

    2017-01-01

    The increasing number and severity of floods, driven by phenomena such as urbanization, deforestation, subsidence and climate change, creates a growing need for accurate and timely flood maps. This research focussed on creating flood maps using user generated content from Twitter. Twitter data has

  13. Improving Global Flood Forecasting using Satellite Detected Flood Extent

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Revilla Romero, B.

    2016-01-01

    Flooding is a natural global phenomenon but in many cases is exacerbated by human activity. Although flooding generally affects humans in a negative way, bringing death, suffering, and economic impacts, it also has potentially beneficial effects. Early flood warning and forecasting systems, as well

  14. Content and reactivity to product perfumes in fragrance mix positive and negative eczema patients. A study of perfumes used in toiletries and skin-care products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, J D; Rastogi, S C; Andersen, Klaus Ejner

    1997-01-01

    and in 52.4% of the reactions to the wash-off product perfumes. Compared to the fragrance mix alone, only 1 additional case of contact allergy to the product perfumes was detected by balsam of Peru. Chemical analysis revealed that between 1 and 5 of the chemically-defined constituents of the fragrance mix...... if perfumed cosmetics are used. Furthermore, patients suspected of perfume allergy need to be tested with their own perfumed products, as far from all cases of perfume allergy are detected by the fragrance mix and/or balsam of Peru in the European standard patch test series....... with the European standard patch test series. 4.2% reacted to 1 or more of the wash-off product perfumes and 3.2% to 1 or more of the stay-on product perfumes. Concordant positive reactions between the fragrance mix and the product perfumes were found in 81.3% of positive reactions to the stay-on product perfumes...

  15. Content and reactivity to product perfumes in fragrance mix positive and negative eczema patients. A study of perfumes used in toiletries and skin-care products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, J D; Rastogi, Suresh Chandra; Andersen, K E

    1997-01-01

    with the European standard patch test series. 4.2% reacted to 1 or more of the wash-off product perfumes and 3.2% to 1 or more of the stay-on product perfumes. Concordant positive reactions between the fragrance mix and the product perfumes were found in 81.3% of positive reactions to the stay-on product perfumes...... and in 52.4% of the reactions to the wash-off product perfumes. Compared to the fragrance mix alone, only 1 additional case of contact allergy to the product perfumes was detected by balsam of Peru. Chemical analysis revealed that between 1 and 5 of the chemically-defined constituents of the fragrance mix...... were present in all of the product perfumes. Geraniol was found in 12 of the 17 perfumes and was most often detected. The concentration of the target fragrance materials ranged from 0.005%-1.35 w/v%. It is concluded that the allergenic constituents of the fragrance mix are impossible to avoid...

  16. Mixed alcohols production from syngas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stevens, R.R.; Conway, M.M.

    1988-01-01

    A process is described for selectively producing mixed alcohols from synthesis gas comprising contacting a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide with a catalytic amount of a catalyst containing components of (1) a catalytically active metal of molybdenum or tungsten, in free or combined form; (2) a cocatalytic metal or cobalt or nickel in free or combined form; and (3) a Fischer-Tropsch promoter of an alkali or alkaline earth series metal, in free or combined form; the components combined by dry mixing, mixing as a wet paste, wet impregnation, and then sulfided, the catalyst excluding rhodium, ruthenium and copper, at a pressure of at least about 500 psig and under conditions sufficient to form the mixed alcohols in at least 20 percent CO/sub 2/ free carbon selectivity, the mixed alcohols containing a C/sub 1/ to C/sub 2-5/ alcohol weight ratio of less than about 1:1

  17. The Emergence of Flood Insurance in Canada: Navigating Institutional Uncertainty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thistlethwaite, Jason

    2017-04-01

    Flood insurance has remained unavailable in Canada based on an assessment that it lacks economic viability. In response to Canada's costliest flood event to date in 2013, the Canadian insurance industry has started to develop a framework to expand existing property insurance to cover flood damage. Research on flood insurance has overlooked why and how insurance systems transition to expand insurance coverage without evidence of economic viability. This article will address this gap through a case study on the emergence of flood insurance in Canada, and the approach to its expansion. Between 2013 and 2016, insurance industry officials representing over 60% of premiums collected in Canada were interviewed. These interviews revealed that flood insurance is being expanded in response to institutional pressure, specifically external stakeholder expectations that the insurance industry will adopt a stronger role in managing flood risk through coverage of flood damage. Further evidence of this finding is explored by assessing the emergence of a unique flood insurance model that involves a risk-adjusted and optional product along with an expansion of government policy supporting flood risk mitigation. This approach attempts to balance industry concerns about economic viability with institutional pressure to reduce flood risk through insurance. This analysis builds on existing research by providing the first scholarly analysis of flood insurance in Canada, important "empirical" teeth to existing conceptual analysis on the availability of flood insurance, and the influence of institutional factors on risk analysis within the insurance sector. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

  18. Optimal investment and location decisions of a firm in a flood risk area using Impulse Control Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grames, Johanna; Grass, Dieter; Kort, Peter; Prskawetz, Alexia

    2017-04-01

    Flooding events can affect businesses close to rivers, lakes or coasts. This paper provides a partial equilibrium model which helps to understand the optimal location choice for a firm in flood risk areas and its investment strategies. How often, when and how much are firms willing to invest in flood risk protection measures? We apply Impulse Control Theory to solve the model analytically and develop a continuation algorithm to solve the model numerically. Firms always invest in flood defense. The investment increases the higher the flood risk and the more firms also value the future, i.e. the more sustainable they plan. Investments in production capital follow a similar path. Hence, planning in a sustainable way leads to economic growth. Sociohydrological feedbacks are crucial for the location choice of the firm, whereas different economic situations have an impact on investment strategies. If flood defense is already present, e.g. built up by the government, firms move closer to the water and invest less in flood defense, which allows firms to accrue higher expected profits. Firms with a large initial production capital surprisingly try not to keep their market advantage, but rather reduce flood risk by reducing exposed production capital.

  19. Flood Label for buildings : a tool for more flood-resilient cities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hartmann, T.; Scheibel, Marc

    2016-01-01

    River floods are among the most expensive natural disasters in Europe. Traditional flood protection methods are not sufficient anymore. It is widely acknowledged in the scholarly debate and in practice of flood risk management that traditional flood protection measures such as dikes need to be

  20. Metabolic modeling of mixed substrate uptake for polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jiang, Y.; Hebly, M.; Kleerebezem, R.; Muyzer, G.; van Loosdrecht, M.C.M.

    2011-01-01

    Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production by mixed microbial communities can be established in a two-stage process, consisting of a microbial enrichment step and a PHA accumulation step. In this study, a mathematical model was constructed for evaluating the influence of the carbon substrate composition

  1. Timing of Glacial Lake Missoula Outburst Floods and the southwestern Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendy, I. L.; Bervid, H. D.; Carlson, A. E.

    2017-12-01

    Glacial Lake Missoula formed when the Purcell Trench Lobe dammed the Clark Fork River in Montana and catastrophically collapsed repeatedly through the last glacial period as the southern Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced and retreated. A well-dated 50-kyr jumbo piston core MD02-2496 (48.97˚ N, 127.04˚ W, water depth of 1243 m) collected from the continental slope 75 km off Vancouver Island contains evidence of these floods. The in-situ bulk elemental composition of the 35-m core was determined at 1 mm intervals using an ITRAX X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Core Scanner (Cox Analytical Instruments) at the Sediment Geochemistry Lab of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. With 40 mixed planktonic foraminifera and bulk organic carbon 14C ages, the core provides a high-resolution resolution record of glaciomarine sedimentation during deglaciation. A series of >81 layers of fine-grained sediments with ancient (K/Ar ages of 300 Ma and eNd of -8) shale-like (high Rb counts) composition can be found between 19.6 and 9.2 m below coretop. These layers are interspersed by coarser grained, young (K/Ar ages of 100 Ma and eNd of -3) sediments containing ice-rafted debris (IRD). The composition and age of the layers indicates the sediments originated in Glacial Lake Missoula and were transported by ocean currents 250 miles north along the west coast of North America. The flood layers begin at 19.5 ka with five thin (5 cm thick) appear after 19.3 ka. At 17.1 ka, IRD concentrations increase from 50 grains g-1 from 16.5-16.35 ka, except in flood layers, as the Juan de Fuca Strait deglaciated. Another 16 flood layers occur from 16.3-15.65 ka; however, the base and top of these layers are diffuse rather than abrupt like earlier flood layers suggesting enhanced mixing between flood and melt waters. The final flood layers from 14.9-14.5 ka are thin (Lake Missoula flood sedimentation changed during the advance and retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet.

  2. Evaluating natural flood management measures using an ecosystem based adaptation framework: a meta-analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacob, Oana; Rowan, John; Brown, Iain; Ellis, Chris

    2014-05-01

    Climate change is projected to alter river flows and the magnitude/frequency characteristics of floods and droughts. As a result flood risk is expected to increase with environmental, social and economic impacts. Traditionally flood risk management has been heavily relying on engineering measures, however with climate change their capacity to provide protection is expected to decrease. Ecosystem-based adaptation highlights the interdependence of human and natural systems, and the potential to buffer the impacts of climate change by maintaining functioning ecosystems that continue to provide multiple societal benefits. Natural flood management measures have the potential to provide a greater adaptive capacity to negate the impacts of climate change and provide ancillary benefits. To understand the impacts of different NFM measures on ecosystem services a meta-analysis was undertaken. Twenty five studies from across the world were pulled together to assess their effectiveness on reducing the flood risk but also on other ecosystems services as defined by the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, which distinguishes between provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. Four categories of NFM measures were considered: (i) afforestation measures, (ii) drainage and blocking the drains, (iii) wetland restoration and (iv) combined measures. Woodland expansion measures provide significant benefits for flood protection more pronounced for low magnitude events, but also for other services such as carbon sequestration and water quality. These measures however will come at a cost for livestock and crop provisioning services as a result of land use changes. Drainage operations and blocking the drains have mixed impacts on carbon sequestration and water quality depending on soil type, landscape settings and local characteristics. Wetland and floodplain restoration measures have generally a few disbenefits and provide improvements for regulating and supporting services

  3. Flooding in imagination vs flooding in vivo: A comparison with agoraphobics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Emmelkamp, Paul M.G.; Wessels, Hemmy

    In this investigation of agoraphobic patients, 3 different flooding procedures were compared: (1) prolonged exposure in vivo, (2) flooding in the imagination by a ‘live’ therapist and (3) a combination of flooding in the imagination and flooding in vivo. After an intermediate-test all clients were

  4. THE MARKETING MIX AND THE COMPLEX PACKAGES OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adina Claudia NEAMŢU

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available From its appearance until now, marketing has been approached under diverse aspects, from market theories to constituent elements, all being based on the four elements of the marketing mix: product, price, placement and promotion, developing around them specific policies, the inner correlations, investigation methods and techniques, experimental texts and motivation studies. The development of products with special characteristics, highly specialized, but also the ever growing competition between producers and sellers, the more diversified and elaborate options of customers, wanting to satisfy superior needs, like recognition, social status and esteem, safety, appreciation, all lead to the apparition and commercialization of complex product and service packages.48 These cannot be analyzed and reflected in the scientific literature with just the classic elements of the marketing mix. To these, we can add the process, people, tightly linked to the process and the physical evidence, or place where the personnel interacts with the customers.

  5. Quality Improvement, Inventory Management, Lead Time Reduction and Production Scheduling in High-Mix Manufacturing Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-01-13

    Quality Improvement , Inventory Management, Lead Time Reduction and Production Scheduling in High-mix Manufacturing Environments by Sean Daigle B.S...Mechanical Engineering Chairman, Department Committee on Graduate Theses 2 Quality Improvement , Inventory Management, Lead Time Reduction and... Production Scheduling in High-mix Manufacturing Environments by Sean Daigle Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering on January 13, 2017, in

  6. Property flood resilience database: an innovative response for the insurance market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Garvin Stephen

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The property flood resilience database (PFR-d has been created through a research feasibility study undertaken by the Building Research Establishment, AXA Insurance and Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions in the UK. The project was funded by Innovate-UK and was undertaken over the period of May 2014 to August 2015. There has been a growing realisation that flood management has to move from a position where flood defence (e.g. major river barriers and drainage infrastructure is the only solution to flood risk to one of flood resilience. This shift requires an increase in responsibility for a variety of stakeholders, including property owners. The PFR-d was conceived as a product that code fit within the existing insurance frameworks and systems. The PFR-d is a ‘missing piece of data’ for insurers that could assist in providing more appropriate insurance pricing in high flood risk areas, or where properties have suffered repeat flooding events.

  7. Alternatives to antibiotics: a symposium on the challenges and solutions for animal production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seal, Bruce S; Lillehoj, Hyun S; Donovan, David M; Gay, Cyril G

    2013-06-01

    Antibiotics are one of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century and will remain an essential tool for treating animal and human diseases in the 21st century. However, antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens and concerns over their extensive use in food animals has garnered global interest in limiting antibiotic use in animal agriculture. Yet, limiting the availability of medical interventions to prevent and control animal diseases on the farm will directly impact global food security and safety as well as animal and human health. Insufficient attention has been given to the scientific breakthroughs and novel technologies that provide alternatives to antibiotics. The objectives of the symposium 'Alternatives to Antibiotics' were to highlight promising research results and novel technologies that could potentially lead to alternatives to conventional antibiotics, and assess challenges associated with their commercialization, and provide actionable strategies to support development of alternative antimicrobials. The symposium focused on the latest scientific breakthroughs and technologies that could provide new options and alternative strategies for preventing and treating diseases of animals. Some of these new technologies have direct applications as medical interventions for human health, but the focus of the symposium was animal production, animal health and food safety during food-animal production. Five subject areas were explored in detail through scientific presentations and expert panel discussions, including: (1) alternatives to antibiotics, lessons from nature; (2) immune modulation approaches to enhance disease resistance and to treat animal diseases; (3) gut microbiome and immune development, health and diseases; (4) alternatives to antibiotics for animal production; and (5) regulatory pathways to enable the licensure of alternatives to antibiotics.

  8. Combining Space-Based and In-Situ Measurements to Track Flooding in Thailand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chien, Steve; Doubleday, Joshua; Mclaren, David; Tran, Daniel; Tanpipat, Veerachai; Chitradon, Royal; Boonya-aaroonnet, Surajate; Thanapakpawin, Porranee; Khunboa, Chatchai; Leelapatra, Watis; hide

    2011-01-01

    We describe efforts to integrate in-situ sensing, space-borne sensing, hydrological modeling, active control of sensing, and automatic data product generation to enhance monitoring and management of flooding. In our approach, broad coverage sensors and missions such as MODIS, TRMM, and weather satellite information and in-situ weather and river gauging information are all inputs to track flooding via river basin and sub-basin hydrological models. While these inputs can provide significant information as to the major flooding, targetable space measurements can provide better spatial resolution measurements of flooding extent. In order to leverage such assets we automatically task observations in response to automated analysis indications of major flooding. These new measurements are automatically processed and assimilated with the other flooding data. We describe our ongoing efforts to deploy this system to track major flooding events in Thailand.

  9. Lithologic and hydrologic controls of mixed alluvial-bedrock channels in flood-prone fluvial systems: bankfull and macrochannels in the Llano River watershed, central Texas, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heitmuller, Frank T.; Hudson, Paul F.; Asquith, William H.

    2015-01-01

    The rural and unregulated Llano River watershed located in central Texas, USA, has a highly variable flow regime and a wide range of instantaneous peak flows. Abrupt transitions in surface lithology exist along the main-stem channel course. Both of these characteristics afford an opportunity to examine hydrologic, lithologic, and sedimentary controls on downstream changes in channel morphology. Field surveys of channel topography and boundary composition are coupled with sediment analyses, hydraulic computations, flood-frequency analyses, and geographic information system mapping to discern controls on channel geometry (profile, pattern, and shape) and dimensions along the mixed alluvial-bedrock Llano River and key tributaries. Four categories of channel classification in a downstream direction include: (i) uppermost ephemeral reaches, (ii) straight or sinuous gravel-bed channels in Cretaceous carbonate sedimentary zones, (iii) straight or sinuous gravel-bed or bedrock channels in Paleozoic sedimentary zones, and (iv) straight, braided, or multithread mixed alluvial–bedrock channels with sandy beds in Precambrian igneous and metamorphic zones. Principal findings include: (i) a nearly linear channel profile attributed to resistant bedrock incision checkpoints; (ii) statistically significant correlations of both alluvial sinuosity and valley confinement to relatively high f (mean depth) hydraulic geometry values; (iii) relatively high b (width) hydraulic geometry values in partly confined settings with sinuous channels upstream from a prominent incision checkpoint; (iv) different functional flow categories including frequently occurring events (< 1.5-year return periods) that mobilize channel-bed material and less frequent events that determine bankfull channel (1.5- to 3-year return periods) and macrochannel (10- to 40-year return periods) dimensions; (v) macrochannels with high f values (most ≤ 0.45) that develop at sites with unit stream power values in excess

  10. Using multiple secondary fusion products to evaluate fuel ρR, electron temperature, and mix in deuterium-filled implosions at the NIF

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rinderknecht, H. G., E-mail: hgr@mit.edu; Rosenberg, M. J.; Zylstra, A. B.; Lahmann, B.; Séguin, F. H.; Frenje, J. A.; Li, C. K.; Gatu Johnson, M.; Petrasso, R. D. [Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States); Berzak Hopkins, L. F.; Caggiano, J. A.; Divol, L.; Hartouni, E. P.; Hatarik, R.; Hatchett, S. P.; Le Pape, S.; Mackinnon, A. J.; McNaney, J. M.; Meezan, N. B.; Moran, M. J. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States); and others

    2015-08-15

    In deuterium-filled inertial confinement fusion implosions, the secondary fusion processes D({sup 3}He,p){sup 4}He and D(T,n){sup 4}He occur, as the primary fusion products {sup 3}He and T react in flight with thermal deuterons. In implosions with moderate fuel areal density (∼5–100 mg/cm{sup 2}), the secondary D-{sup 3}He reaction saturates, while the D-T reaction does not, and the combined information from these secondary products is used to constrain both the areal density and either the plasma electron temperature or changes in the composition due to mix of shell material into the fuel. The underlying theory of this technique is developed and applied to three classes of implosions on the National Ignition Facility: direct-drive exploding pushers, indirect-drive 1-shock and 2-shock implosions, and polar direct-drive implosions. In the 1- and 2-shock implosions, the electron temperature is inferred to be 0.65 times and 0.33 times the burn-averaged ion temperature, respectively. The inferred mixed mass in the polar direct-drive implosions is in agreement with measurements using alternative techniques.

  11. Flooding and Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, 2011

    2011-01-01

    According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, flooding is the nation's most common natural disaster. Some floods develop slowly during an extended period of rain or in a warming trend following a heavy snow. Flash floods can occur quickly, without any visible sign of rain. Catastrophic floods are associated with burst dams and levees,…

  12. A Trojan horse for positivism?: a critique of mixed methods research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giddings, Lynne S; Grant, Barbara M

    2007-01-01

    Mixed methods research is captured by a pragmatically inflected form of postpositivism. Although it passes for an alternative methodological movement that purports to breach the divide between qualitative and quantitative research, most mixed methods studies favor the forms of analysis and truth finding associated with positivism. We anticipate a move away from exploring more philosophical questions or undertaking modes of enquiry that challenge the status quo. At the same time, we recognize that mixed methods research offers particular strengths and that, although it serves as a Trojan Horse for positivism, it may productively carry other paradigmatic passengers.

  13. New heuristic method for the optimization of product mix based on theory of constraints and knapsack problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vinicius Amorim Sobreiro

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The definition of the product mix provides the allocation of the productive resources in the manufacture process and the optimization of productive system. However, the definition of the product mix is a problem of the NP-complete, in other words, of difficult solution. Taking this into account, with the aid of the Theory of Constraints - TOC, some constructive heuristics have been presented to help to solve this problem. Thus, the objective in this paper is to propose a new heuristics to provide better solutions when compared with the main heuristics presented in the literature, TOC-h of Fredendall and Lea. To accomplish this comparison, simulations were accomplished with the objective of identifying the production mix with the best throughput, considering CPU time and the characteristics of the productive ambient. The results show that the heuristics proposal was more satisfactory when compared to TOC-h and it shows good solution when compared with the optimum solution. This fact evidence the importance of the heuristics proposal in the definition of product mix.

  14. Alternatives to incineration. Technical area status report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwinkendorf, W.E.; McFee, J.; Devarakonda, M.; Nenninger, L.L.; Fadullon, F.S.; Donaldson, T.L.; Dickerson, K.

    1995-04-01

    Recently, the DOE's Mixed Waste Integrated Program (MWIP) (superseded by the Mixed Waste Focus Area) initiated an evaluation of alternatives to incineration to identify technologies capable of treating DOE organically contaminated mixed wastes and which may be more easily permitted. These technologies have the potential of alleviating stakeholder concerns by decreasing off-gas volurties and the associated emissions of particulates, volatilized metals and radionuclides, PICs, NO x , SO x , and recombination products (dioxins and furans). Ideally, the alternate technology would be easily permitted, relatively omnivorous and effective in treating a variety of wastes with varying constituents, require minimal pretreatment or characterization, and be easy to implement. In addition, it would produce secondary waste stream volumes significantly smaller than the original waste stream, and would minimize the environmental health and safety effects on workers and the public. The purpose of this report is to provide an up-to-date (as of early 1995) compendium of iternative technologies for designers of mixed waste treatment facilities, and to identify Iternate technologies that may merit funding for further development. Various categories of non-thermal and thermal technologies have been evaluated and are summarized in Table ES-1. Brief descriptions of these technologies are provided in Section 1.7 of the Introduction. This report provides a detailed description of approximately 30 alternative technologies in these categories. Included in the report are descriptions of each technology; applicable input waste streams and the characteristics of the secondary, or output, waste streams; the current status of each technology relative to its availability for implementation; performance data; and costs. This information was gleaned from the open literature, governments reports, and discussions with principal investigators and developers

  15. Biodegradation of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide by bacteria isolated from production water after polymer flooding in an oil field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bao Mutai; Chen Qingguo; Li Yiming; Jiang Guancheng

    2010-01-01

    Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) in production water after polymer flooding in oil filed causes environmental problems, such as increases the difficulty in oil-water separation, degrades naturally to produce toxic acrylamide and endanger local ecosystem. Biodegradation of HPAM may be an efficient way to solve these problems. The biodegradability of HPAM in an aerobic environment was studied. Two HPAM-degrading bacterial strains, named PM-2 and PM-3, were isolated from the produced water of polymer flooding. They were subsequently identified as Bacillus cereus and Bacillus sp., respectively. The utilization of HPAM by the two strains was explored. The amide group of HPAM could serve as a nitrogen source for the two microorganisms, the carbon backbone of these polymers could be partly utilized by microorganisms. The HPAM samples before and after bacterial biodegradation were analyzed by the infrared spectrum, high performance liquid chromatography and scanning electronic microscope. The results indicated that the amide group of HPAM in the biodegradation products had been converted to a carboxyl group, and no acrylamide monomer was found. The HPAM carbon backbone was metabolized by the bacteria during the course of its growth. Further more, the hypothesis about the biodegradation of HPAM in aerobic bacterial culture is proposed.

  16. Effect of Urban Green Spaces and Flooded Area Type on Flooding Probability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyomin Kim

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Countermeasures to urban flooding should consider long-term perspectives, because climate change impacts are unpredictable and complex. Urban green spaces have emerged as a potential option to reduce urban flood risks, and their effectiveness has been highlighted in notable urban water management studies. In this study, flooded areas in Seoul, Korea, were divided into four flooded area types by cluster analysis based on topographic and physical characteristics and verified using discriminant analysis. After division by flooded area type, logistic regression analysis was performed to determine how the flooding probability changes with variations in green space area. Type 1 included regions where flooding occurred in a drainage basin that had a flood risk management infrastructure (FRMI. In Type 2, the slope was steep; the TWI (Topographic Wetness Index was relatively low; and soil drainage was favorable. Type 3 represented the gentlest sloping areas, and these were associated with the highest TWI values. In addition, these areas had the worst soil drainage. Type 4 had moderate slopes, imperfect soil drainage and lower than average TWI values. We found that green spaces exerted a considerable influence on urban flooding probabilities in Seoul, and flooding probabilities could be reduced by over 50% depending on the green space area and the locations where green spaces were introduced. Increasing the area of green spaces was the most effective method of decreasing flooding probability in Type 3 areas. In Type 2 areas, the maximum hourly precipitation affected the flooding probability significantly, and the flooding probability in these areas was high despite the extensive green space area. These findings can contribute towards establishing guidelines for urban spatial planning to respond to urban flooding.

  17. Agricultural damages and losses from ARkStorm scenario flooding in California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wein, Anne; David Mitchell,; Peters, Jeff; John Rowden,; Johnny Tran,; Alessandra Corsi,; Dinitz, Laura B.

    2016-01-01

    Scientists designed the ARkStorm scenario to challenge the preparedness of California communities for widespread flooding with a historical precedence and increased likelihood under climate change. California is an important provider of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and other agricultural products to the nation. This study analyzes the agricultural damages and losses pertaining to annual crops, perennial crops, and livestock in California exposed to ARkStorm flooding. Statewide, flood damage is incurred on approximately 23% of annual crop acreage, 5% of perennial crop acreage, and 5% of livestock, e.g., dairy, feedlot, and poultry, acreage. The sum of field repair costs, forgone income, and product replacement costs span $3.7 and $7.1 billion (2009) for a range of inundation durations. Perennial crop loss estimates dominate, and the vulnerability of orchards and vineyards has likely increased with recent expansion. Crop reestablishment delays from levee repair and dewatering more than double annual crop losses in the delta islands, assuming the fragile system does not remain permanently flooded. The exposure of almost 200,000 dairy cows to ARkStorm flooding poses livestock evacuation challenges. Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28ASCE%29NH.1527-6996.0000174

  18. Namibian Flood Early Warning SensorWeb Pilot

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandl, Daniel; Policelli, Fritz; Frye, Stuart; Cappelare, Pat; Langenhove, Guido Van; Szarzynski, Joerg; Sohlberg, Rob

    2010-01-01

    The major goal of the Namibia SensorWeb Pilot Project is a scientifically sound, operational trans-boundary flood management decision support system for Southern African region to provide useful flood and waterborne disease forecasting tools for local decision makers. The Pilot Project established under the auspices of: Namibian Ministry of Agriculture Water and Forestry (MAWF), Department of Water Affairs; Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS), Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS); and moderated by the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER). The effort consists of identifying and prototyping technology which enables the rapid gathering and dissemination of both space-based and ground sensor data and data products for the purpose of flood disaster management and water-borne disease management.

  19. The National Flood Interoperability Experiment: Bridging Resesarch and Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salas, F. R.

    2015-12-01

    The National Weather Service's new National Water Center, located on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, will become the nation's hub for comprehensive water resources forecasting. In conjunction with its federal partners the US Geological Survey, Army Corps of Engineers and Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service will operationally support both short term flood prediction and long term seasonal forecasting of water resource conditions. By summer 2016, the National Water Center will begin evaluating four streamflow data products at the scale of the NHDPlus river reaches (approximately 2.67 million). In preparation for the release of these products, from September 2014 to August 2015, the National Weather Service partnered with the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. to support the National Flood Interoperability Experiment which included a seven week in-residence Summer Institute in Tuscaloosa for university students interested in learning about operational hydrology and flood forecasting. As part of the experiment, 15 hour forecasts from the operational High Resolution Rapid Refresh atmospheric model were used to drive a three kilometer Noah-MP land surface model loosely coupled to a RAPID river routing model operating on the NHDPlus dataset. This workflow was run every three hours during the Summer Institute and the results were made available to those engaged to pursue a range of research topics focused on flood forecasting (e.g. reservoir operations, ensemble forecasting, probabilistic flood inundation mapping, rainfall product evaluation etc.) Although the National Flood Interoperability Experiment was finite in length, it provided a platform through which the academic community could engage federal agencies and vice versa to narrow the gap between research and operations and demonstrate how state of the art research infrastructure, models, services, datasets etc. could be utilized

  20. Multicriteria decision methodology for selecting technical alternatives in the Mixed Waste Integrated Program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferrada, J.J.; Berry, J.B.

    1993-11-01

    The US Department of Energy (DOE) Mixed Waste Integrated Program (MWIP) has as one of its tasks the identification of a decision methodology and key decision criteria for the selection methodology. The aim of a multicriteria analysis is to provide an instrument for a systematic evaluation of distinct alternative projects. Determination of this methodology will clarify (1) the factors used to evaluate these alternatives, (2) the evaluator's view of the importance of the factors, and (3) the relative value of each alternative. The selected methodology must consider the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) decision-making criteria for application to the analysis technology subsystems developed by the DOE Office of Technology Development. This report contains a compilation of several decision methodologies developed in various national laboratories, institutions, and universities. The purpose of these methodologies may vary, but the core of the decision attributes are very similar. Six approaches were briefly analyzed; from these six, in addition to recommendations made by the MWIP technical support group leaders and CERCLA, the final decision methodology was extracted. Slight variations are observed in the many methodologies developed by different groups, but most of the analyzed methodologies address similar aspects for the most part. These common aspects were the core of the methodology suggested in this report for use within MWIP for the selection of technologies. The set of criteria compiled and developed for this report have been grouped in five categories: (1) process effectiveness, (2) developmental status, (3) life-cycle cost, (4) implementability, and (5) regulatory compliance

  1. Application of naturally occurring isotopes and artificial radioactive tracer for monitoring water flooding in oil field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmad, M.; Khan, I.H.; Farooq, M.; Tasneem, M.A.; Rafiq, M.; Din, U.G.; Gul, S.

    2002-03-01

    Water flooding is an important operation to enhance oil recovery. Water is injected in the oil formation under high pressure through an injection well. Movement of the injected water is needed to be traced to test the performance of water flood, investigate unexpected anomalies in flow and verify suspected geological barriers or flow channels, etc. In the present study environmental isotopes and artificial radiotracer (tritium) were used at Fimkassar Oil Field of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) where water flooding was started in March 1996 in Sakessar formation to maintain its pressure and enhance the oil recovery. Environmental isotopes: /sup 18/O, /sup 2/H and /sup 3/H, and chloride contents were used to determine the breakthrough/transit time and contribution of fresh injected water. Water samples were collected from the injection well, production well and some other fields for reference indices of Sakessar Formation during June 1998 to August 1999. These samples were analyzed for the /sup 18/O, /sup 2/H and /sup 3/H, and chloride contents. Results show that the water of production well is mixture of fresh water and formation water. The fresh water contribution varied from 67% to 80%, while remaining component was the old recharged formation water. This percentage did not change significantly from the time of break-through till the last sampling which indicates good mixing in the reservoir and absence of any quick channel. The initial breakthrough time was 27 months as the fresh water contributed significantly in the first appearance of water in the production well in June 1998. Tritium tracer, which was injected in November 1998, appeared in the production well after 8 months. It show that breakthrough time decreased with the passage of time. /sup 14/C of inorganic carbon in the water in Chorgali and Sakessar Formations was also analyzed which indicates that the water is at least few thousand years old. (author)

  2. Reuse of By-Products from Ready-Mixed Concrete Plants for the Production of Cement Mortars

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monika Zervaki

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This study was motivated by the necessity to recycle sludge water resulting from washing out concrete mixing trucks - a problem of both environmental and economic importance for the ready-mixed concrete industry. Sludge water from ready-mixed concrete plants as well as dry sludge, which is derived from the settling of the water, are hazardous for disposal due to their high pH value (pH>11.5. In this work, cement mortars were composed using either sludge water after various treatment, or dry sludge in several ratios. The cement mortars were tested for their workability and strength development. The purpose of this experimental design was to prove that sludge water, as well as sludge in a wet or dry form, can be used in the production of mortars without degrading any of their properties.

  3. Production of a sterile species via active-sterile mixing: An exactly solvable model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyanovsky, D.

    2007-11-01

    The production of a sterile species via active-sterile mixing in a thermal medium is studied in an exactly solvable model. The exact time evolution of the sterile distribution function is determined by the dispersion relations and damping rates Γ1,2 for the quasiparticle modes. These depend on γ˜=Γaa/2ΔE, with Γaa the interaction rate of the active species in absence of mixing and ΔE the oscillation frequency in the medium without damping. γ˜≪1, γ˜≫1 describe the weak and strong damping limits, respectively. For γ˜≪1, Γ1=Γaacos⁡2θm; Γ2=Γaasin⁡2θm where θm is the mixing angle in the medium and the sterile distribution function does not obey a simple rate equation. For γ˜≫1, Γ1=Γaa and Γ2=Γaasin⁡22θm/4γ˜2, is the sterile production rate. In this regime sterile production is suppressed and the oscillation frequency vanishes at an Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) resonance, with a breakdown of adiabaticity. These are consequences of quantum Zeno suppression. For active neutrinos with standard model interactions the strong damping limit is only available near an MSW resonance if sin⁡2θ≪αw with θ the vacuum mixing angle. The full set of quantum kinetic equations for sterile production for arbitrary γ˜ are obtained from the quantum master equation. Cosmological resonant sterile neutrino production is quantum Zeno suppressed relieving potential uncertainties associated with the QCD phase transition.

  4. Preparing for Local Adaptation: Understanding Flood Risk Perceptions in Pittsburgh

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klima, K.; Wong-Parodi, G.

    2015-12-01

    The City of Pittsburgh experiences numerous floods every year. Aging and insufficient infrastructure contribute to flash floods and to over 20 billion gallons of combined sewer overflows annually, contaminating Pittsburgh's streets, basements, and waterways. Climate change is expected to further exacerbate this problem by causing more intense and more frequent extreme precipitation events in Western Pennsylvania. For a stormwater adaptation plan to be implemented effectively, the City will need informed public support. One way to achieve public understanding and support is through effective communication of the risks, benefits, and uncertainties of local flooding hazards and adaptation methods. In order to develop these communications effectively, the city and its partners will need to know what knowledge and attitudes the residents of Pittsburgh already hold about flood risks. Here we seek to (1) identify Pittsburgh residents' knowledge level, risk perception and attitudes towards flooding and storm water management, and (2) pre-test communications meant to inform and empower Pittsburghers about flood risks and adaptation strategies. We conduct a city-wide survey of 10,000 Pittsburgh renters and homeowners from four life situations: high risk, above poverty; high-risk, below poverty; low risk, above poverty; and low-risk, below poverty. Mixed media recruitment strategies (online and paper-based solicitations guided/organized by community organizations) assist in reaching all subpopulations. Preliminary results suggest participants know what stormwater runoff is, but have a weak understanding of how stormwater interacts with natural and built systems. Furthermore, although participants have a good understanding of the difference between green and gray infrastructure, this does not translate into a change in their willingness to pay for green infrastructure adaptation. This suggests additional communications about flood risks and adaptation strategies.

  5. Global drivers of future river flood risk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winsemius, Hessel C.; Aerts, Jeroen C. J. H.; van Beek, Ludovicus P. H.; Bierkens, Marc F. P.; Bouwman, Arno; Jongman, Brenden; Kwadijk, Jaap C. J.; Ligtvoet, Willem; Lucas, Paul L.; van Vuuren, Detlef P.; Ward, Philip J.

    2016-04-01

    Understanding global future river flood risk is a prerequisite for the quantification of climate change impacts and planning effective adaptation strategies. Existing global flood risk projections fail to integrate the combined dynamics of expected socio-economic development and climate change. We present the first global future river flood risk projections that separate the impacts of climate change and socio-economic development. The projections are based on an ensemble of climate model outputs, socio-economic scenarios, and a state-of-the-art hydrologic river flood model combined with socio-economic impact models. Globally, absolute damage may increase by up to a factor of 20 by the end of the century without action. Countries in Southeast Asia face a severe increase in flood risk. Although climate change contributes significantly to the increase in risk in Southeast Asia, we show that it is dwarfed by the effect of socio-economic growth, even after normalization for gross domestic product (GDP) growth. African countries face a strong increase in risk mainly due to socio-economic change. However, when normalized to GDP, climate change becomes by far the strongest driver. Both high- and low-income countries may benefit greatly from investing in adaptation measures, for which our analysis provides a basis.

  6. Floods on small streams in North Carolina, probable magnitude and frequency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinson, Herbert G.

    1965-01-01

    The magnitude and frequency of floods are defined regionally for small streams (drainage area, 1 to 150 sq mi) in North Carolina. Composite frequency curves for each of two regions relate the magnitude of the annual flood, in ratio to the mean annual flood, to recurrence intervals of 1.1 to 50 years. In North Carolina, the mean annual flood (Q2.33) is related to drainage area (A) by the following equation: Q2. 33 = GA0.66, where G, the geographic factor, is the product of a statewide coefficient (US) times a correction which reflects differences in basin characteristics. Isograms of the G factor covering the State are presented.

  7. Flood Risk and Flood hazard maps - Visualisation of hydrological risks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spachinger, Karl; Dorner, Wolfgang; Metzka, Rudolf; Serrhini, Kamal; Fuchs, Sven

    2008-01-01

    Hydrological models are an important basis of flood forecasting and early warning systems. They provide significant data on hydrological risks. In combination with other modelling techniques, such as hydrodynamic models, they can be used to assess the extent and impact of hydrological events. The new European Flood Directive forces all member states to evaluate flood risk on a catchment scale, to compile maps of flood hazard and flood risk for prone areas, and to inform on a local level about these risks. Flood hazard and flood risk maps are important tools to communicate flood risk to different target groups. They provide compiled information to relevant public bodies such as water management authorities, municipalities, or civil protection agencies, but also to the broader public. For almost each section of a river basin, run-off and water levels can be defined based on the likelihood of annual recurrence, using a combination of hydrological and hydrodynamic models, supplemented by an analysis of historical records and mappings. In combination with data related to the vulnerability of a region risk maps can be derived. The project RISKCATCH addressed these issues of hydrological risk and vulnerability assessment focusing on the flood risk management process. Flood hazard maps and flood risk maps were compiled for Austrian and German test sites taking into account existing national and international guidelines. These maps were evaluated by eye-tracking using experimental graphic semiology. Sets of small-scale as well as large-scale risk maps were presented to test persons in order to (1) study reading behaviour as well as understanding and (2) deduce the most attractive components that are essential for target-oriented risk communication. A cognitive survey asking for negative and positive aspects and complexity of each single map complemented the experimental graphic semiology. The results indicate how risk maps can be improved to fit the needs of different user

  8. Verification of alternatives for sustainable onion production (Allium cepa L. in Cucaita, Boyaca

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viteri R. Silvio Edgar

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available

    In Cucaita, onion production represents the basis of the economy and is concentrated in the valley but as yield declines due to deterioration of the soil, cultivation is shifting to the slopes, where unsustainability is more prominent. The aim of this study was to verify the potential of three alternatives for sustainable farming, using a split plot design on two farms. The alternatives were: 1 bocashi chicken manure, super broth four, fertilizer (BCmSB4F, 2 bocashi cow manure, rhizosphere broth, super broth four, fertilizer (BCmRBSB4F, 3 green manure, rhizosphere broth, super broth four, fertilizer (Gm- RBSB4F and 4 regional control (RC. This study determined disease incidence, plant height, stem and bulb diameter, healthy and diseased bulb weight and yield. The results indicated that regardless of the alternative, the agro-ecological conditions of the farm are critical to plant health and consequently to crop production. In El Arenal, where disease incidence was lower, the highest values for healthy bulb weight, bulb diameter and yield were revealed. The alternatives only differed in disease incidence at 30 and 45 days after transplant, with the lowest percentages corresponding to the green manure alternative. For revenue, the three alternatives were favorable, especially the BCmRBSB4F alternative which exceeded the RC. The results show that the alternatives GmRBSB4F and BCmRBSB4F have the most potential and are the most viable for sustainable onion production in Cucaita, Boyaca.

  9. Ethylene, nitric oxide and haemoglobins in plant tolerance to flooding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mur, Luis A J; Gupta, Kapuganti J; Chakraborty, U

    2015-01-01

    As much as 12% of the world's soils may suffer excess water so that flooding is a major limiting factor on crop production in many areas. Plants attempt to deal with submergence by forming root aerenchyma to facilitate oxygen diffusion from the shoot to the root, initiating a hyponastic response...... where petiole elongation facilitates access to atmospheric oxygen or initiating a bio-energetically conserving quiescence phase. Ethylene has well established roles in the initiation of programmed cell death (PCD) to form air-spaces in aerenchyma and in the hyponastic responses in petioles. The flooding...... response. NO is formed from the reduction of NO3/NO2 via several pathways, which are differentially utilized depending on the availability of O2. In fact, NO production and responses to flooding can be directly dependent on the nitrogen status of soil, which reflects local agricultural practice...

  10. Optimization of instant dalia dessert pre-mix production by using response surface methodology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jha, Alok; Shalini, B N; Patel, Ashok Ambalal; Singh, Mithilesh; Rasane, Prasad

    2015-02-01

    Dalia, a wheat-based, particulate containing dairy dessert is popularly consumed as a breakfast food and is also considered as a health food. Though popular throughout Northern parts of the country, its limited shelf-life even under refrigeration imposes severe restrictions on its organized manufacture and marketing. In order to promote dalia dessert as a marketable product, in the present study, a process was developed for manufacture of instant dalia pre-mix, as a dry product with long shelf-life, which could be attractively packaged and easily reconstituted for consumption. During the investigation, the effect of different levels of milk solids and wheat solids was studied on dalia pre-mix quality by employing a central composite rotatable design (CCRD). The suggested formulation had 17.82 % milk solids and 2.87 % wheat solids. This formulation was found to be most appropriate for manufacture of instant dalia pre-mix with predicted sensory scores (Max. 100) of 85.35, 41.98 and 67.27 for mouthfeel, consistency and flavor, respectively; the viscosity of the product was 941.0 cp.

  11. Pittsfield Local Flood Protection, West Branch and Southwest Branch, Housatonic River, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Detailed Project Report for Water Resources Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-10-01

    a bakery , a gas station, and the Linden Street bridge were flooded during the March 1977 storm. Flooding also occurred on the Southwest Branch...and service station, one bakery , and five other commercial establishments. Most of these structures are not suited to being elevated above the design...of a shopping plaza and a fast-food franchise in the flood plain on West Housatonic Street (Route 20). The following three alternate plans of

  12. The influence of future electricity mix alternatives on southwestern US water resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yates, D; Meldrum, J; Averyt, K

    2013-01-01

    A climate driven, water resource systems model of the southwestern US was used to explore the implications of growth, extended drought, and climate warming on the allocation of water among competing uses. The analysis focused on the water benefits from alternative thermoelectric generation mixes, but included other uses, namely irrigated agriculture, municipal indoor and outdoor use, and environmental and inter-state compact requirements. The model, referred to as WEAP-SW, was developed on the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) platform, and is scenario-based and forward projecting from 2008 to 2050. The scenario includes a southwest population that grows from about 55 million to more than 100 million, a prolonged dry period, and a long-term warming trend of 2 ° C by mid-century. In addition, the scenario assumes that water allocation under shortage conditions would prioritize thermoelectric, environmental, and inter-state compacts by shorting first irrigated agriculture, then municipal demands. We show that while thermoelectric cooling water consumption is relatively small compared with other uses, the physical realities and the legal and institutional structures of water use in the region mean that relatively small differences in regional water use across different electricity mix scenarios correspond with more substantial impacts on individual basins and water use sectors. At a region-wide level, these choices influence the buffer against further water stress afforded the region through its generous storage capacity in reservoirs. (letter)

  13. The influence of future electricity mix alternatives on southwestern US water resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yates, D.; Meldrum, J.; Averyt, K.

    2013-12-01

    A climate driven, water resource systems model of the southwestern US was used to explore the implications of growth, extended drought, and climate warming on the allocation of water among competing uses. The analysis focused on the water benefits from alternative thermoelectric generation mixes, but included other uses, namely irrigated agriculture, municipal indoor and outdoor use, and environmental and inter-state compact requirements. The model, referred to as WEAP-SW, was developed on the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) platform, and is scenario-based and forward projecting from 2008 to 2050. The scenario includes a southwest population that grows from about 55 million to more than 100 million, a prolonged dry period, and a long-term warming trend of 2 ° C by mid-century. In addition, the scenario assumes that water allocation under shortage conditions would prioritize thermoelectric, environmental, and inter-state compacts by shorting first irrigated agriculture, then municipal demands. We show that while thermoelectric cooling water consumption is relatively small compared with other uses, the physical realities and the legal and institutional structures of water use in the region mean that relatively small differences in regional water use across different electricity mix scenarios correspond with more substantial impacts on individual basins and water use sectors. At a region-wide level, these choices influence the buffer against further water stress afforded the region through its generous storage capacity in reservoirs.

  14. Improvement of acid protease production by a mixed culture of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The synthesis of acid protease by Aspergillus oryzae AS3042 was enhanced significantly with the mixed culture of Aspergillus niger SL-09 using solid-state fermentation technique. The influence of carbon sources, nitrogen sources and the addition of phytic acid on acid protease production were investigated. The enzyme ...

  15. Stakeholders' perspectives on the regulation and integration of complementary and alternative medicine products in Lebanon: a qualitative study

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background The regulation of the markets for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) products presents a global challenge. There is a dearth of studies that have examined or evaluated the regulatory policies of CAM products in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). We investigate the regulatory frameworks and the barriers for the proper regulation and integration of CAM products in Lebanon, as an example of an EMR country with a weak public infrastructure. Methods We utilized a qualitative study design involving a series of semi-structured interviews with stakeholders of the CAM market in Lebanon. Snowball sampling was used to identify interviewees; interviews continued until the "saturation" point was reached. A total of 16 interviews were carried out with decision makers, representatives of professional associations, academic researchers, CAM product importers, policy makers and a media representative. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis of scripts was carried out. Results There was a consensus among all stakeholders that the regulation of the market for CAM products in Lebanon needs to be strengthened. Thematic analysis identified a number of impediments jeopardizing the safety of public consumption and hindering the integration of CAM therapies into mainstream medicine; including: weak infrastructure, poor regulation, ineffective policies and politics, weak CAM awareness and sub-optimal coordination and cooperation among stakeholders. With respect to policy instruments, voluntary instruments (self regulation) were deemed ineffective by stakeholders due to poor awareness of both users and providers on safe use of CAM products. Stakeholders' rather recommended the adoption of a combination of mixed (enhancing public awareness and integration of CAM into medical and nursing curricula) and compulsory (stricter governmental regulation) policy instruments for the regulation of the market for CAM products. Conclusions The current status quo with

  16. Floods and climate: emerging perspectives for flood risk assessment and management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Merz, B.; Aerts, J.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten

    2014-01-01

    context of floods. We come to the following conclusions: (1) extending the traditional system boundaries (local catchment, recent decades, hydrological/hydraulic processes) opens up exciting possibilities for better understanding and improved tools for flood risk assessment and management. (2) Statistical......, and this variation may be partially quantifiable and predictable, with the perspective of dynamic, climate-informed flood risk management. (4) Efforts are needed to fully account for factors that contribute to changes in all three risk components (hazard, exposure, vulnerability) and to better understand......Flood estimation and flood management have traditionally been the domain of hydrologists, water resources engineers and statisticians, and disciplinary approaches abound. Dominant views have been shaped; one example is the catchment perspective: floods are formed and influenced by the interaction...

  17. Next power generation-mix for Bangladesh: Outlook and policy priorities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahamad, Mazbahul; Tanin, Fahian

    2013-01-01

    Bangladesh's strategy for economic development relies heavily on its energy and power policy, searching for an efficient implementation of planned power generation-mix of gas, oil, coal and hydro. At present, the contribution of gas is around 83% of total power generation, which is much higher than other traditional fuel sources. To reduce this single-source dependency on gas, Bangladesh needs to initiate alternative option to sustain its mid-term power generation-mix in addition to achieve its long-term energy security. Government of Bangladesh has already initiated a new master plan for the development of power generation under fuel-diversification scenario. In this view, local coal production and imported coal would assist the power planners to reduce the sole dependency on gas-driven power plants. In addition, cross-border hydropower import from Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal would also be a vital policy imperative to maintain the country's long-term energy security. Nonetheless, adding extra power to production side is certainly essential, demand side management through efficient energy use and energy conservation could also be of assistance to the release the existing crisis to a greater extent. - Highlights: • In 2010, the contribution of gas in power generation is about 88% in Bangladesh. • Installed capacity (4.29%) and actual power generation (3.75%) from coal is very low. • Local coal-based power plants would be an alternative for next generation-mix. • Cross-border hydropower trade with Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal would be another alternative. • Public-private partnership (PPP) could solve financing constraints to install new plants

  18. Colombia Mi Pronostico Flood Application: Updating and Improving the Mi Pronostico Flood Web Application to Include an Assessment of Flood Risk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rushley, Stephanie; Carter, Matthew; Chiou, Charles; Farmer, Richard; Haywood, Kevin; Pototzky, Anthony, Jr.; White, Adam; Winker, Daniel

    2014-01-01

    Colombia is a country with highly variable terrain, from the Andes Mountains to plains and coastal areas, many of these areas are prone to flooding disasters. To identify these risk areas NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) was used to construct a digital elevation model (DEM) for the study region. The preliminary risk assessment was applied to a pilot study area, the La Mosca River basin. Precipitation data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)'s near-real-time rainfall products as well as precipitation data from the Instituto de Hidrologia, Meteorologia y Estudios Ambientales (the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies, IDEAM) and stations in the La Mosca River Basin were used to create rainfall distribution maps for the region. Using the precipitation data and the ASTER DEM, the web application, Mi Pronóstico, run by IDEAM, was updated to include an interactive map which currently allows users to search for a location and view the vulnerability and current weather and flooding conditions. The geospatial information was linked to an early warning system in Mi Pronóstico that can alert the public of flood warnings and identify locations of nearby shelters.

  19. Green Alternatives to Nitrates and Nitrites in Meat-based Products-A Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gassara, Fatma; Kouassi, Anne Patricia; Brar, Satinder Kaur; Belkacemi, Khaled

    2016-10-02

    Several food additives are added in food for their preservation to maintain the freshness of food (antioxidants) or to slow down or stop the growth of microorganisms (preservative agents). Nitrites and nitrates are used as preservative agents in meat. Nitrites give a smoked taste, a pinkish color in the meat and protect the consumers against the risk of bacterial deterioration. Their addition is however very limited as, in high dose, it can have risks on human health and the environment. Nitrites may also combine with secondary or tertiary amines to form N-nitroso derivatives. Certain N-nitroso compounds have been shown to produce cancers in a wide range of laboratory animals. Thus, alternatives of nitrates and nitrites are the object of numerous research studies. Alternatives, such as the addition of vitamins, fruits, chemicals products, natural products containing nitrite or spices, which have similar properties of nitrites, are in evaluation. In fact, spices are considered to have several organoleptic and anti-microbial properties which would be interesting to study. Several spices and combinations of spices are being progressively evaluated. This review discusses the sources of nitrites and nitrates, their use as additives in food products, their physicochemical properties, their negatives effects and the use of alternatives of nitrites and nitrates in preserving meat products.

  20. Flood Foresight: A near-real time flood monitoring and forecasting tool for rapid and predictive flood impact assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Revilla-Romero, Beatriz; Shelton, Kay; Wood, Elizabeth; Berry, Robert; Bevington, John; Hankin, Barry; Lewis, Gavin; Gubbin, Andrew; Griffiths, Samuel; Barnard, Paul; Pinnell, Marc; Huyck, Charles

    2017-04-01

    The hours and days immediately after a major flood event are often chaotic and confusing, with first responders rushing to mobilise emergency responders, provide alleviation assistance and assess loss to assets of interest (e.g., population, buildings or utilities). Preparations in advance of a forthcoming event are becoming increasingly important; early warning systems have been demonstrated to be useful tools for decision markers. The extent of damage, human casualties and economic loss estimates can vary greatly during an event, and the timely availability of an accurate flood extent allows emergency response and resources to be optimised, reduces impacts, and helps prioritise recovery. In the insurance sector, for example, insurers are under pressure to respond in a proactive manner to claims rather than waiting for policyholders to report losses. Even though there is a great demand for flood inundation extents and severity information in different sectors, generating flood footprints for large areas from hydraulic models in real time remains a challenge. While such footprints can be produced in real time using remote sensing, weather conditions and sensor availability limit their ability to capture every single flood event across the globe. In this session, we will present Flood Foresight (www.floodforesight.com), an operational tool developed to meet the universal requirement for rapid geographic information, before, during and after major riverine flood events. The tool provides spatial data with which users can measure their current or predicted impact from an event - at building, basin, national or continental scales. Within Flood Foresight, the Screening component uses global rainfall predictions to provide a regional- to continental-scale view of heavy rainfall events up to a week in advance, alerting the user to potentially hazardous situations relevant to them. The Forecasting component enhances the predictive suite of tools by providing a local

  1. Flood Resilient Systems and their Application for Flood Resilient Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manojlovic, N.; Gabalda, V.; Antanaskovic, D.; Gershovich, I.; Pasche, E.

    2012-04-01

    Following the paradigm shift in flood management from traditional to more integrated approaches, and considering the uncertainties of future development due to drivers such as climate change, one of the main emerging tasks of flood managers becomes the development of (flood) resilient cities. It can be achieved by application of non-structural - flood resilience measures, summarised in the 4As: assistance, alleviation, awareness and avoidance (FIAC, 2007). As a part of this strategy, the key aspect of development of resilient cities - resilient built environment can be reached by efficient application of Flood Resilience Technology (FReT) and its meaningful combination into flood resilient systems (FRS). FRS are given as [an interconnecting network of FReT which facilitates resilience (including both restorative and adaptive capacity) to flooding, addressing physical and social systems and considering different flood typologies] (SMARTeST, http://www.floodresilience.eu/). Applying the system approach (e.g. Zevenbergen, 2008), FRS can be developed at different scales from the building to the city level. Still, a matter of research is a method to define and systematise different FRS crossing those scales. Further, the decision on which resilient system is to be applied for the given conditions and given scale is a complex task, calling for utilisation of decision support tools. This process of decision-making should follow the steps of flood risk assessment (1) and development of a flood resilience plan (2) (Manojlovic et al, 2009). The key problem in (2) is how to match the input parameters that describe physical&social system and flood typology to the appropriate flood resilient system. Additionally, an open issue is how to integrate the advances in FReT and findings on its efficiency into decision support tools. This paper presents a way to define, systematise and make decisions on FRS at different scales of an urban system developed within the 7th FP Project

  2. Effectiveness of flood damage mitigation measures: Empirical evidence from French flood disasters

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poussin, J.K.; Botzen, W.J.W.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.

    2015-01-01

    Recent destructive flood events and projected increases in flood risks as a result of climate change in many regions around the world demonstrate the importance of improving flood risk management. Flood-proofing of buildings is often advocated as an effective strategy for limiting damage caused by

  3. Voice-enabled Knowledge Engine using Flood Ontology and Natural Language Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sermet, M. Y.; Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.

    2015-12-01

    for providing knowledge on flood related issues and resources. IFIS Knowledge Engine provides an alternative access method to these comprehensive set of tools and data resources available in IFIS. Current implementation of the system accepts free-form input and voice recognition capabilities within browser and mobile applications.

  4. Using cost-benefit concepts in design floods improves communication of uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganora, Daniele; Botto, Anna; Laio, Francesco; Claps, Pierluigi

    2017-04-01

    Flood frequency analysis, i.e. the study of the relationships between the magnitude and the rarity of high flows in a river, is the usual procedure adopted to assess flood hazard, preliminary to the plan/design of flood protection measures. It grounds on the fit of a probability distribution to the peak discharge values recorded in gauging stations and the final estimates over a region are thus affected by uncertainty, due to the limited sample availability and of the possible alternatives in terms of the probabilistic model and the parameter estimation methods used. In the last decade, the scientific community dealt with this issue by developing a number of methods to quantify such uncertainty components. Usually, uncertainty is visually represented through confidence bands, which are easy to understand, but are not yet demonstrated to be useful for design purposes: they usually disorient decision makers, as the design flood is no longer univocally defined, making the decision process undetermined. These considerations motivated the development of the uncertainty-compliant design flood estimator (UNCODE) procedure (Botto et al., 2014) that allows one to select meaningful flood design values accounting for the associated uncertainty by considering additional constraints based on cost-benefit criteria. This method suggests an explicit multiplication factor that corrects the traditional (without uncertainty) design flood estimates to incorporate the effects of uncertainty in the estimate at the same safety level. Even though the UNCODE method was developed for design purposes, it can represent a powerful and robust tool to help clarifying the effects of the uncertainty in statistical estimation. As the process produces increased design flood estimates, this outcome demonstrates how uncertainty leads to more expensive flood protection measures, or insufficiency of current defenses. Moreover, the UNCODE approach can be used to assess the "value" of data, as the costs

  5. Mixed methods research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halcomb, Elizabeth; Hickman, Louise

    2015-04-08

    Mixed methods research involves the use of qualitative and quantitative data in a single research project. It represents an alternative methodological approach, combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches, which enables nurse researchers to explore complex phenomena in detail. This article provides a practical overview of mixed methods research and its application in nursing, to guide the novice researcher considering a mixed methods research project.

  6. Estimation of flood environmental effects using flood zone mapping techniques in Halilrood Kerman, Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boudaghpour, Siamak; Bagheri, Majid; Bagheri, Zahra

    2014-01-01

    High flood occurrences with large environmental damages have a growing trend in Iran. Dynamic movements of water during a flood cause different environmental damages in geographical areas with different characteristics such as topographic conditions. In general, environmental effects and damages caused by a flood in an area can be investigated from different points of view. The current essay is aiming at detecting environmental effects of flood occurrences in Halilrood catchment area of Kerman province in Iran using flood zone mapping techniques. The intended flood zone map was introduced in four steps. Steps 1 to 3 pave the way to calculate and estimate flood zone map in the understudy area while step 4 determines the estimation of environmental effects of flood occurrence. Based on our studies, wide range of accuracy for estimating the environmental effects of flood occurrence was introduced by using of flood zone mapping techniques. Moreover, it was identified that the existence of Jiroft dam in the study area can decrease flood zone from 260 hectares to 225 hectares and also it can decrease 20% of flood peak intensity. As a result, 14% of flood zone in the study area can be saved environmentally.

  7. Antibiotics in Canadian poultry productions and anticipated alternatives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moussa Sory Diarra

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The use of antibiotics in food-producing animals has significantly increased animal health by lowering mortality and the incidence of diseases. Antibiotics also have largely contributed to increase productivity of farms. However, antibiotic usage in general and relevance of non-therapeutic antibiotics in feed (growth promoters need to be reevaluated especially because bacterial pathogens of humans and animals have developed and shared a variety of antibiotic resistance mechanisms that can easily spread within microbial communities. In Canada, poultry production involves more than 2,600 regulated chicken producers. There are several antibiotics approved as feed additives available for poultry farmers. Feed recipes and mixtures greatly vary geographically and from one farm to another, making links between use of a specific antibiotic feed additive and production yields or selection of specific antibiotic-resistant bacteria difficult to establish. Many on-farm studies have revealed the widespread presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in broiler chickens. While sporadic reports linked the presence of antibiotic-resistant organisms to the use of feed supplemented with antibiotics, no recent studies could clearly demonstrate the benefit of antimicrobial growth promoters on performance and production yields. With modern biosecurity and hygienic practices, there is a genuine concern that intensive utilization of antibiotics or use of antimicrobial growth promoters in feed might no longer be useful. Public pressure and concerns about food and environmental safety (antibiotic residues, antibiotic-resistant pathogens have driven researchers to actively look for alternatives to antibiotics. Some of the alternatives include pre- and probiotics, organic acids and essential oils. We will describe here the properties of some bioactive molecules, like those found in cranberry, which have shown interesting polyvalent antibacterial and immuno

  8. Flood Risk Management in Iowa through an Integrated Flood Information System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demir, Ibrahim; Krajewski, Witold

    2013-04-01

    The Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. Simple 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for around 1100 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert

  9. A Participatory Modeling Application of a Distributed Hydrologic Model in Nuevo Leon, Mexico for the 2010 Hurricane Alex Flood Event

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baish, A. S.; Vivoni, E. R.; Payan, J. G.; Robles-Morua, A.; Basile, G. M.

    2011-12-01

    A distributed hydrologic model can help bring consensus among diverse stakeholders in regional flood planning by producing quantifiable sets of alternative futures. This value is acute in areas with high uncertainties in hydrologic conditions and sparse observations. In this study, we conduct an application of the Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS) in the Santa Catarina basin of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where Hurricane Alex in July 2010 led to catastrophic flooding of the capital city of Monterrey. Distributed model simulations utilize best-available information on the regional topography, land cover, and soils obtained from Mexican government agencies or analysis of remotely-sensed imagery from MODIS and ASTER. Furthermore, we developed meteorological forcing for the flood event based on multiple data sources, including three local gauge networks, satellite-based estimates from TRMM and PERSIANN, and the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS). Remotely-sensed data allowed us to quantify rainfall distributions in the upland, rural portions of the Santa Catarina that are sparsely populated and ungauged. Rural areas had significant contributions to the flood event and as a result were considered by stakeholders for flood control measures, including new reservoirs and upland vegetation management. Participatory modeling workshops with the stakeholders revealed a disconnect between urban and rural populations in regard to understanding the hydrologic conditions of the flood event and the effectiveness of existing and potential flood control measures. Despite these challenges, the use of the distributed flood forecasts developed within this participatory framework facilitated building consensus among diverse stakeholders and exploring alternative futures in the basin.

  10. Construction of an alternative glycerol-utilization pathway for improved β-carotene production in Escherichia coli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Jin-Ying; Hu, Kun-Le; Bi, Chang-Hao; Li, Qing-Yan; Zhang, Xue-Li

    2018-05-11

    Glycerol, which is an inevitable by-product of biodiesel production, is an ideal carbon source for the production of carotenoids due to its low price, good availability and chemically reduced status, which results in a low requirement for additional reducing equivalents. In this study, an alternative carbon-utilization pathway was constructed in Escherichia coli to enable more efficient β-carotene production from glycerol. An aldehyde reductase gene (alrd) and an aldehyde dehydrogenase gene (aldH) from Ralstonia eutropha H16 were integrated into the E. coli chromosome to form a novel glycerol-utilization pathway. The β-carotene specific production value was increased by 50% after the introduction of alrd and aldH. It was found that the glycerol kinase gene (garK), alrd and aldH were the bottleneck of the alternative glycerol metabolic pathway, and modulation of garK gene with an mRS library further increased the β-carotene specific production value by 13%. Finally, co-modulation of genes in the introduced aldH-alrd operon led to 86% more of β-carotene specific production value than that of the strain without the alternative glycerol-utilization pathway and the glycerol-utilization rate was also increased. In this work, β-carotene production of E. coli was significantly improved by constructing and optimizing an alternative glycerol-utilization pathway. This strategy can potentially be used to improve the production of other isoprenoids using glycerol as a cheap and abundant substrate, and therefore has industrial relevance.

  11. Ensuring safety of people in case of severe floods: feasibility and relevance of vertical evacuation strategies in high population density areas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pannier Rodolphe

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available When a major flooding event is expected the authorities in charge of the crisis management often consider bringing people to safety by making them leaving temporarily the threatened area before the onset of the flood. This strategy is called “horizontal evacuation”. It has to be distinguished from “vertical evacuation”, which means that people reach a shelter above the wtaer level within the flood area. Vertical evacuation is often the spontaneousbehaviourof people who are surprised by the flood and are trying to reach a tree, a floor upstairs, a roof of a building etc. in order to get away from the rising water. But vertical evacuation could also be consideredas an alternative strategy to horizontal evacuation when moving outside the flood area is neither a faisible nor a relevant option, for example in high-population density areas. In order to be a credible alternative to horizontal evacuation, vertical evacuation has to be carefully planned. This paper aims to explain why horizontal evacuation is not always a suitable option in case of major flood and to explore under what conditions vertical evacuation can be a relevantalternative solution to horizontal evacuation. It also adresses some general recommendations about how to prepare a vertical evacuation strategy..

  12. Fat reduction and alternatives for its substitution un emulsified meat products, a review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irma Natalia Rivera Ruiz

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Animal fat employed in emulsified meat products elaboration is important for the flavor and texture characteristics. Nonetheless, the association of this kind of saturated fats with cardiovascular disease is a negative factor against their consumption. Different alternatives had been studied to reduce their content, replacing the fat with water, hydrocolloids, gums, proteins and/or vegetable oils. This modifies the meat products functional properties like yield, cocking stability and water retention, affecting moisture content and oxidative rancidity, texture and color. All these alternatives had advantages and disadvantages in their use and application, but the particular needs will determinate the optimum formulation for healthier meat products.

  13. Passive pH adjustment of nuclear reactor containment flood water

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerlowski, T.J.

    1986-01-01

    A method is described of automatically and passively adjusting the pH of the recirculating liquid used to flood the containment structure of a nuclear reactor upon the occurence of an accident in order to cool the reactor core, wherein the containment structure has a concrete floor which is provided with at least one sump from which the liquid is withdrawn for recirculation via at least one outlet pipe. The method consists of: prior to flooding and during or prior to normal operation of the reactor, providing at least one perforated basket within at least one sump with the basket containing crystals of a pH adjusting chemical which is soluble in the liquid, and covering each basket with a plastic coating which is likewise soluble in the liquid, whereby upon flooding of the containment structure the liquid in the sump will reach the level of the baskets, causing the coating and the crystals to be dissolved and the chemical to mix with the recirculating liquid to adjust the pH

  14. Development of Integrated Flood Analysis System for Improving Flood Mitigation Capabilities in Korea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moon, Young-Il; Kim, Jong-suk

    2016-04-01

    Recently, the needs of people are growing for a more safety life and secure homeland from unexpected natural disasters. Flood damages have been recorded every year and those damages are greater than the annual average of 2 trillion won since 2000 in Korea. It has been increased in casualties and property damages due to flooding caused by hydrometeorlogical extremes according to climate change. Although the importance of flooding situation is emerging rapidly, studies related to development of integrated management system for reducing floods are insufficient in Korea. In addition, it is difficult to effectively reduce floods without developing integrated operation system taking into account of sewage pipe network configuration with the river level. Since the floods result in increasing damages to infrastructure, as well as life and property, structural and non-structural measures should be urgently established in order to effectively reduce the flood. Therefore, in this study, we developed an integrated flood analysis system that systematized technology to quantify flood risk and flood forecasting for supporting synthetic decision-making through real-time monitoring and prediction on flash rain or short-term rainfall by using radar and satellite information in Korea. Keywords: Flooding, Integrated flood analysis system, Rainfall forecasting, Korea Acknowledgments This work was carried out with the support of "Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ011686022015)" Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea

  15. Metabolism of 14C-lindane in flooded alluvial soil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Siddaramappa, R.; Sethunathan, N.

    1975-01-01

    The effect of rice straw on the persistence of uniformly ring labelled 14 C-lindane in an alluvial soil was investigated under flooded conditions. The residues in the soil were extracted with chloroform-diethyl ether and the radioactivity was measured by liquid scintillation. The radioactivity in the solvent phase decreased more rapidly in amended soil than in unamended soil. Radioautograph of thin layer chromatograms of solvent phase indicated that lindane was readily converted to a breakdown product in both amended and unamended soils. This breakdown product was also formed in both autoclaved and nonautoclaved soils. Rice straw amendment enhanced further decomposition of lindane and its breakdown product. Heat treatment retarded further decomposition of lindane and its breakdown product whereas they were rapidly decomposed in nonautoclaved soil. These studies indicated that in flooded alluvial soil tested, lindane was initially decomposed by a chemical reaction and soil microorganisms appeared to attack the products of the chemical reaction. (author)

  16. Facility design consideration for continuous mix production of class 1.3 propellant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williamson, K. L.; Schirk, P. G.

    1994-01-01

    In November of 1989, NASA awarded the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) contract to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) for production of advanced solid rocket motors using the continuous mix process. Aerojet ASRM division (AAD) was selected as the facility operator and RUST International Corporation provided the engineering, procurement, and construction management services. The continuous mix process mandates that the mix and cast facilities be 'close-coupled' along with the premix facilities, creating unique and challenging requirements for the facility designer. The classical approach to handling energetic materials-division into manageable quantities, segregation, and isolation-was not available due to these process requirements and quantities involved. This paper provides a description of the physical facilities, the continuous mix process, and discusses the monitoring and detection techniques used to mitigate hazards and prevent an incident.

  17. Vulnerability assessment including tangible and intangible components in the index composition: An Amazon case study of flooding and flash flooding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrade, Milena Marília Nogueira de; Szlafsztein, Claudio Fabian

    2018-07-15

    The vulnerability of cities and communities in the Amazon to flooding and flash flooding is increasing. The effects of extreme events on populations vary across landscapes, causing vulnerability to differ spatially. Traditional vulnerability studies in Brazil and across the world have used the vulnerability index for the country and, more recently, municipality scales. The vulnerability dimensions are exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. For each of these dimensions, there is a group of indicators that constitutes a vulnerability index using quantitative data. Several vulnerability assessments have used sensitivity and exposure analyses and, recently, adaptive capacity has been considered. The Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analysis allows spatial regional modeling using quantitative vulnerability indicators. This paper presents a local-scale vulnerability assessment in an urban Amazonian area, Santarém City, using interdisciplinary methods. Data for exposure and sensitivity were gathered by remote sensing and census data, respectively. However, adaptive capacity refers to local capacities, whether infrastructural or not, and the latter were gathered by qualitative participatory methods. For the mixed data used to study adaptive capacity, we consider tangible components for countable infrastructure that can cope with hazards, and intangible components that reflect social activities based on risk perceptions and collective action. The results indicate that over 80% of the area is highly or moderately vulnerable to flooding and flash flooding. Exposure and adaptive capacity were determinants of the results. Lower values of adaptive capacity play a significant role in vulnerability enhancement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Oxygen amendment on growth and nitrogen-use efficiency of flooded Italian Basil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flooding is a frequent and often unavoidable cause of stress, in vegetable production in Florida. Flooding results in hypoxia i.e., oxygen deficiency. This study was conducted with traditional Italian basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), cv. Genovese OG, treated with either a fast- or slow-release solid oxy...

  19. Content and reactivity to product perfumes in fragrance mix positive and negative eczema patients. A study of perfumes used in toiletries and skin-care products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johansen, J D; Rastogi, S C; Andersen, K E; Menné, T

    1997-06-01

    The aim of the study was to investigate the elicitation potential of perfumes from 17 commonly sold lower-price cosmetic products. 8 of the perfumes were from stay-on cosmetics and 9 were from wash-off cosmetics. Each perfume was tested in 500 consecutive eczema patients, who also were tested with the European standard patch test series. 4.2% reacted to 1 or more of the wash-off product perfumes and 3.2% to 1 or more of the stay-on product perfumes. Concordant positive reactions between the fragrance mix and the product perfumes were found in 81.3% of positive reactions to the stay-on product perfumes and in 52.4% of the reactions to the wash-off product perfumes. Compared to the fragrance mix alone, only 1 additional case of contact allergy to the product perfumes was detected by balsam of Peru. Chemical analysis revealed that between 1 and 5 of the chemically-defined constituents of the fragrance mix were present in all of the product perfumes. Geraniol was found in 12 of the 17 perfumes and was most often detected. The concentration of the target fragrance materials ranged from 0.005%-1.35 w/v%. It is concluded that the allergenic constituents of the fragrance mix are impossible to avoid if perfumed cosmetics are used. Furthermore, patients suspected of perfume allergy need to be tested with their own perfumed products, as far from all cases of perfume allergy are detected by the fragrance mix and/or balsam of Peru in the European standard patch test series.

  20. Alternative coke production from unconventional feedstocks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Smoot, D.; Eatough, C.N.; Heaton, J.S.; Eatough, S.R.; Miller, A.B. [Combustion Resources, Provo, UT (US)

    2004-07-01

    This presentation reports on US Department of Energy and company sponsored research and development to develop a technology and process for making metallurgical-quality coke from alternate feedstocks, including by-product and waste carbonaceous materials. The basic patent-pending process blends and presses these carbon-containing materials into briquettes of specified size. This product is referred to as CR Clean Coke because pollutant emission levels are carefully controlled to low levels with little or no vagrant emissions during processing. A wide range of feedstock materials has been investigated in over 600 tests for run-of-mine and waste coal fines of various rank with blends of coal tars and pitches, coal and biomass chars, met-coke breeze or petroleum coke. For various coal/pet-coke/tar feedstocks, CR has produced uniform-sized briquettes in commercial-scale briquettes in three nominal sizes: one inch, two inch, and three inch. These products have been successfully qualified according to stringent requirements for conventional met-coke use in a blast furnace. Several formulation have met and frequently exceeded these established met-coke specifications. One specific product containing coal, tar and pet-coke was selected as a base formulation for which preliminary process design and cost estimates have been completed for construction and operation of a demonstration plant capable of producing 120,000 tons per year of CR Clean Coke. Plant design elements and blast furnace test plans are presented. Tailoring of CR Clean Coke products to other prospective end users including foundry, sugar, soda ash, and ferrometals industries presents additional opportunities. The text is accompanied by 30 slides/overheads. 14 refs., 3 figs., 9 tabs.

  1. Assessing Jatropha Crop Production Alternatives in Abandoned Agricultural Arid Soils Using MCA and GIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serafin Corral

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the assessment of various biofuel crop production alternatives on the island of Fuerteventura using Jatropha crops. It adopts an integrated approach by carrying out a multi-criteria assessment with the support of participatory techniques and geographical information systems. Sixteen production alternatives were analyzed for growing Jatropha, and the results suggest that the best alternative involves using typical torrifluvent soils irrigated with recycled urban wastewater using surface drip irrigation covering 100% evapotranspiration. It was also determined that a potential area of 2546 ha could be used for cultivation within a radius of 10 km from a wastewater treatment plant. This level of production would supply 27.56% of the biofuel needs of Fuerteventura, thereby contributing to the 2020 target of the European Commission regarding biofuels for land transport.

  2. On the relative roles of hydrology, salinity, temperature, and root productivity in controlling soil respiration from coastal swamps (freshwater)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krauss, Ken W.; Whitbeck, Julie L.; Howard, Rebecca J.

    2012-01-01

    Background and aims Soil CO2 emissions can dominate gaseous carbon losses from forested wetlands (swamps), especially those positioned in coastal environments. Understanding the varied roles of hydroperiod, salinity, temperature, and root productivity on soil respiration is important in discerning how carbon balances may shift as freshwater swamps retreat inland with sea-level rise and salinity incursion, and convert to mixed communities with marsh plants. Methods We exposed soil mesocosms to combinations of permanent flooding, tide, and salinity, and tracked soil respiration over 2 1/2 growing seasons. We also related these measurements to rates from field sites along the lower Savannah River, Georgia, USA. Soil temperature and root productivity were assessed simultaneously for both experiments. Results Soil respiration from mesocosms (22.7-1678.2 mg CO2 m-2 h-1) differed significantly among treatments during four of the seven sampling intervals, where permanently flooded treatments contributed to low rates of soil respiration and tidally flooded treatments sometimes contributed to higher rates. Permanent flooding reduced the overall capacity for soil respiration as soils warmed. Salinity did reduce soil respiration at times in tidal treatments, indicating that salinity may affect the amount of CO2 respired with tide more strongly than under permanent flooding. However, soil respiration related greatest to root biomass (mesocosm) and standing root length (field); any stress reducing root productivity (incl. salinity and permanent flooding) therefore reduces soil respiration. Conclusions Overall, we hypothesized a stronger, direct role for salinity on soil respiration, and found that salinity effects were being masked by varied capacities for increases in respiration with soil warming as dictated by hydrology, and the indirect influence that salinity can have on plant productivity.

  3. Controlling flooding and water pollution with upland and streamside vegetation systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michael Dosskey

    2003-01-01

    Substantial research and development effort in the U.S. is being spent on developing strategies that address flooding and water pollution problems in agricultural areas. Concerns have been raised about the costs of flood damage, degradation of productive farm land, and declining water quality that are now recognized as unintended consequences of intensive, high-yield...

  4. Production of Fungal Glucoamylase for Glucose Production from Food Waste

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carol Sze Ki Lin

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The feasibility of using pastry waste as resource for glucoamylase (GA production via solid state fermentation (SSF was studied. The crude GA extract obtained was used for glucose production from mixed food waste. Our results showed that pastry waste could be used as a sole substrate for GA production. A maximal GA activity of 76.1 ± 6.1 U/mL was obtained at Day 10. The optimal pH and reaction temperature for the crude GA extract for hydrolysis were pH 5.5 and 55 °C, respectively. Under this condition, the half-life of the GA extract was 315.0 minutes with a deactivation constant (kd 2.20 × 10−3minutes−1. The application of the crude GA extract for mixed food waste hydrolysis and glucose production was successfully demonstrated. Approximately 53 g glucose was recovered from 100 g of mixed food waste in 1 h under the optimal digestion conditions, highlighting the potential of this approach as an alternative strategy for waste management and sustainable production of glucose applicable as carbon source in many biotechnological processes.

  5. Production of Fungal Glucoamylase for Glucose Production from Food Waste

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lam, Wan Chi; Pleissner, Daniel; Lin, Carol Sze Ki

    2013-01-01

    The feasibility of using pastry waste as resource for glucoamylase (GA) production via solid state fermentation (SSF) was studied. The crude GA extract obtained was used for glucose production from mixed food waste. Our results showed that pastry waste could be used as a sole substrate for GA production. A maximal GA activity of 76.1 ± 6.1 U/mL was obtained at Day 10. The optimal pH and reaction temperature for the crude GA extract for hydrolysis were pH 5.5 and 55 °C, respectively. Under this condition, the half-life of the GA extract was 315.0 minutes with a deactivation constant (kd) 2.20 × 10−3 minutes−1. The application of the crude GA extract for mixed food waste hydrolysis and glucose production was successfully demonstrated. Approximately 53 g glucose was recovered from 100 g of mixed food waste in 1 h under the optimal digestion conditions, highlighting the potential of this approach as an alternative strategy for waste management and sustainable production of glucose applicable as carbon source in many biotechnological processes. PMID:24970186

  6. Estimating floodwater depths from flood inundation maps and topography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Sagy; Brakenridge, G. Robert; Kettner, Albert; Bates, Bradford; Nelson, Jonathan M.; McDonald, Richard R.; Huang, Yu-Fen; Munasinghe, Dinuke; Zhang, Jiaqi

    2018-01-01

    Information on flood inundation extent is important for understanding societal exposure, water storage volumes, flood wave attenuation, future flood hazard, and other variables. A number of organizations now provide flood inundation maps based on satellite remote sensing. These data products can efficiently and accurately provide the areal extent of a flood event, but do not provide floodwater depth, an important attribute for first responders and damage assessment. Here we present a new methodology and a GIS-based tool, the Floodwater Depth Estimation Tool (FwDET), for estimating floodwater depth based solely on an inundation map and a digital elevation model (DEM). We compare the FwDET results against water depth maps derived from hydraulic simulation of two flood events, a large-scale event for which we use medium resolution input layer (10 m) and a small-scale event for which we use a high-resolution (LiDAR; 1 m) input. Further testing is performed for two inundation maps with a number of challenging features that include a narrow valley, a large reservoir, and an urban setting. The results show FwDET can accurately calculate floodwater depth for diverse flooding scenarios but also leads to considerable bias in locations where the inundation extent does not align well with the DEM. In these locations, manual adjustment or higher spatial resolution input is required.

  7. Flood Risk Regional Flood Defences : Technical report

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kok, M.; Jonkman, S.N.; Lendering, K.T.

    2015-01-01

    Historically the Netherlands have always had to deal with the threat of flooding, both from the rivers and the sea as well as from heavy rainfall. The country consists of a large amount of polders, which are low lying areas of land protected from flooding by embankments. These polders require an

  8. Alternatives to incineration. Technical area status report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schwinkendorf, W.E. [BDM Federal, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States); McFee, J.; Devarakonda, M. [International Technology Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Nenninger, L.L.; Fadullon, F.S. [Science Applications International Corp., Gaithersburg, MD (United States); Donaldson, T.L. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); Dickerson, K. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)]|[Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, Golden, CO (United States)

    1995-04-01

    Recently, the DOE`s Mixed Waste Integrated Program (MWIP) (superseded by the Mixed Waste Focus Area) initiated an evaluation of alternatives to incineration to identify technologies capable of treating DOE organically contaminated mixed wastes and which may be more easily permitted. These technologies have the potential of alleviating stakeholder concerns by decreasing off-gas volurties and the associated emissions of particulates, volatilized metals and radionuclides, PICs, NO{sub x}, SO{sub x}, and recombination products (dioxins and furans). Ideally, the alternate technology would be easily permitted, relatively omnivorous and effective in treating a variety of wastes with varying constituents, require minimal pretreatment or characterization, and be easy to implement. In addition, it would produce secondary waste stream volumes significantly smaller than the original waste stream, and would minimize the environmental health and safety effects on workers and the public. The purpose of this report is to provide an up-to-date (as of early 1995) compendium of iternative technologies for designers of mixed waste treatment facilities, and to identify Iternate technologies that may merit funding for further development. Various categories of non-thermal and thermal technologies have been evaluated and are summarized in Table ES-1. Brief descriptions of these technologies are provided in Section 1.7 of the Introduction. This report provides a detailed description of approximately 30 alternative technologies in these categories. Included in the report are descriptions of each technology; applicable input waste streams and the characteristics of the secondary, or output, waste streams; the current status of each technology relative to its availability for implementation; performance data; and costs. This information was gleaned from the open literature, governments reports, and discussions with principal investigators and developers.

  9. Estimation of phosphorus flux in rivers during flooding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yen-Chang; Liu, Jih-Hung; Kuo, Jan-Tai; Lin, Cheng-Fang

    2013-07-01

    Reservoirs in Taiwan are inundated with nutrients that result in algal growth, and thus also reservoir eutrophication. Controlling the phosphorus load has always been the most crucial issue for maintaining reservoir water quality. Numerous agricultural activities, especially the production of tea in riparian areas, are conducted in watersheds in Taiwan. Nutrients from such activities, including phosphorus, are typically flushed into rivers during flooding, when over 90% of the yearly total amount of phosphorous enters reservoirs. Excessive or enhanced soil erosion from rainstorms can dramatically increase the river sediment load and the amount of particulate phosphorus flushed into rivers. When flow rates are high, particulate phosphorus is the dominant form of phosphorus, but sediment and discharge measurements are difficult during flooding, which makes estimating phosphorus flux in rivers difficult. This study determines total amounts of phosphorus transport by measuring flood discharge and phosphorous levels during flooding. Changes in particulate phosphorus, dissolved phosphorus, and their adsorption behavior during a 24-h period are analyzed owing to the fact that the time for particulate phosphorus adsorption and desorption approaching equilibrium is about 16 h. Erosion of the reservoir watershed was caused by adsorption and desorption of suspended solids in the river, a process which can be summarily described using the Lagmuir isotherm. A method for estimating the phosphorus flux in the Daiyujay Creek during Typhoon Bilis in 2006 is presented in this study. Both sediment and phosphorus are affected by the drastic discharge during flooding. Water quality data were collected during two flood events, flood in June 9, 2006 and Typhoon Bilis, to show the concentrations of suspended solids and total phosphorus during floods are much higher than normal stages. Therefore, the drastic changes of total phosphorus, particulate phosphorus, and dissolved phosphorus in

  10. The index-flood and the GRADEX methods combination for flood frequency analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuentes, Diana; Di Baldassarre, Giuliano; Quesada, Beatriz; Xu, Chong-Yu; Halldin, Sven; Beven, Keith

    2017-04-01

    Flood frequency analysis is used in many applications, including flood risk management, design of hydraulic structures, and urban planning. However, such analysis requires of long series of observed discharge data which are often not available in many basins around the world. In this study, we tested the usefulness of combining regional discharge and local precipitation data to estimate the event flood volume frequency curve for 63 catchments in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. This was achieved by combining two existing flood frequency analysis methods, the regionalization index-flood approach with the GRADEX method. For up to 10-years return period, similar shape of the scaled flood frequency curve for catchments with similar flood behaviour was assumed from the index-flood approach. For return periods larger than 10-years the probability distribution of rainfall and discharge volumes were assumed to be asymptotically and exponential-type functions with the same scale parameter from the GRADEX method. Results showed that if the mean annual flood (MAF), used as index-flood, is known, the index-flood approach performed well for up to 10 years return periods, resulting in 25% mean relative error in prediction. For larger return periods the prediction capability decreased but could be improved by the use of the GRADEX method. As the MAF is unknown at ungauged and short-period measured basins, we tested predicting the MAF using catchments climate-physical characteristics, and discharge statistics, the latter when observations were available for only 8 years. Only the use of discharge statistics resulted in acceptable predictions.

  11. Effect of Mixed Systems on Crop Productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senturklu, Songul; Landblom, Douglas; Cihacek, Larry; Brevik, Eric

    2017-04-01

    The goals of this non-irrigated research has been to determine the effect of mixed systems integration on crop, soil, and beef cattle production in the northern Great Plains region of the United States. Over a 5-year period, growing spring wheat (HRSW-C) continuously year after year was compared to a 5-year crop rotation that included spring wheat (HRSW-R), cover crop (dual crop consisting of winter triticale/hairy vetch seeded in the fall and harvested for hay followed by a 7-species cover crop that was seeded in June after hay harvest), forage corn, field pea/barley, and sunflower. Control 5-year HRSW yield was 2690 kg/ha compared to 2757 kg/ha for HRSW grown in rotation. Available soil nitrogen (N) is often the most important limitation for crop production. Expensive fertilizer inputs were reduced in this study due to the mixed system's complementarity in which the rotation system that included beef cattle grazing sustained N availability and increased nutrient cycling, which had a positive effect on all crops grown in the rotation. Growing HRSW continuously requires less intensive management and in this research was 14.5% less profitable. Whereas, when crop management increased and complementing crops were grown in rotation to produce crops and provide feed for grazing livestock, soil nutrient cycling improved. Increased nutrient cycling increased crop rotation yields and yearling beef cattle steers that grazing annual forages in the rotation gain more body weight than similar steers grazing NGP native range. Results of this long-term research will be presented in a PICO format for participant discussion.

  12. Production-log base model for carbonate permeability distribution and steam flood optimization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahamed, S.F.; Choudhry, M.A.; Abdulbaqi, J.B. [Kuwait Gulf Oil Co. (Kuwait)

    2008-10-15

    This paper presented a model for the effective management of primary and thermal oil recovery operations in the Wafra Field in Kuwait, where a small huff and puff project was carried out in 1998 to determine if steam injection was a feasible recovery option for the field. The Eocene heavy oil reservoirs of the Wafra Field are carbonate rock admixtures with gypsum and anhydrite. They are the shallowest of the field's productive horizons and exhibit a high degree of fluid flow heterogeneity. The assessment of vertical and lateral permeability variation is a key factor for success of the reservoir development plan. Steam injection began in 2006 in a small scale test (SST) to determine if the innovative technology could produce steam from effluent water and to test the viability of steam injection in carbonate reservoirs. Following the success of the SST, a large scale pilot (LSP) is schedule to start in 2009. It can be used for completion strategies of injectors and producers in steam injection. The model showed that the productivity of the Eocene wells could be correlated with common available logs to develop a log based-permeability model. A series of cross plots for the perforated intervals of high and low productivity wells were constructed to develop a relationship between well productivity and location of log parameters on the plots. A relationship between rock quality, productivity and conventional log parameters was established. It was concluded that the vertical permeability and interwell continuity in the Eocene wells can be used to optimize new well placement for horizontal and vertical infill drilling. The model is also an effective tool to predict the steam injectivity profile to understand the anomalies related to temperature-depth distribution. The model can be used to improve the efficiency of formation heating by optimizing the steam flood process and steam pattern well completion. 16 refs.

  13. Flood frequency analysis for nonstationary annual peak records in an urban drainage basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villarini, G.; Smith, J.A.; Serinaldi, F.; Bales, J.; Bates, P.D.; Krajewski, W.F.

    2009-01-01

    Flood frequency analysis in urban watersheds is complicated by nonstationarities of annual peak records associated with land use change and evolving urban stormwater infrastructure. In this study, a framework for flood frequency analysis is developed based on the Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape parameters (GAMLSS), a tool for modeling time series under nonstationary conditions. GAMLSS is applied to annual maximum peak discharge records for Little Sugar Creek, a highly urbanized watershed which drains the urban core of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is shown that GAMLSS is able to describe the variability in the mean and variance of the annual maximum peak discharge by modeling the parameters of the selected parametric distribution as a smooth function of time via cubic splines. Flood frequency analyses for Little Sugar Creek (at a drainage area of 110 km2) show that the maximum flow with a 0.01-annual probability (corresponding to 100-year flood peak under stationary conditions) over the 83-year record has ranged from a minimum unit discharge of 2.1 m3 s- 1 km- 2 to a maximum of 5.1 m3 s- 1 km- 2. An alternative characterization can be made by examining the estimated return interval of the peak discharge that would have an annual exceedance probability of 0.01 under the assumption of stationarity (3.2 m3 s- 1 km- 2). Under nonstationary conditions, alternative definitions of return period should be adapted. Under the GAMLSS model, the return interval of an annual peak discharge of 3.2 m3 s- 1 km- 2 ranges from a maximum value of more than 5000 years in 1957 to a minimum value of almost 8 years for the present time (2007). The GAMLSS framework is also used to examine the links between population trends and flood frequency, as well as trends in annual maximum rainfall. These analyses are used to examine evolving flood frequency over future decades. ?? 2009 Elsevier Ltd.

  14. Flood frequency analysis of historical flood data under stationary and non-stationary modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Machado, M. J.; Botero, B. A.; López, J.; Francés, F.; Díez-Herrero, A.; Benito, G.

    2015-06-01

    Historical records are an important source of information on extreme and rare floods and fundamental to establish a reliable flood return frequency. The use of long historical records for flood frequency analysis brings in the question of flood stationarity, since climatic and land-use conditions can affect the relevance of past flooding as a predictor of future flooding. In this paper, a detailed 400 yr flood record from the Tagus River in Aranjuez (central Spain) was analysed under stationary and non-stationary flood frequency approaches, to assess their contribution within hazard studies. Historical flood records in Aranjuez were obtained from documents (Proceedings of the City Council, diaries, chronicles, memoirs, etc.), epigraphic marks, and indirect historical sources and reports. The water levels associated with different floods (derived from descriptions or epigraphic marks) were computed into discharge values using a one-dimensional hydraulic model. Secular variations in flood magnitude and frequency, found to respond to climate and environmental drivers, showed a good correlation between high values of historical flood discharges and a negative mode of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. Over the systematic gauge record (1913-2008), an abrupt change on flood magnitude was produced in 1957 due to constructions of three major reservoirs in the Tagus headwaters (Bolarque, Entrepeñas and Buendia) controlling 80% of the watershed surface draining to Aranjuez. Two different models were used for the flood frequency analysis: (a) a stationary model estimating statistical distributions incorporating imprecise and categorical data based on maximum likelihood estimators, and (b) a time-varying model based on "generalized additive models for location, scale and shape" (GAMLSS) modelling, which incorporates external covariates related to climate variability (NAO index) and catchment hydrology factors (in this paper a reservoir index; RI). Flood frequency

  15. Deriving Design Flood Hydrograph Based on Conditional Distribution: A Case Study of Danjiangkou Reservoir in Hanjiang Basin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Changjiang Xu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Design flood hydrograph (DFH for a dam is the flood of suitable probability and magnitude adopted to ensure safety of the dam in accordance with appropriate design standards. Estimated quantiles of peak discharge and flood volumes are necessary for deriving the DFH, which are mutually correlated and need to be described by multivariate analysis methods. The joint probability distributions of peak discharge and flood volumes were established using copula functions. Then the general formulae of conditional most likely composition (CMLC and conditional expectation composition (CEC methods that consider the inherent relationship between flood peak and volumes were derived for estimating DFH. The Danjiangkou reservoir in Hanjiang basin was selected as a case study. The design values of flood volumes and 90% confidence intervals with different peak discharges were estimated by the proposed methods. The performance of CMLC and CEC methods was also compared with conventional flood frequency analysis, and the results show that CMLC method performs best for both bivariate and trivariate distributions which has the smallest relative error and root mean square error. The proposed CMLC method has strong statistical basis with unique design flood composition scheme and provides an alternative way for deriving DFH.

  16. Inter-Seasonal and Annual Co-Variation of Smallholder Production Portfolios, Volumes and Incomes with Rainfall and Flood Levels in the Amazon Estuary: Implications for Building Livelihood Resilience to Increasing Variability of Hydro-Climatic Regimes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogt, N. D.; Fernandes, K.; Pinedo-Vasquez, M.; Brondizio, E. S.; Almeida, O.; Rivero, S.; Rabelo, F. R.; Dou, Y.; Deadman, P.

    2014-12-01

    In this paper we investigate inter-seasonal and annual co-variations of rainfall and flood levels with Caboclo production portfolios, and proportions of it they sell and consume, in the Amazon Estuary from August 2012 to August 2014. Caboclos of the estuary maintain a diverse and flexible land-use portfolio, with a shift in dominant use from agriculture to agroforestry and forestry since WWII (Vogt et al., 2014). The current landscape is configured for acai, shrimp and fish production. In the last decade the frequency of wet seasons with anomalous flood levels and duration has increased primarily from changes in rainfall and discharge from upstream basins. Local rainfall, though with less influence on extreme estuarine flood levels, is reported to be more sporadic and intense in wet season and variable in both wet and dry seasons, for yet unknown reasons. The current production portfolio and its flexibility are felt to build resilience to these increases in hydro-climatic variability and extreme events. What is less understood, for time and costliness of daily measures at household levels, is how variations in flood and rainfall levels affect shifts in the current production portfolio of estuarine Caboclos, and the proportions of it they sell and consume. This is needed to identify what local hydro-climatic thresholds are extreme for current livelihoods, that is, that most adversely affect food security and income levels. It is also needed identify the large-scale forcings driving those extreme conditions to build forecasts for when they will occur. Here we present results of production, rainfall and flood data collected daily in households from both the North and South Channel of the Amazon estuary over last two years to identify how they co-vary, and robustness of current production portfolio under different hydro-climatic conditions.

  17. Floods and climate: emerging perspectives for flood risk assessment and management

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Merz, B.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K.; Baldi, M.; Becker, A.; Bichet, A.; Blöschl, G.; Bouwer, L.M.; Brauer, A.; Cioffi, F.; Delgado, J.M.; Gocht, M.; Guzetti, F.; Harrigan, S.; Hirschboeck, K.; Kilsby, C.; Kron, W.; Kwon, H. -H.; Lall, U.; Merz, R.; Nissen, K.; Salvatti, P.; Swierczynski, T.; Ulbrich, U.; Viglione, A.; Ward, P.J.; Weiler, M.; Wilhelm, B.; Nied, M.

    2014-01-01

    Flood estimation and flood management have traditionally been the domain of hydrologists, water resources engineers and statisticians, and disciplinary approaches abound. Dominant views have been shaped; one example is the catchment perspective: floods are formed and influenced by the interaction of

  18. DEM-based Approaches for the Identification of Flood Prone Areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samela, Caterina; Manfreda, Salvatore; Nardi, Fernando; Grimaldi, Salvatore; Roth, Giorgio; Sole, Aurelia

    2013-04-01

    Manfreda et al. (2011) that suggested a modified Topographic Index (TIm) for the identification of flood prone area. 4) The downslope index proposed by Hjerdt et al. (2004) that quantifies the topographic controls on hydrology by evaluating head differences following the (surface) flow path in the steepest direction. The method does not use the exit point at the stream as reference; instead, the algorithm looks at how far a parcel of water has to travel along its flow path to lose a given head potential, d [m]. This last index was not defined with the aim to describe flood prone areas; in fact it represents an interesting alternative descriptor of morphological features that deserve to be tested. Analyses have been carried out for some Italian catchments. The outcomes of the four methods are presented using, for calibration and validation purposes, flood inundation maps made available by River Basin Authorities. The aim is, therefore, to evaluate the reliability and the relative errors in the detection of the areas subject to the flooding hazard. These techniques should not be considered as an alternative of traditional procedures, but additional tool for the identification of flood-prone areas and hazard graduation over large regions or when a preliminary identification is needed. Reference Degiorgis M., G. Gnecco, S. Gorni, G. Roth, M. Sanguineti, A. C. Taramasso, Classifiers for the detection of flood-prone areas using remote sensed elevation data, J. Hydrol., 470-471, 302-315, 2012. Hjerdt, K. N., J. J. McDonnell, J. Seibert, A. Rodhe, A new topographic index to quantify downslope controls on local drainage, Water Resour. Res., 40, W05602, 2004. Manfreda, S., M. Di Leo, A. Sole, Detection of Flood Prone Areas using Digital Elevation Models, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 10, 781-790, 2011. Nardi, F., E. R. Vivoni, S. Grimaldi, Investigating a floodplain scaling relation using a hydrogeomorphic delineation method, Water Resour. Res., 42, W09409, 2006.

  19. Rapid Flood Map Generation from Spaceborne SAR Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, S. H.; Liang, C.; Manipon, G.; Jung, J.; Gurrola, E. M.; Owen, S. E.; Hua, H.; Agram, P. S.; Webb, F.; Sacco, G. F.; Rosen, P. A.; Simons, M.

    2016-12-01

    The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team has responded to the January 2016 US Midwest Floods along the Mississippi River. Daily teleconferences with FEMA, NOAA, NGA, and USGS, provided information on precipitation and flood crest migration, based on which we coordinated with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) through NASA headquarters for JAXA's ALOS-2 timely tasking over two paths. We produced flood extent maps using ALOS-2 SM3 mode Level 1.5 data that were provided through the International Charter and stored at the US Geological Survey's Hazards Data Distribution System (HDDS) archive. On January 6, the first four frames (70 km x 240 km) were acquired, which included the City of Memphis. We registered post-event SAR images to pre-event images, applied radiometric calibration, took a logarithm of the ratio of the two images. Two thresholds were applied to represent flooded areas that became open water (colored in blue) and flooded areas with tall vegetation (colored in red). The second path was acquired on January 11 further down along the Mississippi River. Seven frames (70 km x 420 km) were acquired and flood maps were created in the similar fashion. The maps were delivered to the FEMA as well as posted on ARIA's public website. The FEMA stated that SAR provides inspection priority for optical imagery and ground response. The ALOS-2 data and the products have been a very important source of information during this response as the flood crest has moved down stream. The SAR data continue to be an important resource during times when optical observations are often not useful. In close collaboration with FEMA and USGS, we also work on other flood events including June 2016 China Floods using European Space Agency's (ESA's) Sentienl-1 data, to produce flood extent maps and identify algorithmic needs and ARIA system's requirements to automate and rapidly produce and deliver flood maps for future events. With the addition of Sentinel-1B

  20. Discharge data assimilation in a distributed hydrologic model for flood forecasting purposes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ercolani, G.; Castelli, F.

    2017-12-01

    Flood early warning systems benefit from accurate river flow forecasts, and data assimilation may improve their reliability. However, the actual enhancement that can be obtained in the operational practice should be investigated in detail and quantified. In this work we assess the benefits that the simultaneous assimilation of discharge observations at multiple locations can bring to flow forecasting through a distributed hydrologic model. The distributed model, MOBIDIC, is part of the operational flood forecasting chain of Tuscany Region in Central Italy. The assimilation system adopts a mixed variational-Monte Carlo approach to update efficiently initial river flow, soil moisture, and a parameter related to runoff production. The evaluation of the system is based on numerous hindcast experiments of real events. The events are characterized by significant rainfall that resulted in both high and relatively low flow in the river network. The area of study is the main basin of Tuscany Region, i.e. Arno river basin, which extends over about 8300 km2 and whose mean annual precipitation is around 800 mm. Arno's mainstream, with its nearly 240 km length, passes through major Tuscan cities, as Florence and Pisa, that are vulnerable to floods (e.g. flood of November 1966). The assimilation tests follow the usage of the model in the forecasting chain, employing the operational resolution in both space and time (500 m and 15 minutes respectively) and releasing new flow forecasts every 6 hours. The assimilation strategy is evaluated in respect to open loop simulations, i.e. runs that do not exploit discharge observations through data assimilation. We compare hydrographs in their entirety, as well as classical performance indexes, as error on peak flow and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency. The dependence of performances on lead time and location is assessed. Results indicate that the operational forecasting chain can benefit from the developed assimilation system, although with a

  1. Urban settlements' vulnerability to flood risks in African cities: A conceptual framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafiu O. Salami

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available In the recent past, the frequency and gravity of large-scale flood disasters have increased globally, resulting in casualties, destruction of property and huge economic loss. The destructive flood disaster devastating Louisiana, USA, is a recent example. Despite the availability of advanced technological capabilities for dealing with floods in developed nations, flood disasters continue to become more rampant and disastrous. Developing countries in Africa such as Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan have recently experienced severe flooding, leaving a considerable number of human casualties and thousands displaced. In African cities, most vulnerable urban residents usually have lesser capacity and fewer resources to recover from the shocks of disaster as a result of the failure of governments to build human security for poor African residents. Many scholars have acknowledged the lack of appropriate vulnerability assessment frameworks and policies, questioning the efficiency and effectiveness of the tested models in Africa. The ability to accurately identify, measure and evaluate the various vulnerabilities of affected people and communities is a right step towards reducing disaster risk. This article aimed at developing a framework for assessing urban settlements’ vulnerability to flood risks in Africa. The framework is currently being tested to assess various dimensions of vulnerability drivers in three urban communities in Ibadan metropolis, the third largest city in Nigeria, focusing more on flood risk perceptions and behaviour of the risk bearers. It uses participatory and mixed method approaches to socially construct vulnerability of populations at risk. This model emanates from the evaluation of considerable relevant literature and an array of vulnerability assessment frameworks. It integrates some approaches that are applicable to African cities in a bid to create a versatile tool to assess, identify and mitigate the effects of

  2. Selection and properties of alternative forming fluids for TRISO fuel kernel production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baker, M.P. [Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); King, J.C., E-mail: kingjc@mines.edu [Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Gorman, B.P. [Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Marshall, D.W. [Idaho National Laboratory, 2525 N. Fremont Avenue, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 (United States)

    2013-01-15

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Forming fluid selection criteria developed for TRISO kernel production. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Ten candidates selected for further study. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Density, viscosity, and surface tension measured for first time. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Settling velocity and heat transfer rates calculated. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Three fluids recommended for kernel production testing. - Abstract: Current Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) designs incorporate TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel, which consists of a spherical fissile fuel kernel surrounded by layers of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide. An internal sol-gel process forms the fuel kernel using wet chemistry to produce uranium oxyhydroxide gel spheres by dropping a cold precursor solution into a hot column of trichloroethylene (TCE). Over time, gelation byproducts inhibit complete gelation, and the TCE must be purified or discarded. The resulting TCE waste stream contains both radioactive and hazardous materials and is thus considered a mixed hazardous waste. Changing the forming fluid to a non-hazardous alternative could greatly improve the economics of TRISO fuel kernel production. Selection criteria for a replacement forming fluid narrowed a list of {approx}10,800 chemicals to yield ten potential replacement forming fluids: 1-bromododecane, 1-bromotetradecane, 1-bromoundecane, 1-chlorooctadecane, 1-chlorotetradecane, 1-iododecane, 1-iodododecane, 1-iodohexadecane, 1-iodooctadecane, and squalane. The density, viscosity, and surface tension for each potential replacement forming fluid were measured as a function of temperature between 25 Degree-Sign C and 80 Degree-Sign C. Calculated settling velocities and heat transfer rates give an overall column height approximation. 1-bromotetradecane, 1-chlorooctadecane, and 1-iodododecane show the greatest promise as replacements, and future tests will verify their ability to form satisfactory

  3. A software tool for rapid flood inundation mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verdin, James; Verdin, Kristine; Mathis, Melissa L.; Magadzire, Tamuka; Kabuchanga, Eric; Woodbury, Mark; Gadain, Hussein

    2016-06-02

    The GIS Flood Tool (GFT) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance to provide a means for production of reconnaissance-level flood inundation mapping for data-sparse and resource-limited areas of the world. The GFT has also attracted interest as a tool for rapid assessment flood inundation mapping for the Flood Inundation Mapping Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. The GFT can fill an important gap for communities that lack flood inundation mapping by providing a first-estimate of inundation zones, pending availability of resources to complete an engineering study. The tool can also help identify priority areas for application of scarce flood inundation mapping resources. The technical basis of the GFT is an application of the Manning equation for steady flow in an open channel, operating on specially processed digital elevation data. The GFT is implemented as a software extension in ArcGIS. Output maps from the GFT were validated at 11 sites with inundation maps produced previously by the Flood Inundation Mapping Program using standard one-dimensional hydraulic modeling techniques. In 80 percent of the cases, the GFT inundation patterns matched 75 percent or more of the one-dimensional hydraulic model inundation patterns. Lower rates of pattern agreement were seen at sites with low relief and subtle surface water divides. Although the GFT is simple to use, it should be applied with the oversight or review of a qualified hydraulic engineer who understands the simplifying assumptions of the approach.

  4. Effects of mixed substrates on growth and vitamin production by ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The effects of mixed carbon sources on growth and production of vitamins E and A by Euglena gracilis cells were investigated in batch culture. The cells were grown mixotrophically in glucose (G), ethanol (E) and a mixture of glucose and ethanol (EG). Cell growth was measured by counting the cell number with microscope, ...

  5. Analysis of Risk and Burden of Dysentery Associated with Floods from 2004 to 2010 in Nanning, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhidong; Ding, Guoyong; Zhang, Ying; Xu, Xin; Liu, Qiyong; Jiang, Baofa

    2015-11-01

    This study aimed to examine the association between floods and the morbidity of dysentery and to quantify the burden of dysentery due to floods in Nanning, China. A generalized additive mixed model was conducted to assess the relationship between monthly morbidity of dysentery and floods from 2004 to 2010. The years lived with disability (YLDs) of dysentery attributable to floods were then estimated based on the WHO framework of the burden of disease study for calculating the potential impact fraction. The relative risk (RR) of floods on the morbidity of dysentery was 1.44 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.18-1.75). The models suggest that a potential 1-day rise in flood duration may lead to 8% (RR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.04-1.12) increase in the morbidity of dysentery. The average attributable YLD per 1,000 of dysentery caused by floods were 0.013 in males, 0.005 in females, and 0.009 in persons. Our study confirms that floods have significantly increased the risk and the burden of dysentery in the study area. Public health action should be taken to prevent and control the potential risk of dysentery after floods. Vulnerable groups such as males and children should be paid more attention. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

  6. Product mix of recreational tourism in the Balkan scout center

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kocevski Miloš

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The subject of research is tourist offer of a camp which would satisfy the needs of tourists who want an active recreation, with changeable and attractive facilities in the Balkan Scout Center (BSC of Jovac. The goal is to define a model for recreational tourism product mix of the Balkan Scout Center, based on the analysis and evaluation of the elements of supply and identifying the demand for a certain program content. The research was conducted from April to August 2012, as a part of activities implemented in BSC events: Easter camp, Summer camp and Volunteer camp. The sample consisted of 100 visitors (respondents; the administered instrument was a specifically designed questionnaire and the methods on which the analysis of the modeling was based were: frequency of occurrence, comparative analysis (Benchmarking, SWOT and PEST. The research results confirm the existence of necessary resources for the implementation of the contents in the field of recreational tourism in the BSC, and the possibility of implementation of the product mix that includes day trips and a variety of outdoor recreational activities.

  7. Flood-Ring Formation and Root Development in Response to Experimental Flooding of Young Quercus robur Trees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Copini, Paul; den Ouden, Jan; Robert, Elisabeth M. R.; Tardif, Jacques C.; Loesberg, Walter A.; Goudzwaard, Leo; Sass-Klaassen, Ute

    2016-01-01

    Spring flooding in riparian forests can cause significant reductions in earlywood-vessel size in submerged stem parts of ring-porous tree species, leading to the presence of ‘flood rings’ that can be used as a proxy to reconstruct past flooding events, potentially over millennia. The mechanism of flood-ring formation and the relation with timing and duration of flooding are still to be elucidated. In this study, we experimentally flooded 4-year-old Quercus robur trees at three spring phenophases (late bud dormancy, budswell, and internode expansion) and over different flooding durations (2, 4, and 6 weeks) to a stem height of 50 cm. The effect of flooding on root and vessel development was assessed immediately after the flooding treatment and at the end of the growing season. Ring width and earlywood-vessel size and density were measured at 25- and 75-cm stem height and collapsed vessels were recorded. Stem flooding inhibited earlywood-vessel development in flooded stem parts. In addition, flooding upon budswell and internode expansion led to collapsed earlywood vessels below the water level. At the end of the growing season, mean earlywood-vessel size in the flooded stem parts (upon budswell and internode expansion) was always reduced by approximately 50% compared to non-flooded stem parts and 55% compared to control trees. This reduction was already present 2 weeks after flooding and occurred independent of flooding duration. Stem and root flooding were associated with significant root dieback after 4 and 6 weeks and mean radial growth was always reduced with increasing flooding duration. By comparing stem and root flooding, we conclude that flood rings only occur after stem flooding. As earlywood-vessel development was hampered during flooding, a considerable number of narrow earlywood vessels present later in the season, must have been formed after the actual flooding events. Our study indicates that root dieback, together with strongly reduced hydraulic

  8. Surrogate modeling of joint flood risk across coastal watersheds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bass, Benjamin; Bedient, Philip

    2018-03-01

    This study discusses the development and performance of a rapid prediction system capable of representing the joint rainfall-runoff and storm surge flood response of tropical cyclones (TCs) for probabilistic risk analysis. Due to the computational demand required for accurately representing storm surge with the high-fidelity ADvanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) hydrodynamic model and its coupling with additional numerical models to represent rainfall-runoff, a surrogate or statistical model was trained to represent the relationship between hurricane wind- and pressure-field characteristics and their peak joint flood response typically determined from physics based numerical models. This builds upon past studies that have only evaluated surrogate models for predicting peak surge, and provides the first system capable of probabilistically representing joint flood levels from TCs. The utility of this joint flood prediction system is then demonstrated by improving upon probabilistic TC flood risk products, which currently account for storm surge but do not take into account TC associated rainfall-runoff. Results demonstrate the source apportionment of rainfall-runoff versus storm surge and highlight that slight increases in flood risk levels may occur due to the interaction between rainfall-runoff and storm surge as compared to the Federal Emergency Management Association's (FEMAs) current practices.

  9. Mapping Daily and Maximum Flood Extents at 90-m Resolution During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Using Passive Microwave Remote Sensing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galantowicz, J. F.; Picton, J.; Root, B.

    2017-12-01

    Passive microwave remote sensing can provided a distinct perspective on flood events by virtue of wide sensor fields of view, frequent observations from multiple satellites, and sensitivity through clouds and vegetation. During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, we used AMSR2 (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2, JAXA) data to map flood extents starting from the first post-storm rain-free sensor passes. Our standard flood mapping algorithm (FloodScan) derives flooded fraction from 22-km microwave data (AMSR2 or NASA's GMI) in near real time and downscales it to 90-m resolution using a database built from topography, hydrology, and Global Surface Water Explorer data and normalized to microwave data footprint shapes. During Harvey and Irma we tested experimental versions of the algorithm designed to map the maximum post-storm flood extent rapidly and made a variety of map products available immediately for use in storm monitoring and response. The maps have several unique features including spanning the entire storm-affected area and providing multiple post-storm updates as flood water shifted and receded. From the daily maps we derived secondary products such as flood duration, maximum flood extent (Figure 1), and flood depth. In this presentation, we describe flood extent evolution, maximum extent, and local details as detected by the FloodScan algorithm in the wake of Harvey and Irma. We compare FloodScan results to other available flood mapping resources, note observed shortcomings, and describe improvements made in response. We also discuss how best-estimate maps could be updated in near real time by merging FloodScan products and data from other remote sensing systems and hydrological models.

  10. ANALYSIS OF MARKETING MIX ON COSMETICS PRODUCTS CASE STUDY: AVON COMPANY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ALEXANDRA PALADE

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper contains an analysis of the marketing mix followed by a Swot analysis of company Avon. It continues with a market research conducted among women in Brasov highlighting the attitudes, opinions and behaviour of women in Brasov on the acquisition and use of cosmetics product. The present paper analyzes the cosmetics market, the company Avon position in Brasov’s market, identifying the company’s main competitors, population segmentation. After analyzing data from market research shows that most women acquires cosmetic products from Avon company, the representatives role being extremely important. Most women buy products through the catalogue, 77% of them using the products every day, often buying the personal care products.

  11. After the flood is before the next flood - post event review of the Central European Floods of June 2013. Insights, recommendations and next steps for future flood prevention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szoenyi, Michael; Mechler, Reinhard; McCallum, Ian

    2015-04-01

    In early June 2013, severe flooding hit Central and Eastern Europe, causing extensive damage, in particular along the Danube and Elbe main watersheds. The situation was particularly severe in Eastern Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Based on the Post Event Review Capability (PERC) approach, developed by Zurich Insurance's Flood Resilience Program to provide independent review of large flood events, we examine what has worked well (best practice) and opportunities for further improvement. The PERC overall aims to thoroughly examine aspects of flood resilience, flood risk management and catastrophe intervention in order to help build back better after events and learn for future events. As our research from post event analyses shows a lot of losses are in fact avoidable by taking the right measures pre-event and these measures are economically - efficient with a return of 4 Euro on losses saved for every Euro invested in prevention on average (Wharton/IIASA flood resilience alliance paper on cost benefit analysis, Mechler et al. 2014) and up to 10 Euros for certain countries. For the 2013 flood events we provide analysis on the following aspects and in general identify a number of factors that worked in terms of reducing the loss and risk burden. 1. Understanding risk factors of the Central European Floods 2013 We review the precursors leading up to the floods in June, with an extremely wet May 2013 and an atypical V-b weather pattern that brought immense precipitation in a very short period to the watersheds of Elbe, Donau and partially the Rhine in the D-A-CH countries and researched what happened during the flood and why. Key questions we asked revolve around which protection and risk reduction approaches worked well and which did not, and why. 2. Insights and recommendations from the post event review The PERC identified a number of risk factors, which need attention if risk is to be reduced over time. • Yet another "100-year flood" - risk

  12. Urban flood return period assessment through rainfall-flood response modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Murla, Damian; Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke

    Intense rainfall can often cause severe floods, especially in urbanized areas, where population density or large impermeable areas are found. In this context, floods can generate a direct impact in a social-environmental-economic viewpoint. Traditionally, in design of Urban Drainage Systems (UDS......), correlation between return period (RP) of a given rainfall and RP of its consequent flood has been assumed to be linear (e.g.DS/EN752 (2008)). However, this is not always the case. Complex UDS, where diverse hydraulic infrastructures are often found, increase the heterogeneity of system response, which may...... cause an alteration of the mentioned correlation. Consequently, reliability on future urban planning, design and resilience against floods may be also affected by this misassumption. In this study, an assessment of surface flood RP across rainfall RP has been carried out at Lystrup, a urbanized...

  13. Mixed Waste Focus Area alternative oxidation technologies development and demonstration program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borduin, L.C.; Fewell, T.; Gombert, D.; Priebe, S.

    1998-01-01

    The Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA) is currently supporting the development and demonstration of several alternative oxidation technology (AOT) processes for treatment of combustible mixed low-level wastes. The impetus for this support derives from regulatory and political hurdles frequently encountered by traditional thermal techniques, primarily incinerators. AOTs have been defined as technologies that destroy organic material without using open-flame reactions. Whether thermal or nonthermal, the processes have the potential advantages of relatively low-volume gaseous emissions, generation of few or no dioxin/furan compounds, and operation at low enough temperatures that metals (except mercury) and most radionuclides are not volatilized. Technology development and demonstration are needed to confirm and realize the potential of AOTs and to compare them on an equal basis with their fully demonstrated thermal counterparts. AOTs include both thermal and nonthermal processes that oxidize organic wastes but operate under significantly different physical and chemical conditions than incinerators. Nonthermal processes currently being studied include Delphi DETOX and acid digestion at the Savannah River Site, and direct chemical oxidation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. All three technologies are at advanced stages of development or are entering the demonstration phase. Nonflame thermal processes include catalytic chemical oxidation, which is being developed and deployed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and team reforming, a commercial process being supported by Department of Energy. Related technologies include two low-flow, secondary oxidation processes (Phoenix and Thermatrix units) that have been tested at MSE, Inc., in Butte, Montana. Although testing is complete on some AOT technologies, most require additional support to complete some or all of the identified development objectives. Brief descriptions, status, and planned paths forward for each

  14. A Mathematical Programming Approach to the Optimal Sustainable Product Mix for the Process Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noha M. Galal

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The increasing concerns about the environment and the depletion of natural resources are the main drivers for the growing interest in sustainability. Manufacturing operations are frequently considered to have an adverse effect on the environment. Hence, the sustainable operation of manufacturing facilities is a vital practice to ensure sustainability. The aim of this paper is to find the optimum product mix of a manufacturing facility to maximize its sustainability. A mixed integer non-linear programming model is developed to specify the product mix in order to maximize a proposed sustainability index (SI of a manufacturing facility. The sustainability index comprises the economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainability in a weighted form using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP. The model results allow the identification of the prospective improvements of manufacturing sustainability.

  15. Multivariate pluvial flood damage models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Ootegem, Luc; Verhofstadt, Elsy; Van Herck, Kristine; Creten, Tom

    2015-01-01

    Depth–damage-functions, relating the monetary flood damage to the depth of the inundation, are commonly used in the case of fluvial floods (floods caused by a river overflowing). We construct four multivariate damage models for pluvial floods (caused by extreme rainfall) by differentiating on the one hand between ground floor floods and basement floods and on the other hand between damage to residential buildings and damage to housing contents. We do not only take into account the effect of flood-depth on damage, but also incorporate the effects of non-hazard indicators (building characteristics, behavioural indicators and socio-economic variables). By using a Tobit-estimation technique on identified victims of pluvial floods in Flanders (Belgium), we take into account the effect of cases of reported zero damage. Our results show that the flood depth is an important predictor of damage, but with a diverging impact between ground floor floods and basement floods. Also non-hazard indicators are important. For example being aware of the risk just before the water enters the building reduces content damage considerably, underlining the importance of warning systems and policy in this case of pluvial floods. - Highlights: • Prediction of damage of pluvial floods using also non-hazard information • We include ‘no damage cases’ using a Tobit model. • The damage of flood depth is stronger for ground floor than for basement floods. • Non-hazard indicators are especially important for content damage. • Potential gain of policies that increase awareness of flood risks

  16. Multivariate pluvial flood damage models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Van Ootegem, Luc [HIVA — University of Louvain (Belgium); SHERPPA — Ghent University (Belgium); Verhofstadt, Elsy [SHERPPA — Ghent University (Belgium); Van Herck, Kristine; Creten, Tom [HIVA — University of Louvain (Belgium)

    2015-09-15

    Depth–damage-functions, relating the monetary flood damage to the depth of the inundation, are commonly used in the case of fluvial floods (floods caused by a river overflowing). We construct four multivariate damage models for pluvial floods (caused by extreme rainfall) by differentiating on the one hand between ground floor floods and basement floods and on the other hand between damage to residential buildings and damage to housing contents. We do not only take into account the effect of flood-depth on damage, but also incorporate the effects of non-hazard indicators (building characteristics, behavioural indicators and socio-economic variables). By using a Tobit-estimation technique on identified victims of pluvial floods in Flanders (Belgium), we take into account the effect of cases of reported zero damage. Our results show that the flood depth is an important predictor of damage, but with a diverging impact between ground floor floods and basement floods. Also non-hazard indicators are important. For example being aware of the risk just before the water enters the building reduces content damage considerably, underlining the importance of warning systems and policy in this case of pluvial floods. - Highlights: • Prediction of damage of pluvial floods using also non-hazard information • We include ‘no damage cases’ using a Tobit model. • The damage of flood depth is stronger for ground floor than for basement floods. • Non-hazard indicators are especially important for content damage. • Potential gain of policies that increase awareness of flood risks.

  17. Urban flood risk warning under rapid urbanization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yangbo; Zhou, Haolan; Zhang, Hui; Du, Guoming; Zhou, Jinhui

    2015-05-01

    In the past decades, China has observed rapid urbanization, the nation's urban population reached 50% in 2000, and is still in steady increase. Rapid urbanization in China has an adverse impact on urban hydrological processes, particularly in increasing the urban flood risks and causing serious urban flooding losses. Urban flooding also increases health risks such as causing epidemic disease break out, polluting drinking water and damaging the living environment. In the highly urbanized area, non-engineering measurement is the main way for managing urban flood risk, such as flood risk warning. There is no mature method and pilot study for urban flood risk warning, the purpose of this study is to propose the urban flood risk warning method for the rapidly urbanized Chinese cities. This paper first presented an urban flood forecasting model, which produces urban flood inundation index for urban flood risk warning. The model has 5 modules. The drainage system and grid dividing module divides the whole city terrain into drainage systems according to its first-order river system, and delineates the drainage system into grids based on the spatial structure with irregular gridding technique; the precipitation assimilation module assimilates precipitation for every grids which is used as the model input, which could either be the radar based precipitation estimation or interpolated one from rain gauges; runoff production module classifies the surface into pervious and impervious surface, and employs different methods to calculate the runoff respectively; surface runoff routing module routes the surface runoff and determines the inundation index. The routing on surface grid is calculated according to the two dimensional shallow water unsteady flow algorithm, the routing on land channel and special channel is calculated according to the one dimensional unsteady flow algorithm. This paper then proposed the urban flood risk warning method that is called DPSIR model based

  18. A European Flood Database: facilitating comprehensive flood research beyond administrative boundaries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Hall

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The current work addresses one of the key building blocks towards an improved understanding of flood processes and associated changes in flood characteristics and regimes in Europe: the development of a comprehensive, extensive European flood database. The presented work results from ongoing cross-border research collaborations initiated with data collection and joint interpretation in mind. A detailed account of the current state, characteristics and spatial and temporal coverage of the European Flood Database, is presented. At this stage, the hydrological data collection is still growing and consists at this time of annual maximum and daily mean discharge series, from over 7000 hydrometric stations of various data series lengths. Moreover, the database currently comprises data from over 50 different data sources. The time series have been obtained from different national and regional data sources in a collaborative effort of a joint European flood research agreement based on the exchange of data, models and expertise, and from existing international data collections and open source websites. These ongoing efforts are contributing to advancing the understanding of regional flood processes beyond individual country boundaries and to a more coherent flood research in Europe.

  19. Floods in Colorado

    Science.gov (United States)

    Follansbee, Robert; Sawyer, Leon R.

    1948-01-01

    The first records of floods in Colorado antedated the settlement of the State by about 30 years. These were records of floods on the Arkansas and Republican Rivers in 1826. Other floods noted by traders, hunters and emigrants, some of whom were on their way to the Far West, occurred in 1844 on the Arkansas River, and by inference on the South Platte River. Other early floods were those on the Purgatoire, the Lower Arkansas, and the San Juan Rivers about 1859. The most serious flood since settlement began was that on the Arkansas River during June 1921, which caused the loss of about 100 lives and an estimated property loss of $19,000,000. Many floods of lesser magnitude have occurred, and some of these have caused loss of life and very considerable property damage. Topography is the chief factor in determining the location of storms and resulting floods. These occur most frequently on the eastern slope of the Front Range. In the mountains farther west precipitation is insufficient to cause floods except during periods of melting snow, in June. In the southwestern part of the State, where precipitation during periods of melting snow is insufficient to cause floods, the severest floods yet experienced resulted from heavy rains in September 1909 and October 1911. In the eastern foothills region, usually below an altitude of about 7,500 feet and extending for a distance of about 50 miles east of the mountains, is a zone subject to rainfalls of great intensity known as cloudbursts. These cloudbursts are of short duration and are confined to very small areas. At times the intensity is so great as to make breathing difficult for those exposed to a storm. The areas of intense rainfall are so small that Weather Bureau precipitation stations have not been located in them. Local residents, being cloudburst conscious, frequently measure the rainfall in receptacles in their yards, and such records constitute the only source of information regarding the intensity. A flood

  20. Multi-actor decision making using mixed reality technologies Urban projects and multi-actor collaboration

    OpenAIRE

    Basile,, Maria; Ozdirlik, Burcu; Terrin,, Jean-Jacques

    2009-01-01

    International audience; This paper is based on the results of an ongoing research project, IPCity, on the application of mixed reality technologies in urban environments. It questions the relevance of traditional language and communication medium such as drawings, perspectives and 3D models in the co-production of urban projects in multi-actor working environments. It then discusses the possible use of “mixed reality technologies” as alternative medium through five workshops organised within ...

  1. Changes in flood risk in Lower Niger–Benue catchments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Odunuga

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Floods are devastating natural disasters with a significant impact on human life and the surrounding environment. This paper analyses historical and recent flood (2012 extreme peak flow at strategic locations, land use activities and Floodplain Vulnerability Index analyses of the Niger–Benue River Floodplain. The 2012 peak flow at Jederbode on the Niger River was about 50% above the long term average. At Jebba (Niger, the 2012 peak flow of 1567 m3 s−1 was also far higher than the long term mean annual peak flow of 1159 m3 s−1. The 2012 peak flow at Lokoja was also about 50 % above the historical average. The Benue River at Makurdi had peak flow of 16 387 m3 s−1 which was also unusually higher than the historical average while Wuroboki (Benue had peak flow of 3362 m3 s−1 which was also much higher that the historical average (694 m3 s−1. The mixed land use which supported diverse ecosystem services has the largest cover of 5654 km2 (36.85% of the Niger–Benue floodplain. The flood vulnerability of the various land uses within the floodplain include; medium, high and very high levels. A four levels hierarchical implementation adaptation strategy for sustainable agricultural practices along the rivers flood plain was proposed. The implementation hierarchy includes: Community Concern, Local Authority Concern, State Concern and National Concern.

  2. Sustainable flood memories, lay knowledges and the development of community resilience to future flood risk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    McEwen Lindsey

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Shifts to devolved flood risk management in the UK pose questions about how the changing role of floodplain residents in community-led adaptation planning can be supported and strengthened. This paper shares insights from an interdisciplinary research project that has proposed the concept of ‘sustainable flood memory’ in the context of effective flood risk management. The research aimed to increase understanding of whether and how flood memories from the UK Summer 2007 extreme floods provide a platform for developing lay knowledges and flood resilience. The project investigated what factors link flood memory and lay knowledges of flooding, and how these connect and disconnect during and after flood events. In particular, and relation to flood governance directions, we sought to explore how such memories might play a part in individual and community resilience. The research presented here explores some key themes drawn from semi-structured interviews with floodplain residents with recent flood experiences in contrasting demographic and physical settings in the lower River Severn catchment. These include changing practices in making flood memories and materialising flood knowledge and the roles of active remembering and active forgetting.

  3. Diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based case-mix funding system, a promising alternative for fee for service payment in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Cuirong; Wang, Chao; Shen, Chengwu; Wang, Qian

    2018-05-13

    Fee for services (FFS) is the prevailing method of payment in most Chinese public hospitals. Under this retrospective payment system, medical care providers are paid based on medical services and tend to over-treat to maximize their income, thereby contributing to rising medical costs and uncontrollable health expenditures to a large extent. Payment reform needs to be promptly implemented to move to a prospective payment plan. The diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based case-mix payment system, with its superior efficiency and containment of costs, has garnered increased attention and it represents a promising alternative. This article briefly describes the DRG-based case-mix payment system, it comparatively analyzes differences between FFS and case-mix funding systems, and it describes the implementation of DRGs in China. China's social and economic conditions differ across regions, so establishment of a national payment standard will take time and involve difficulties. No single method of provider payment is perfect. Measures to monitor and minimize the negative ethical implications and unintended effects of a DRG-based case-mix payment system are essential to ensuring the lasting social benefits of payment reform in Chinese public hospitals.

  4. Forage production in mixed grazing systems of elephant grass with arrowleaf clover or forage peanut

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daiane Cristine Seibt

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Most dairy production systems are pasture-based, usually consisting of sole grass species. This system facilitates pasture management, but results in high production costs, mainly because of nitrogen fertilizers. An alternative to making forage systems more sustainable is to introduce legumes into the pasture. Mixed pastures allow better forage distribution over time and reduce fertilization costs. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate, throughout the year, three forage systems (FS: FS1 (control - elephant grass (EG, ryegrass (RG, and spontaneous species (SS; FS2 - EG + RG + SS + arrowleaf clover; and FS3 - EG + RG + SS + forage peanut. Elephant grass was planted in rows spaced 4 m apart. Ryegrass was sown between the EG lines, in the winter. Arrowleaf clover was sown according to the respective treatments and forage peanut was preserved. Evaluation was carried out using Holstein cows. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design, with three treatments (FS, and three repetitions (paddocks with repeated measurements (grazing cycles. Forage mass achieved 3.46, 3.80, and 3.91 t ha-1 for the treatments FS1, FS2 and FS3, respectively. The forage systems intercropped with legumes produced the best results.

  5. Flood protection as a key-component of the environmental restoration of Canal del Dique, Colombia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sokolewicz Marius

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Canal del Dique is a man-made distributary of Rio Magdalena. After its widening in 1980’s environmental degradation caused by abundant sediment load and changes to hydrology took a catastrophic form. In 2010, the Canal’s dike breached and 35,000 ha of land were flooded. In 2013 a huge effort to restore the environment in the Canal del Dique system and to flood-proof the villages was started. An integrated approach was adopted to provide an optimal solution for flood control, environment, fresh water supply and navigation. In order to prepare restoration plans, an extensive hydrologic and hydraulic assessment was carried out. 1D, 2D and 3D numerical models were developed to answer different questions, to evaluate different alternatives and to enable selection of optimal solutions. To assess the flood risk, a hindcast of 2010 flood was carried out. A solution was designed in which the inlet of water from the Magdalena River is regulated by a control structure, managed by an automated system based on SCADA and Delft-FEWS flood forecasting software and advanced statistics.

  6. Changing compositions in the Iceland plume; Isotopic and elemental constraints from the Paleogene Faroe flood basalts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Søager, Nina; Holm, Paul Martin

    2011-01-01

    Elemental and Sr, Nd, Hf and high precision Pb isotopic data are presented from 59 low-Ti and high-Ti lavas from the syn-break up part of the Faroe Flood Basalt Province. The depleted MORB-like low-Ti lavas erupted in the rift zone between the Faroe Islands and central East Greenland around......-type component similar in geochemistry to the Icelandic Öræfajökull lavas. This component is believed to be recycled pelagic sediments in the plume but it can alternatively be a local crustal or lithospheric mantle component. The enriched Faroe high-Ti lavas erupted inland from the rift have isotopic...... compositions very similar to the enriched Icelandic neo-volcanics and these lava suites apparently share the two enriched plume end-members IE1 and IE2 (Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 68, 2, 2004). The lack of mixing between high and low-Ti melts at the time of break up, is explained by a zoned plume where only low...

  7. Temperature dependence of bioelectrochemical CO2 conversion and methane production with a mixed-culture biocathode.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Hou-Yun; Bao, Bai-Ling; Liu, Jing; Qin, Yuan; Wang, Yi-Ran; Su, Kui-Zu; Han, Jun-Cheng; Mu, Yang

    2018-02-01

    This study evaluated the effect of temperature on methane production by CO 2 reduction during microbial electrosynthesis (MES) with a mixed-culture biocathode. Reactor performance, in terms of the amount and rate of methane production, current density, and coulombic efficiency, was compared at different temperatures. The microbial properties of the biocathode at each temperature were also analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that the optimum temperature for methane production from CO 2 reduction in MES with a mixed-culture cathode was 50°C, with the highest amount and rate of methane production of 2.06±0.13mmol and 0.094±0.01mmolh -1 , respectively. In the mixed-culture biocathode MES, the coulombic efficiency of methane formation was within a range of 19.15±2.31% to 73.94±2.18% due to by-product formation at the cathode, including volatile fatty acids and hydrogen. Microbial analysis demonstrated that temperature had an impact on the diversity of microbial communities in the biofilm that formed on the MES cathode. Specifically, the hydrogenotrophic methanogen Methanobacterium became the predominant archaea for methane production from CO 2 reduction, while the abundance of the aceticlastic methanogen Methanosaeta decreased with increased temperature. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  8. A global hydrographic array for early detection of floods and droughts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brakenridge, G.; Nghiem, S.; Caquard, S.

    An array of over 700 20 km-long river gaging reaches, distributed world-wide, is imaged by the SeaWinds radar scatterometer aboard QuikSCAT every 2.5 days. Strongly negative HH/VV polarity ratios indicate large amounts of surface water. We set individual reach thresholds so that the transition from bankfull to overbank river flow can be identified according to changes in this ratio. Similarly, the wide-swath MODIS optical sensors provide frequent repeat coverage of the reaches at much higher spatial resolution (250 m). In this case, several reach water surface area thresholds can be identified: low flow or drought conditions, normal in-channel flow, overbank flow, and extreme flood conditions. Sustained data collection for the reaches by both sensors allows the radar response to changing surface water to be defined, and allows evaluation of the sensitivity of the MODIS data to river discharge changes. New approaches, such as ``unmixing'' analysis of mixed water/land MODIS pixels can extend detection limits to smaller rivers and streams. It is now possible for wide-area, frequent revisit terrestrial remote sensing to provide human society with early warning of both floods and droughts and by direct observation of the runoff component of the Earth's hydrologic cycle. Examples of both radar and optical approaches towards this end are at the web sites below: http://www.dartmouth.edu/˜ floods/Modisrapidresponse.html http://www.dartmouth.edu/˜ floods/sensorweb/SensorWebindex.html http://www.dartmouth.edu/˜ floods/Quikscat/Regional2/CurrentTisza.jpg} In particular, early flood detection results are obtained over an extensive region in eastern Europe including the Tisza River basin, Romania, Hungary, and adjacent nations. Flood detection maps are updated weekly at the web site. The combination of QuikSCAT and MODIS takes advantage of the large-area coverage of these sensors together with the high temporal resolution of QuikSCAT and the high spatial resolution of MODIS

  9. Groundwater flow, nutrient, and stable isotope dynamics in the parafluvial-hyporheic zone of the regulated Lower Colorado River (Texas, USA) over the course of a small flood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Briody, Alyse C.; Cardenas, M. Bayani; Shuai, Pin; Knappett, Peter S. K.; Bennett, Philip C.

    2016-06-01

    Periodic releases from an upstream dam cause rapid stage fluctuations in the Lower Colorado River near Austin, Texas, USA. These daily pulses modulate fluid exchange and residence times in the hyporheic zone where biogeochemical reactions are typically pronounced. The effects of a small flood pulse under low-flow conditions on surface-water/groundwater exchange and biogeochemical processes were studied by monitoring and sampling from two dense transects of wells perpendicular to the river. The first transect recorded water levels and the second transect was used for water sample collection at three depths. Samples were collected from 12 wells every 2 h over a 24-h period which had a 16-cm flood pulse. Analyses included nutrients, carbon, major ions, and stable isotopes of water. The relatively small flood pulse did not cause significant mixing in the parafluvial zone. Under these conditions, the river and groundwater were decoupled, showed potentially minimal mixing at the interface, and did not exhibit any discernible denitrification of river-borne nitrate. The chemical patterns observed in the parafluvial zone can be explained by evaporation of groundwater with little mixing with river water. Thus, large pulses may be necessary in order for substantial hyporheic mixing and exchange to occur. The large regulated river under a low-flow and small flood pulse regime functioned mainly as a gaining river with little hydrologic connectivity beyond a narrow hyporheic zone.

  10. Coping with Future Coastal Floods in Denmark—Advancing the Use of Global Frameworks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jebens, Martin; Sørensen, Carlo Sass

    2017-01-01

    The main aim of Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation is to lower the risk for the population and the society at large. Risk assessments constitute an important part of flood risk management and their quality is crucial to well-informed decision making. This requires an in......-depth understanding of the society and its vulnerabilities. Often attention to the flood risk and vulnerability in developed countries is absent due to the assumption that society can cope with disaster; For Denmark, a mixed methods’ research inquiry reveals that this is not always the case. In a critique of current...... Danish approaches to deal with Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation including coordination and planning, the paper proposes a new pathway for coping with the risks of coastal floods: Global frameworks like the Hyogo and Sendai tailored to suit Danish conditions may serve to mainstream...

  11. Adaptation to flood risk: Results of international paired flood event studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kreibich, Heidi; Di Baldassarre, G.; Vorogushyn, Sergiy; Aerts, J.C.J.H.; Apel, H.; Aronica, G.T.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K.; Bouwer, L.; Bubeck, P.; Caloiero, Tommaso; Chinh, Do. T.; Cortès, Maria; Gain, A.K.; Giampá, Vincenzo; Kuhlicke, C; Kundzewicz, Z.W.; Carmen Llasat, M; Mård, Johanna; Matczak, Piotr; Mazzoleni, Maurizio; Molinari, Daniela; Dung, N.V.; Petrucci, Olga; Schröter, Kai; Slager, Kymo; Thieken, A.H.; Ward, P.J.; Merz, B.

    2017-01-01

    As flood impacts are increasing in large parts of the world, understanding the primary drivers of changes in risk is essential for effective adaptation. To gain more knowledge on the basis of empirical case studies, we analyze eight paired floods, that is, consecutive flood events that occurred in

  12. Prehistoric floods on the Tennessee River—Assessing the use of stratigraphic records of past floods for improved flood-frequency analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harden, Tessa M.; O'Connor, Jim E.

    2017-06-14

    Stratigraphic analysis, coupled with geochronologic techniques, indicates that a rich history of large Tennessee River floods is preserved in the Tennessee River Gorge area. Deposits of flood sediment from the 1867 peak discharge of record (460,000 cubic feet per second at Chattanooga, Tennessee) are preserved at many locations throughout the study area at sites with flood-sediment accumulation. Small exposures at two boulder overhangs reveal evidence of three to four other floods similar in size, or larger, than the 1867 flood in the last 3,000 years—one possibly as much or more than 50 percent larger. Records of floods also are preserved in stratigraphic sections at the mouth of the gorge at Williams Island and near Eaves Ferry, about 70 river miles upstream of the gorge. These stratigraphic records may extend as far back as about 9,000 years ago, giving a long history of Tennessee River floods. Although more evidence is needed to confirm these findings, a more in-depth comprehensive paleoflood study is feasible for the Tennessee River.

  13. Probabilistic Design Storm Method for Improved Flood Estimation in Ungauged Catchments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berk, Mario; Å pačková, Olga; Straub, Daniel

    2017-12-01

    The design storm approach with event-based rainfall-runoff models is a standard method for design flood estimation in ungauged catchments. The approach is conceptually simple and computationally inexpensive, but the underlying assumptions can lead to flawed design flood estimations. In particular, the implied average recurrence interval (ARI) neutrality between rainfall and runoff neglects uncertainty in other important parameters, leading to an underestimation of design floods. The selection of a single representative critical rainfall duration in the analysis leads to an additional underestimation of design floods. One way to overcome these nonconservative approximations is the use of a continuous rainfall-runoff model, which is associated with significant computational cost and requires rainfall input data that are often not readily available. As an alternative, we propose a novel Probabilistic Design Storm method that combines event-based flood modeling with basic probabilistic models and concepts from reliability analysis, in particular the First-Order Reliability Method (FORM). The proposed methodology overcomes the limitations of the standard design storm approach, while utilizing the same input information and models without excessive computational effort. Additionally, the Probabilistic Design Storm method allows deriving so-called design charts, which summarize representative design storm events (combinations of rainfall intensity and other relevant parameters) for floods with different return periods. These can be used to study the relationship between rainfall and runoff return periods. We demonstrate, investigate, and validate the method by means of an example catchment located in the Bavarian Pre-Alps, in combination with a simple hydrological model commonly used in practice.

  14. Utilising social media contents for flood inundation mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schröter, Kai; Dransch, Doris; Fohringer, Joachim; Kreibich, Heidi

    2016-04-01

    Data about the hazard and its consequences are scarce and not readily available during and shortly after a disaster. An information source which should be explored in a more efficient way is eyewitness accounts via social media. This research presents a methodology that leverages social media content to support rapid inundation mapping, including inundation extent and water depth in the case of floods. It uses quantitative data that are estimated from photos extracted from social media posts and their integration with established data. Due to the rapid availability of these posts compared to traditional data sources such as remote sensing data, areas affected by a flood, for example, can be determined quickly. Key challenges are to filter the large number of posts to a manageable amount of potentially useful inundation-related information, and to interpret and integrate the posts into mapping procedures in a timely manner. We present a methodology and a tool ("PostDistiller") to filter geo-located posts from social media services which include links to photos and to further explore this spatial distributed contextualized in situ information for inundation mapping. The June 2013 flood in Dresden is used as an application case study in which we evaluate the utilization of this approach and compare the resulting spatial flood patterns and inundation depths to 'traditional' data sources and mapping approaches like water level observations and remote sensing flood masks. The outcomes of the application case are encouraging. Strengths of the proposed procedure are that information for the estimation of inundation depth is rapidly available, particularly in urban areas where it is of high interest and of great value because alternative information sources like remote sensing data analysis do not perform very well. The uncertainty of derived inundation depth data and the uncontrollable availability of the information sources are major threats to the utility of the approach.

  15. Floods in Serbia in the 1999-2009 period: Hydrological analysis and flood protection measures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milanović Ana

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The review on greatest floods recorded in Vojvodina and central Serbia within the period from 1999 to 2009 is given in this paper. For 13 hydrological stations, that recorded the greatest floods for the present period, probability of occurrence of these floods has been accomplished. Based on analysis of time series of discharge and water level maximum, performed by applying probability theory and mathematical statistics, and calculated theoretical probability distribution function of floods, probability of occurrence of flood has been obtained. Most often the best agreement with the empirical distribution function had a Log-Pearson III, Pearson III distribution. These results can be used for dimensioning of hydro-technical objects for flood protection. The most significant causes for floods recorded in this period were melting of snow and intensive rainfall. In this paper the current situation of flood protection and future development of flood protection measures were also presented. .

  16. Spatial coherence of flood-rich and flood-poor periods across Germany

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merz, Bruno; Dung, Nguyen Viet; Apel, Heiko; Gerlitz, Lars; Schröter, Kai; Steirou, Eva; Vorogushyn, Sergiy

    2018-04-01

    Despite its societal relevance, the question whether fluctuations in flood occurrence or magnitude are coherent in space has hardly been addressed in quantitative terms. We investigate this question for Germany by analysing fluctuations in annual maximum series (AMS) values at 68 discharge gauges for the common time period 1932-2005. We find remarkable spatial coherence across Germany given its different flood regimes. For example, there is a tendency that flood-rich/-poor years in sub-catchments of the Rhine basin, which are dominated by winter floods, coincide with flood-rich/-poor years in the southern sub-catchments of the Danube basin, which have their dominant flood season in summer. Our findings indicate that coherence is caused rather by persistence in catchment wetness than by persistent periods of higher/lower event precipitation. Further, we propose to differentiate between event-type and non-event-type coherence. There are quite a number of hydrological years with considerable non-event-type coherence, i.e. AMS values of the 68 gauges are spread out through the year but in the same magnitude range. Years with extreme flooding tend to be of event-type and non-coherent, i.e. there is at least one precipitation event that affects many catchments to various degree. Although spatial coherence is a remarkable phenomenon, and large-scale flooding across Germany can lead to severe situations, extreme magnitudes across the whole country within one event or within one year were not observed in the investigated period.

  17. Sex-specific responses to winter flooding, spring waterlogging and post-flooding recovery in Populus deltoides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miao, Ling-Feng; Yang, Fan; Han, Chun-Yu; Pu, Yu-Jin; Ding, Yang; Zhang, Li-Jia

    2017-05-31

    Winter flooding events are common in some rivers and streams due to dam constructions, and flooding and waterlogging inhibit the growth of trees in riparian zones. This study investigated sex-specific morphological, physiological and ultrastructural responses to various durations of winter flooding and spring waterlogging stresses, and post-flooding recovery characteristics in Populus deltoides. There were no significant differences in the morphological, ultrastructural and the majority of physiological traits in trees subjected to medium and severe winter flooding stresses, suggesting that males and females of P. deltoides were winter flooding tolerant, and insensitive to winter flooding duration. Males were more tolerant to winter flooding stress in terms of photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence than females. Females displayed greater oxidative damage due to flooding stress than males. Males developed more efficient antioxidant enzymatic systems to control reactive oxygen species. Both sexes had similarly strong post-flooding recovery capabilities in terms of plant growth, and physiological and ultrastructural parameters. However, Males had better recovery capabilities in terms of pigment content. These results increase the understanding of poplars's adaptation to winter flooding stress. They also elucidate sex-specific differences in response to flooding stress during the dormant season, and during post-flooding recovery periods.

  18. Automated flood extent identification using WorldView imagery for the insurance industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geller, Christina

    2017-10-01

    Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster around the world, causing the loss of human life and billions in economic and insured losses each year. In 2016, pluvial and fluvial floods caused an estimated 5.69 billion USD in losses worldwide with the most severe events occurring in Germany, France, China, and the United States. While catastrophe modeling has begun to help bridge the knowledge gap about the risk of fluvial flooding, understanding the extent of a flood - pluvial and fluvial - in near real-time allows insurance companies around the world to quantify the loss of property that their clients face during a flooding event and proactively respond. To develop this real-time, global analysis of flooded areas and the associated losses, a new methodology utilizing optical multi-spectral imagery from DigitalGlobe (DGI) WorldView satellite suite is proposed for the extraction of pluvial and fluvial flood extents. This methodology involves identifying flooded areas visible to the sensor, filling in the gaps left by the built environment (i.e. buildings, trees) with a nearest neighbor calculation, and comparing the footprint against an Industry Exposure Database (IE) to calculate a loss estimate. Full-automation of the methodology allows production of flood extents and associated losses anywhere around the world as required. The methodology has been tested and proven effective for the 2016 flood in Louisiana, USA.

  19. Flood frequency analysis and generation of flood hazard indicator maps in a semi-arid environment, case of Ourika watershed (western High Atlas, Morocco)

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Alaoui El Fels, Abdelhafid; Alaa, Noureddine; Bachnou, Ali; Rachidi, Said

    2018-05-01

    The development of the statistical models and flood risk modeling approaches have seen remarkable improvements in their productivities. Their application in arid and semi-arid regions, particularly in developing countries, can be extremely useful for better assessment and planning of flood risk in order to reduce the catastrophic impacts of this phenomenon. This study focuses on the Setti Fadma region (Ourika basin, Morocco) which is potentially threatened by floods and is subject to climatic and anthropogenic forcing. The study is based on two main axes: (i) the extreme flow frequency analysis, using 12 probability laws adjusted by Maximum Likelihood method and (ii) the generation of the flood risk indicator maps are based on the solution proposed by the Nays2DFlood solver of the Hydrodynamic model of two-dimensional Saint-Venant equations. The study is used as a spatial high-resolution digital model (Lidar) in order to get the nearest hydrological simulation of the reality. The results showed that the GEV is the most appropriate law of the extreme flows estimation for different return periods. Taking into consideration the mapping of 100-year flood area, the study revealed that the fluvial overflows extent towards the banks of Ourika and consequently, affects some living areas, cultivated fields and the roads that connects the valley to the city of Marrakech. The aim of this study is to propose new technics of the flood risk management allowing a better planning of the flooded areas.

  20. Return period assessment of urban pluvial floods through modelling of rainfall–flood response

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tuyls, Damian Murla; Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Rasmussen, Michael Robdrup

    2018-01-01

    Intense rainfall in urban areas can often generate severe flood impacts. Consequently, it is crucial to design systems to minimize potential flood damages. Traditional, simple design of urban drainage systems assumes agreement between rainfall return period and its consequent flood return period......; however, this does not always apply. Hydraulic infrastructures found in urban drainage systems can increase system heterogeneity and perturb the impact of severe rainfall response. In this study, a surface flood return period assessment was carried out at Lystrup (Denmark), which has received the impact...... of flooding in recent years. A 35 years' rainfall dataset together with a coupled 1D/2D surface and network model was used to analyse and assess flood return period response. Results show an ambiguous relation between rainfall and flood return periods indicating that linear rainfall–runoff relationships will...

  1. A knowledge integration approach to flood vulnerability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazzorana, Bruno; Fuchs, Sven

    2014-05-01

    Understanding, qualifying and quantifying vulnerability is an essential need for implementing effective and efficient flood risk mitigation strategies; in particular if possible synergies between different mitigation alternatives, such as active and passive measures, should be achieved. In order to combine different risk management options it is necessary to take an interdisciplinary approach to vulnerability reduction, and as a result the affected society may be willing to accept a certain degree of self-responsibility. However, due to differing mono-disciplinary approaches and regional foci undertaken until now, different aspects of vulnerability to natural hazards in general and to floods in particular remain uncovered and as a result the developed management options remain sub-optimal. Taking an even more fundamental viewpoint, the empirical vulnerability functions used in risk assessment specifically fail to capture physical principles of the damage-generating mechanisms to the build environment. The aim of this paper is to partially close this gap by discussing a balanced knowledge integration approach which can be used to resolve the multidisciplinary disorder in flood vulnerability research. Modelling techniques such as mathematical-physical modelling of the flood hazard impact to and response from the building envelope affected, and formative scenario analyses of possible consequences in terms of damage and loss are used in synergy to provide an enhanced understanding of vulnerability and to render the derived knowledge into interdisciplinary mitigation strategies. The outlined formal procedure allows for a convincing knowledge alignment of quantified, but partial, information about vulnerability as a result of the application of physical and engineering notions and valuable, but often underspecified, qualitative argumentation strings emerging from the adopted socio-economic viewpoint.

  2. Flood Risk Management in the People’s Republic of China: Learning to Live with Flood Risk

    OpenAIRE

    Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB)

    2012-01-01

    This publication presents a shift in the People’s Republic of China from flood control depending on structural measures to integrated flood management using both structural and non-structural measures. The core of the new concept of integrated flood management is flood risk management. Flood risk management is based on an analysis of flood hazard, exposure to flood hazard, and vulnerability of people and property to danger. It is recommended that people learn to live with flood risks, gaining...

  3. Influence of spreading urbanization in flood areas on flood damage in Slovenia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Komac, B; Zorn, M; Natek, K

    2008-01-01

    Damage caused by natural disasters in Slovenia is frequently linked to the ignoring of natural factors in spatial planning. Historically, the construction of buildings and settlements avoided dangerous flood areas, but later we see increasing construction in dangerous areas. During the floods in 1990, the most affected buildings were located on ill-considered locations, and the majority was built in more recent times. A similar situation occurred during the floods of September 2007. Comparing the effects of these floods, we determined that damage was always greater due to the urbanization of flood areas. This process furthermore increasingly limits the 'manoeuvring space' for water management authorities, who due to the torrential nature of Slovenia's rivers can not ensure the required level of safety from flooding for unsuitably located settlements and infrastructure. Every year, the Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia issues more than one thousand permits for interventions in areas that affect the water regime, and through decrees the government allows construction in riparian zones, which is supposedly forbidden by the Law on Water. If we do not take measures with more suitable policies for spatial planning, we will no long have the possibility in future to reduce the negative consequences of floods. Given that torrential floods strike certain Slovene regions every three years on average and that larger floods occur at least once a decade, it is senseless to lay the blame on climate change.

  4. FloodProBE: technologies for improved safety of the built environment in relation to flood events

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ree, C.C.D.F. van; Van, M.A.; Heilemann, K.; Morris, M.W.; Royet, P.; Zevenbergen, C.

    2011-01-01

    The FloodProBE project started as a FP7 research project in November 2009. Floods, together with wind related storms, are considered the major natural hazard in the EU in terms of risk to people and assets. In order to adapt urban areas (in river and coastal zones) to prevent flooding or to be better prepared for floods, decision makers need to determine how to upgrade flood defences and increasing flood resilience of protected buildings and critical infrastructure (power supplies, communications, water, transport, etc.) and assess the expected risk reduction from these measures. The aim of the FloodProBE-project is to improve knowledge on flood resilience and flood protection performance for balancing investments in flood risk management in urban areas. To this end, technologies, methods and tools for assessment purposes and for the adaptation of new and existing buildings and critical infrastructure are developed, tested and disseminated. Three priority areas are addressed by FloodProBE. These are: (i) vulnerability of critical infrastructure and high-density value assets including direct and indirect damage, (ii) the assessment and reliability of urban flood defences including the use of geophysical methods and remote sensing techniques and (iii) concepts and technologies for upgrading weak links in flood defences as well as construction technologies for flood proofing buildings and infrastructure networks to increase the flood resilience of the urban system. The primary impact of FloodProBE in advancing knowledge in these areas is an increase in the cost-effectiveness (i.e. performance) of new and existing flood protection structures and flood resilience measures.

  5. Lambda Station: Alternate network path forwarding for production SciDAC applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grigoriev, Maxim; Bobyshev, Andrey; Crawford, Matt; DeMar, Phil; Grigaliunas, Vyto; Moibenko, Alexander; Petravick, Don; Newman, Harvey; Steenberg, Conrad; Thomas, Michael

    2007-01-01

    The LHC era will start very soon, creating immense data volumes capable of demanding allocation of an entire network circuit for task-driven applications. Circuit-based alternate network paths are one solution to meeting the LHC high bandwidth network requirements. The Lambda Station project is aimed at addressing growing requirements for dynamic allocation of alternate network paths. Lambda Station facilitates the rerouting of designated traffic through site LAN infrastructure onto so-called 'high-impact' wide-area networks. The prototype Lambda Station developed with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach in mind will be presented. Lambda Station has been successfully integrated into the production version of the Storage Resource Manager (SRM), and deployed at US CMS Tier1 center at Fermilab, as well as at US-CMS Tier-2 site at Caltech. This paper will discuss experiences using the prototype system with production SciDAC applications for data movement between Fermilab and Caltech. The architecture and design principles of the production version Lambda Station software, currently being implemented as Java based web services, will also be presented in this paper

  6. Medium range forecasting of Hurricane Harvey flash flooding using ECMWF and social vulnerability data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pillosu, F. M.; Jurlina, T.; Baugh, C.; Tsonevsky, I.; Hewson, T.; Prates, F.; Pappenberger, F.; Prudhomme, C.

    2017-12-01

    During hurricane Harvey the greater east Texas area was affected by extensive flash flooding. Their localised nature meant they were too small for conventional large scale flood forecasting systems to capture. We are testing the use of two real time forecast products from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in combination with local vulnerability information to provide flash flood forecasting tools at the medium range (up to 7 days ahead). Meteorological forecasts are the total precipitation extreme forecast index (EFI), a measure of how the ensemble forecast probability distribution differs from the model-climate distribution for the chosen location, time of year and forecast lead time; and the shift of tails (SOT) which complements the EFI by quantifying how extreme an event could potentially be. Both products give the likelihood of flash flood generating precipitation. For hurricane Harvey, 3-day EFI and SOT products for the period 26th - 29th August 2017 were used, generated from the twice daily, 18 km, 51 ensemble member ECMWF Integrated Forecast System. After regridding to 1 km resolution the forecasts were combined with vulnerable area data to produce a flash flood hazard risk area. The vulnerability data were floodplains (EU Joint Research Centre), road networks (Texas Department of Transport) and urban areas (Census Bureau geographic database), together reflecting the susceptibility to flash floods from the landscape. The flash flood hazard risk area forecasts were verified using a traditional approach against observed National Weather Service flash flood reports, a total of 153 reported flash floods have been detected in that period. Forecasts performed best for SOT = 5 (hit ratio = 65%, false alarm ratio = 44%) and EFI = 0.7 (hit ratio = 74%, false alarm ratio = 45%) at 72 h lead time. By including the vulnerable areas data, our verification results improved by 5-15%, demonstrating the value of vulnerability information within

  7. Flood Finder: Mobile-based automated water level estimation and mapping during floods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pongsiriyaporn, B; Jariyavajee, C; Laoharawee, N; Narkthong, N; Pitichat, T; Goldin, S E

    2014-01-01

    Every year, Southeast Asia faces numerous flooding disasters, resulting in very high human and economic loss. Responding to a sudden flood is difficult due to the lack of accurate and up-to- date information about the incoming water status. We have developed a mobile application called Flood Finder to solve this problem. Flood Finder allows smartphone users to measure, share and search for water level information at specified locations. The application uses image processing to compute the water level from a photo taken by users. The photo must be of a known reference object with a standard size. These water levels are more reliable and consistent than human estimates since they are derived from an algorithmic measuring function. Flood Finder uploads water level readings to the server, where they can be searched and mapped by other users via the mobile phone app or standard browsers. Given the widespread availability of smartphones in Asia, Flood Finder can provide more accurate and up-to-date information for better preparation for a flood disaster as well as life safety and property protection

  8. Estimation of Internal Flooding Frequency for Screening Analysis of Flooding PSA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Sun Yeong; Yang, Jun Eon

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to estimate the internal frequency for the quantitative screening analysis of the flooding PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment) with the appropriate data and estimation method. In the case of the existing flood PSA for domestic NPPs (Nuclear Power Plant), the screening analysis was performed firstly and then detailed analysis was performed for the area not screened out. For the quantitative screening analysis, the plant area based flood frequency by MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation) method was used, while the component based flood frequency is used for the detailed analysis. The existing quantitative screening analysis for domestic NPPs have used data from all LWRs (Light Water Reactor), namely PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) and BWR (Boiling Water Reactor) for the internal flood frequency of the auxiliary building and turbine building. However, in the case of the primary auxiliary building, the applicability of the data from all LWRs needs to be examined carefully because of the significant difference in equipments between the PWR and BWR structure. NUREG/CR-5750 suggested the Bayesian update method with Jeffrey's noninformative prior to estimate the initiating event frequency for the flood. It, however, did not describe any procedure of the flood PSA. Recently, Fleming and Lydell suggested the internal flooding frequency in the unit of the plant operation year-pipe length (in meter) by pipe size of each specific system which is susceptible to the flooding such as the service water system and the circulating water system. They used the failure rate, the rupture conditional probability given the failure to estimate the internal flooding frequency, and the Bayesian update to reduce uncertainties. To perform the quantitative screening analysis with the method, it requires pipe length by each pipe size of the specific system per each divided area to change the concept of the component based frequency to the concept of the plant area

  9. Direct Succinic Acid Production from Minimally Pretreated Biomass Using Sequential Solid-State and Slurry Fermentation with Mixed Fungal Cultures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jerico Alcantara

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Conventional bio-based succinic acid production involves anaerobic bacterial fermentation of pure sugars. This study explored a new route for directly producing succinic acid from minimally-pretreated lignocellulosic biomass via a consolidated bioprocessing technology employing a mixed lignocellulolytic and acidogenic fungal co-culture. The process involved a solid-state pre-fermentation stage followed by a two-phase slurry fermentation stage. During the solid-state pre-fermentation stage, Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma reesei were co-cultured in a nitrogen-rich substrate (e.g., soybean hull to induce cellulolytic enzyme activity. The ligninolytic fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium was grown separately on carbon-rich birch wood chips to induce ligninolytic enzymes, rendering the biomass more susceptible to cellulase attack. The solid-state pre-cultures were then combined in a slurry fermentation culture to achieve simultaneous enzymatic cellulolysis and succinic acid production. This approach generated succinic acid at maximum titers of 32.43 g/L after 72 h of batch slurry fermentation (~10 g/L production, and 61.12 g/L after 36 h of addition of fresh birch wood chips at the onset of the slurry fermentation stage (~26 g/L production. Based on this result, this approach is a promising alternative to current bacterial succinic acid production due to its minimal substrate pretreatment requirements, which could reduce production costs.

  10. Amplification of flood frequencies with local sea level rise and emerging flood regimes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchanan, Maya K.; Oppenheimer, Michael; Kopp, Robert E.

    2017-06-01

    The amplification of flood frequencies by sea level rise (SLR) is expected to become one of the most economically damaging impacts of climate change for many coastal locations. Understanding the magnitude and pattern by which the frequency of current flood levels increase is important for developing more resilient coastal settlements, particularly since flood risk management (e.g. infrastructure, insurance, communications) is often tied to estimates of flood return periods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report characterized the multiplication factor by which the frequency of flooding of a given height increases (referred to here as an amplification factor; AF). However, this characterization neither rigorously considered uncertainty in SLR nor distinguished between the amplification of different flooding levels (such as the 10% versus 0.2% annual chance floods); therefore, it may be seriously misleading. Because both historical flood frequency and projected SLR are uncertain, we combine joint probability distributions of the two to calculate AFs and their uncertainties over time. Under probabilistic relative sea level projections, while maintaining storm frequency fixed, we estimate a median 40-fold increase (ranging from 1- to 1314-fold) in the expected annual number of local 100-year floods for tide-gauge locations along the contiguous US coastline by 2050. While some places can expect disproportionate amplification of higher frequency events and thus primarily a greater number of historically precedented floods, others face amplification of lower frequency events and thus a particularly fast growing risk of historically unprecedented flooding. For example, with 50 cm of SLR, the 10%, 1%, and 0.2% annual chance floods are expected respectively to recur 108, 335, and 814 times as often in Seattle, but 148, 16, and 4 times as often in Charleston, SC.

  11. Effects of the floods on dysentery in north central region of Henan Province, China from 2004 to 2009.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Wei; Ding, Guoyong; Li, Yifei; Li, Hongkai; Liu, Qiyong; Jiang, Baofa

    2014-11-01

    Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Xinxiang, the cities in the north central region of Henan Province, suffered from many times floods from 2004 to 2009. We focused on dysentery disease consequences of floods and examined the association between floods and the morbidity of dysentery, based on a longitudinal data. A generalized additive mixed model was conducted to examine the relationship between the monthly morbidity of dysentery and floods from 2004 to 2009 in the study areas. The relative risks (RRs) of the floods risk on the morbidity of dysentery were estimated in each city and the whole region. The RRs on dysentery were 11.47 (95% CI: 8.67-15.33), 1.35 (95% CI: 1.23-3.90) and 2.75 (95% CI: 1.36-4.85) in Kaifeng, Xinxiang and Zhengzhou, respectively. The RR on dysentery in the whole region was 1.66 (95% CI: 1.52-1.82). Our study confirms that flooding has significantly increased the risk of dysentery in the study areas. Additionally, we observed that a sudden and severe flooding can contribute more risk to the morbidity of dysentery than a persistent and moderate flooding. Our findings have significant implications for developing strategies to prevent and reduce health impact of floods. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  12. Potential Use Of Carbide Lime Waste As An Alternative Material To Conventional Hydrated Lime Of Cement-Lime Mortars

    OpenAIRE

    Al Khaja, Waheeb A.

    1992-01-01

    The present study aimed at the possibility of using the carbide lime waste as an alternative material to the conventional lime used for cement-lime mortar. The waste is a by-product obtained in the generation of acetylene from calcium carbide. Physical and chemical properties of the wastes were studied. Two cement-lime-sand mix proportions containing carbide lime waste were compared with the same mix proportions containing conventional lime along with a control mix without lime. Specimens wer...

  13. Distillation Column Flooding Predictor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    George E. Dzyacky

    2010-11-23

    The Flooding Predictor™ is a patented advanced control technology proven in research at the Separations Research Program, University of Texas at Austin, to increase distillation column throughput by over 6%, while also increasing energy efficiency by 10%. The research was conducted under a U. S. Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement awarded to George Dzyacky of 2ndpoint, LLC. The Flooding Predictor™ works by detecting the incipient flood point and controlling the column closer to its actual hydraulic limit than historical practices have allowed. Further, the technology uses existing column instrumentation, meaning no additional refining infrastructure is required. Refiners often push distillation columns to maximize throughput, improve separation, or simply to achieve day-to-day optimization. Attempting to achieve such operating objectives is a tricky undertaking that can result in flooding. Operators and advanced control strategies alike rely on the conventional use of delta-pressure instrumentation to approximate the column’s approach to flood. But column delta-pressure is more an inference of the column’s approach to flood than it is an actual measurement of it. As a consequence, delta pressure limits are established conservatively in order to operate in a regime where the column is never expected to flood. As a result, there is much “left on the table” when operating in such a regime, i.e. the capacity difference between controlling the column to an upper delta-pressure limit and controlling it to the actual hydraulic limit. The Flooding Predictor™, an innovative pattern recognition technology, controls columns at their actual hydraulic limit, which research shows leads to a throughput increase of over 6%. Controlling closer to the hydraulic limit also permits operation in a sweet spot of increased energy-efficiency. In this region of increased column loading, the Flooding Predictor is able to exploit the benefits of higher liquid

  14. A Basis Function Approach to Simulate Storm Surge Events for Coastal Flood Risk Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Wenyan; Westra, Seth; Leonard, Michael

    2017-04-01

    Storm surge is a significant contributor to flooding in coastal and estuarine regions, especially when it coincides with other flood producing mechanisms, such as extreme rainfall. Therefore, storm surge has always been a research focus in coastal flood risk assessment. Often numerical models have been developed to understand storm surge events for risk assessment (Kumagai et al. 2016; Li et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2016) (Bastidas et al. 2016; Bilskie et al. 2016; Dalledonne and Mayerle 2016; Haigh et al. 2014; Kodaira et al. 2016; Lapetina and Sheng 2015), and assess how these events may change or evolve in the future (Izuru et al. 2015; Oey and Chou 2016). However, numeric models often require a lot of input information and difficulties arise when there are not sufficient data available (Madsen et al. 2015). Alternative, statistical methods have been used to forecast storm surge based on historical data (Hashemi et al. 2016; Kim et al. 2016) or to examine the long term trend in the change of storm surge events, especially under climate change (Balaguru et al. 2016; Oh et al. 2016; Rueda et al. 2016). In these studies, often the peak of surge events is used, which result in the loss of dynamic information within a tidal cycle or surge event (i.e. a time series of storm surge values). In this study, we propose an alternative basis function (BF) based approach to examine the different attributes (e.g. peak and durations) of storm surge events using historical data. Two simple two-parameter BFs were used: the exponential function and the triangular function. High quality hourly storm surge record from 15 tide gauges around Australia were examined. It was found that there are significantly location and seasonal variability in the peak and duration of storm surge events, which provides additional insights in coastal flood risk. In addition, the simple form of these BFs allows fast simulation of storm surge events and minimises the complexity of joint probability

  15. Bar deposition in glacial outburst floods: scaling, post-flood reworking, and implications for the geomorphological and sedimentary record

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marren, Philip

    2016-04-01

    The appearance of a flood deposit in the geomorphological and sedimentary record is a product of both the processes operating during the flood, and those that occur afterwards and which overprint the deposit with a record of 'normal' processes. This paper describes the creation and modification of jökulhlaup barforms in the Skeiðará river, relating the changes to post-flood fluvial processes and glacier retreat. Large compound bars formed from the amalgamation of unit bars up to 1.5 km long. Nearly half of the total discharge of the November 1996 jökulhlaup on Skeiðarársandur was discharged through the Skeiðará river. The flood deposits have been extensively reworked since, up until 2009 when the channel was abandoned, effectively leaving the Skeiðará as a terrace, when retreat of Skeiðarárjökull directed meltwater to the adjacent Gígjukvísl river system. Large compound bars formed in the flood channel, with their location governed by the macro-scale topography of the flood channel, and their size by upstream channel width in accordance with bar-scaling theory. Jökulhlaup bars are therefore scale invariant and formed in a similar fashion to braid bars in non-jökulhlaup braided rivers. Post-flood fragmentation and reworking of the bars consistently increased the length-width ratio of preserved bar fragments from approximately two and one half to over five. When combined with earlier work on the Skeiðará jökulhlaup bars, and studies of jökulhlaup deposits elsewhere on Skeiðarársandur these observations increase our understanding of the preservation potential and final form of jökulhlaup deposits and provide the basis for an improved model for the recognition of jökulhlaup deposits in the geomorphological and sedimentary record.

  16. Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum aimed at alternative carbon sources and new products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volker Fritz Wendisch

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Corynebacterium glutamicum is well known as the amino acid-producing workhorse of fermentation industry, being used for multi-million-ton scale production of glutamate and lysine for more than 60 years. However, it is only recently that extensive research has focused on engineering it beyond the scope of amino acids. Meanwhile, a variety of corynebacterial strains allows access to alternative carbon sources and/or allows production of a wide range of industrially relevant compounds. Some of these efforts set new standards in terms of titers and productivities achieved whereas others represent a proof-of-principle. These achievements manifest the position of C. glutamicum as an important industrial microorganism with capabilities far beyond the traditional amino acid production. In this review we focus on the state of the art of metabolic engineering of C. glutamicum for utilization of alternative carbon sources, (e.g. coming from wastes and unprocessed sources, and construction of C. glutamicum strains for production of new products such as diamines, organic acids and alcohols.

  17. Coastal risk management: how to motivate individual economic decisions to lower flood risk?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Filatova, Tatiana; Mulder, J.P.M. P.M.; van der Veen, A.

    2011-01-01

    Coastal flood risk is defined as a product of probability of event and its effect, measured in terms of damage. The paper is focused on coastal management strategies aimed to decrease risk by decreasing potential damage. We review socio-economic literature to show that total flood damage depends on

  18. Impacts of repetitive floods and satisfaction with flood relief efforts: A case study of the flood-prone districts in Thailand’s Ayutthaya province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nawhath Thanvisitthpon

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This research investigates the impacts of the repetitive flooding on the inhabitants of the four flood-prone districts in Thailand’s central province of Ayutthaya: Pranakorn Si Ayutthaya, Sena, Bang Ban, and Pak Hai. In addition, the residents’ satisfaction levels with the flood relief efforts and operations of the local authorities were examined and analyzed. The research revealed that most local residents have adapted to co-exist with the repetitive floods, an example of which is the elevation of the houses a few meters above the ground where the living quarter is on the upper level. The findings also indicated that the repetitive flooding incurred substantial post-flood repair costs, in light of the low income-earning capabilities of the locals. However, the flood-recovery financial aids was incommensurate with the actual expenditures, contributing to the lowest average satisfaction score among the inhabitants with regard to the adequacy of the post-flood repair and restoration financial aid. Furthermore, the research identified the differences between districts on the satisfaction with the flood relief efforts. The disparity could be attributed to the extent of coordination and participation of the local residents and their local leaders in the flood-related measures.

  19. Urban pluvial flood prediction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Nielsen, Jesper Ellerbæk; Jensen, David Getreuer

    2016-01-01

    Flooding produced by high-intensive local rainfall and drainage system capacity exceedance can have severe impacts in cities. In order to prepare cities for these types of flood events – especially in the future climate – it is valuable to be able to simulate these events numerically both...... historically and in real-time. There is a rather untested potential in real-time prediction of urban floods. In this paper radar data observations with different spatial and temporal resolution, radar nowcasts of 0–2 h lead time, and numerical weather models with lead times up to 24 h are used as inputs...... to an integrated flood and drainage systems model in order to investigate the relative difference between different inputs in predicting future floods. The system is tested on a small town Lystrup in Denmark, which has been flooded in 2012 and 2014. Results show it is possible to generate detailed flood maps...

  20. FLOOD MENACE IN KADUNA METROPOLIS: IMPACTS ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Dr A.B.Ahmed

    damage, causes of flooding, human response to flooding and severity of ... from moving out. Source of ... Man responds to flood hazards through adjustment, flood abatement ... action to minimize or ameliorate flood hazards; flood abatement.

  1. Methane hydrate dissociation using inverted five-spot water flooding method in cubic hydrate simulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Gang; Li, Xiao-Sen; Li, Bo; Wang, Yi

    2014-01-01

    The combination forms of the hydrate dissociation methods in different well systems are divided into 6 main patterns. Dissociation processes of methane hydrate in porous media using the inverted five-spot water flooding method (Pattern 4) are investigated by the experimental observation and numerical simulation. In situ methane hydrate is synthesized in the Cubic Hydrate Simulator (CHS), a 5.832-L cubic reactor. A center vertical well is used as the hot water injection well, while the four vertical wells at the corner are the gas and water production wells. The gas production begins simultaneously with the hot water injection, while after approximately 20 min of compression, the water begins to be produced. One of the common characteristics of the inverted five-spot water flooding method is that both the gas and water production rates decrease with the reduction of the hydrate dissociation rate. The evaluation of the energy efficiency ratio might indicate the inverted five-spot water flooding as a promising gas producing method from the hydrate reservoir. - Highlights: • A three-dimensional 5.8-L cubic pressure vessel is developed. • Gas production of hydrate using inverted five-spot flooding method is studied. • Water/gas production rate and energy efficiency ratio are evaluated. • Temperature distributions of numerical simulation and experiment agree well. • Hydrate dissociation process is a moving boundary problem in this study

  2. Urban flood return period assessment through rainfall-flood response modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murla Tuyls, Damian; Thorndahl, Søren

    2017-04-01

    Intense rainfall can often cause severe floods, especially in urbanized areas, where population density or large impermeable areas are found. In this context, floods can generate a direct impact in a social-environmental-economic viewpoint. Traditionally, in design of Urban Drainage Systems (UDS), correlation between return period (RP) of a given rainfall and RP of its consequent flood has been assumed to be linear (e.g. DS/EN752 (2008)). However, this is not always the case. Complex UDS, where diverse hydraulic infrastructures are often found, increase the heterogeneity of system response, which may cause an alteration of the mentioned correlation. Consequently, reliability on future urban planning, design and resilience against floods may be also affected by this misassumption. In this study, an assessment of surface flood RP across rainfall RP has been carried out at Lystrup, a urbanized catchment area of 440ha and 10.400inhab. located in Jutland (Denmark), which has received the impact of several pluvial flooding in the last recent years. A historical rainfall dataset from the last 35 years from two different rain gauges located at 2 and 10 km from the study area has been provided by the Danish Wastewater Pollution Committee and the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI). The most extreme 25 rainfall events have been selected through a two-step multi-criteria procedure, ensuring an adequate variability of rainfall, from extreme high peak storms with a short duration to moderate rainfall with longer duration. In addition, a coupled 1D/2D surface and network UDS model of the catchment area developed in an integrated MIKE URBAN and MIKE Flood model (DHI 2014), considering both permeable and impermeable areas, in combination with a DTM (2x2m res.) has been used to study and assess in detail flood RP. Results show an ambiguous relation between rainfall RP and flood response. Local flood levels, flood area and volume RP estimates should therefore not be neglected in

  3. Flood-Exposure Is Associated with Higher Prevalence of Child Undernutrition in Rural Eastern India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez-Llanes, Jose Manuel; Ranjan-Dash, Shishir; Mukhopadhyay, Alok; Guha-Sapir, Debarati

    2016-01-01

    alternative adjusted models and in propensity score matching analyses. For similar analyses, no significant associations were found for child stunting, and more moderate effects were observed in the case of child underweight. Conclusions: Particularly in low-resource or subsistence-farming rural settings, long-lasting nutritional response in the aftermath of floods should be seriously considered to counteract the long-term nutritional effects on children, particularly infants, and include their mothers on whom they are dependent. The systematic monitoring of nutritional status in these groups might help to tailor efficient responses in each particular context. PMID:26861372

  4. Characterization of remarkable floods in France, a transdisciplinary approach applied on generalized floods of January 1910

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boudou, Martin; Lang, Michel; Vinet, Freddy; Coeur, Denis

    2014-05-01

    The 2007 Flood Directive promotes the integration and valorization of historical and significant floods in flood risk management (Flood Directive Text, chapter II, and article 4). Taking into account extreme past floods analysis seems necessary in the mitigation process of vulnerability face to flooding risk. In France, this aspect of the Directive was carried out through the elaboration of Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) and the establishment of a 2000 floods list. From this first list, a sample of 176 floods, considered as remarkable has been selected. These floods were compiled in discussion with local authorities in charge of flood management (Lang et al., 2012) and have to be integrated in priority in local risk management policies. However, a consideration emerges about this classification: how a remarkable flood can be defined? According which criteria can it be considered as remarkable? To answer these questions, a methodology has been established by building an evaluation grid of remarkable floods in France. The primary objective of this grid is to analyze the remarkable flood's characteristics (hydrological and meteorological characteristics, sociological- political and economic impacts), and secondly to propose a classification of significant floods selected in the 2011 PFRA. To elaborate this evaluation grid, several issues had to be taken into account. First, the objective is to allow the comparison of events from various periods. These temporal disparities include the integration of various kinds of data and point out the importance of historical hydrology. It is possible to evaluate accurately the characteristics of recent floods by interpreting quantitative data (for example hydrological records. However, for floods that occurred before the 1960's it is necessary resorting to qualitative information such as written sources is necessary (Coeur, Lang, 2008). In a second part the evaluation grid requires equitable criteria in order not to

  5. Do flood risk perceptions provide useful insights for flood risk management? Findings from central Vietnam

    OpenAIRE

    Bubeck, P.; Botzen, W.J.W.; Suu, L.T.T.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.

    2012-01-01

    Following the renewed attention for non-structural flood risk reduction measures implemented at the household level, there has been an increased interest in individual flood risk perceptions. The reason for this is the commonly-made assumption that flood risk perceptions drive the motivation of individuals to undertake flood risk mitigation measures, as well as the public's demand for flood protection, and therefore provide useful insights for flood risk management. This study empirically exa...

  6. A comparative assessment of decision trees algorithms for flash flood susceptibility modeling at Haraz watershed, northern Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khosravi, Khabat; Pham, Binh Thai; Chapi, Kamran; Shirzadi, Ataollah; Shahabi, Himan; Revhaug, Inge; Prakash, Indra; Tien Bui, Dieu

    2018-06-15

    Floods are one of the most damaging natural hazards causing huge loss of property, infrastructure and lives. Prediction of occurrence of flash flood locations is very difficult due to sudden change in climatic condition and manmade factors. However, prior identification of flood susceptible areas can be done with the help of machine learning techniques for proper timely management of flood hazards. In this study, we tested four decision trees based machine learning models namely Logistic Model Trees (LMT), Reduced Error Pruning Trees (REPT), Naïve Bayes Trees (NBT), and Alternating Decision Trees (ADT) for flash flood susceptibility mapping at the Haraz Watershed in the northern part of Iran. For this, a spatial database was constructed with 201 present and past flood locations and eleven flood-influencing factors namely ground slope, altitude, curvature, Stream Power Index (SPI), Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), land use, rainfall, river density, distance from river, lithology, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Statistical evaluation measures, the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, and Freidman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to validate and compare the prediction capability of the models. Results show that the ADT model has the highest prediction capability for flash flood susceptibility assessment, followed by the NBT, the LMT, and the REPT, respectively. These techniques have proven successful in quickly determining flood susceptible areas. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Integration of Grid and Sensor Web for Flood Monitoring and Risk Assessment from Heterogeneous Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kussul, Nataliia; Skakun, Sergii; Shelestov, Andrii

    2013-04-01

    Over last decades we have witnessed the upward global trend in natural disaster occurrence. Hydrological and meteorological disasters such as floods are the main contributors to this pattern. In recent years flood management has shifted from protection against floods to managing the risks of floods (the European Flood risk directive). In order to enable operational flood monitoring and assessment of flood risk, it is required to provide an infrastructure with standardized interfaces and services. Grid and Sensor Web can meet these requirements. In this paper we present a general approach to flood monitoring and risk assessment based on heterogeneous geospatial data acquired from multiple sources. To enable operational flood risk assessment integration of Grid and Sensor Web approaches is proposed [1]. Grid represents a distributed environment that integrates heterogeneous computing and storage resources administrated by multiple organizations. SensorWeb is an emerging paradigm for integrating heterogeneous satellite and in situ sensors and data systems into a common informational infrastructure that produces products on demand. The basic Sensor Web functionality includes sensor discovery, triggering events by observed or predicted conditions, remote data access and processing capabilities to generate and deliver data products. Sensor Web is governed by the set of standards, called Sensor Web Enablement (SWE), developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Different practical issues regarding integration of Sensor Web with Grids are discussed in the study. We show how the Sensor Web can benefit from using Grids and vice versa. For example, Sensor Web services such as SOS, SPS and SAS can benefit from the integration with the Grid platform like Globus Toolkit. The proposed approach is implemented within the Sensor Web framework for flood monitoring and risk assessment, and a case-study of exploiting this framework, namely the Namibia SensorWeb Pilot Project, is

  8. Flooding and mass transfer in Goodloe-packed columns, Part 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ayala, J.S.; Brian, B.W.; Sharon, A.C.

    1977-01-01

    Krypton gas is recovered from HTGR off-gas streams by countercurrent absorption in liquid carbon dioxide. Goodloe stainless steel wire mesh packing was chosen for the absorption columns since the process operates at -20 0 C and about 20 atm pressure. Flooding points and an overall mass transfer coefficient for Goodloe-packed columns were determined with a carbon dioxide-air-water system for 6.4 and 15.2-cm-ID columns. Flood points were obtained for liquid-to-gas mass velocity ratios of 20 to 800. A mixing model, assuming plug flow for the gas and dispersed flow for the liquid, was used to calculate an overall mass transfer coefficient, K/sub L/a. K/sub L/a, based on mass concentrations, ranged from 0.01 to 0.08 sec/sup -T/ and was found to increase with increasing liquid flow rate

  9. Why continuous simulation? The role of antecedent moisture in design flood estimation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pathiraja, S.; Westra, S.; Sharma, A.

    2012-06-01

    Continuous simulation for design flood estimation is increasingly becoming a viable alternative to traditional event-based methods. The advantage of continuous simulation approaches is that the catchment moisture state prior to the flood-producing rainfall event is implicitly incorporated within the modeling framework, provided the model has been calibrated and validated to produce reasonable simulations. This contrasts with event-based models in which both information about the expected sequence of rainfall and evaporation preceding the flood-producing rainfall event, as well as catchment storage and infiltration properties, are commonly pooled together into a single set of "loss" parameters which require adjustment through the process of calibration. To identify the importance of accounting for antecedent moisture in flood modeling, this paper uses a continuous rainfall-runoff model calibrated to 45 catchments in the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia. Flood peaks derived using the historical daily rainfall record are compared with those derived using resampled daily rainfall, for which the sequencing of wet and dry days preceding the heavy rainfall event is removed. The analysis shows that there is a consistent underestimation of the design flood events when antecedent moisture is not properly simulated, which can be as much as 30% when only 1 or 2 days of antecedent rainfall are considered, compared to 5% when this is extended to 60 days of prior rainfall. These results show that, in general, it is necessary to consider both short-term memory in rainfall associated with synoptic scale dependence, as well as longer-term memory at seasonal or longer time scale variability in order to obtain accurate design flood estimates.

  10. Interpreting the impact of flood forecasts by combining policy analysis studies and flood defence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Slomp Robert

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Flood forecasting is necessary to save lives and reduce damages. Reducing damages is important to save livelihoods and to reduce the recovery time. Flood alerts should contain expected time of the event, location and extent of the event. A flood alert is not only one message but part of a rehearsed flow of information using multiple canals. First people have to accept the fact that there might be a threat and what the threat is about. People need a reference to understand the situation and be aware of possible measures they can take to assure their own safety and reduce damages. Information to the general public has to be consistent with the information used by emergency services and has to be very clear about consequences and context of possible measures (as shelter in place or preventive evacuation. Emergency services should monitor how the public is responding to adapt their communication en operation during a crisis. Flood warnings and emergency services are often coordinated by different government organisations. This is an extra handicap for having consistent information out on time for people to use. In an information based society, where everyone has twitter, email and a camera, public organisations may have to trust the public more and send out the correct information as it comes in. In the Netherlands Rijkswaterstaat, the National Water Authority and the National Public Works Department, is responsible for or involved in forecasting in case of floods, policy studies on flood risk, policy studies on maintenance, assessment and design of flood defences, elaborating rules and regulations for flood defences, advice on crisis management to the national government and for maintaining the main infrastructure in the Netherlands (high ways and water ways. The Water Management Center in the Netherlands (WMCN has developed a number of models to provide flood forecasts. WMCN is run for and by all managers of flood defences and is hosted by

  11. Iowa Flood Information System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.; Goska, R.; Mantilla, R.; Weber, L. J.; Young, N.

    2011-12-01

    The Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. Simple 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for around 500 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert communities

  12. Aquatic chemistry of flood events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klavins, Maris; Rodinov, Valery

    2015-04-01

    During flood events a major discharge of water and dissolved substances happens. However flood waters very much differs from water composition during low-water events. Aquatic chemistry of flood waters also is of importance at the calculation of loadings as well as they might have major impact on water quality in receiving water bodies (lakes, coastal waters and seas). Further flood regime of rivers is subjected to changes due to climate change and growing impact of human activities. The aim of this study is to analyse water chemical composition changes during flood events in respect to low water periods, character of high-water events and characteristics of the corresponding basin. Within this study, the concentrations of major dissolved substances in the major rivers of Latvia have been studied using monitoring data as well as field studies during high water/ low water events. As territories of studies flows of substances in river basins/subbasins with different land-use character and different anthropogenic impacts has been studied to calculate export values depending on the land-use character. Impact of relations between dissolved substances and relations in respect to budgets has been calculated. The dynamics of DOC, nutrient and major dissolved substance flows depending on landuse pattern and soil properties in Latvia has been described, including emissions by industrial and agricultural production. In these changes evidently climate change signals can be identified. The water chemistry of a large number of rivers during flood events has been determined and the possible impact of water chemical composition on DOC and nutrient flows has been evaluated. Long-term changes (1977-2013) of concentrations of dissolved substances do not follow linear trends but rather show oscillating patterns, indicating impact of natural factors, e.g. changing hydrological and climatic conditions. There is a positive correlation between content of inert dissolved substances and

  13. Impact of product mix and markets on the economic feasibility of hardwood thinning

    Science.gov (United States)

    John E. Baumgras; Chris B. LeDoux

    1989-01-01

    Results demonstrate how the economic feasibility of commercial hardwood thinning is impacted by tree diameter, product mix, and primary product markets. These results indicate that multiproduct harvesting can increase revenues by $0.01/ft³ to $0.32/ft³; and that small shifts in price levels or haul distance can postpone commercial thinning...

  14. Influence of Sea Ice Crack Formation on the Spatial Distribution of Nutrients and Microalgae in Flooded Antarctic Multiyear Ice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nomura, Daiki; Aoki, Shigeru; Simizu, Daisuke; Iida, Takahiro

    2018-02-01

    Cracks are common and natural features of sea ice formed in the polar oceans. In this study, a sea ice crack in flooded, multiyear, land-fast Antarctic sea ice was examined to assess its influence on biological productivity and the transport of nutrients and microalgae into the upper layers of neighboring sea ice. The water inside the crack and the surrounding host ice were characterized by a strong discoloration (brown color), an indicator of a massive algal bloom. Salinity and oxygen isotopic ratio measurements indicated that 64-84% of the crack water consisted of snow meltwater supplied during the melt season. Measurements of nutrient and chlorophyll a concentrations within the slush layer pool (the flooded layer at the snow-ice interface) revealed the intrusion of water from the crack, likely forced by mixing with underlying seawater during the tidal cycle. Our results suggest that sea ice crack formation provides conditions favorable for algal blooms by directly exposing the crack water to sunlight and supplying nutrients from the under-ice water. Subsequently, constituents of the crack water modified by biological activity were transported into the upper layer of the flooded sea ice. They were then preserved in the multiyear ice column formed by upward growth of sea ice caused by snow ice formation in areas of significant snow accumulation.

  15. LCA of pork products & evaluation of alternative super-chilling techniques

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bonou, Alexandra; Birkved, Morten

    after cooling technologies, which affect the products’ shelf life: The purpose is to identify the technology leading to least environmental impacts in a life cycle perspective; also to facilitate a benchmarking of these technologies relative to existing after-cooling approaches i.e. freezing.......This LCA study has two aims: 1) The environmental assessment of Danish pork products (Danish Landrace breed): The purpose is to put the pork production system into perspective and to identify the relative contribution of different life cycle stages; 2) The comparative assessment of alternative...

  16. Green technological change. Renewable energies, policy mix and innovation. Results of the GRETCHEN project on the impact of policy mixes on the technological and structural change in renewable energy electricity production technologies in Germany

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rogge, Karoline S.; Breitschopf, Barbara; Mattes, Katharina; Cantner, Uwe; Graf, Holger; Herrmann, Johannes; Kalthaus, Martin; Lutz, Christian; Wiebe, Kirsten

    2015-09-01

    The report on the GRETCHEN project that was concerned with the impact of policy mixes on the technological and structural change in renewable energy electricity production technologies in Germany covers the following issues: market and technology development of renewable energy electricity production technologies; the policy mix for renewable electricity production technologies, innovative impact of the policy mix; subordinate conclusions for politics and research.

  17. Design flood hydrographs from the relationship between flood peak and volume

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Mediero

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Hydrological frequency analyses are usually focused on flood peaks. Flood volumes and durations have not been studied as extensively, although there are many practical situations, such as when designing a dam, in which the full hydrograph is of interest. A flood hydrograph may be described by a multivariate function of the peak, volume and duration. Most standard bivariate and trivariate functions do not produce univariate three-parameter functions as marginal distributions, however, three-parameter functions are required to fit highly skewed data, such as flood peak and flood volume series. In this paper, the relationship between flood peak and hydrograph volume is analysed to overcome this problem. A Monte Carlo experiment was conducted to generate an ensemble of hydrographs that maintain the statistical properties of marginal distributions of the peaks, volumes and durations. This ensemble can be applied to determine the Design Flood Hydrograph (DFH for a reservoir, which is not a unique hydrograph, but rather a curve in the peak-volume space. All hydrographs on that curve have the same return period, which can be understood as the inverse of the probability to exceed a certain water level in the reservoir in any given year. The procedure can also be applied to design the length of the spillway crest in terms of the risk of exceeding a given water level in the reservoir.

  18. Flood and Weather Monitoring Using Real-time Twitter Data Streams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demir, I.; Sit, M. A.; Sermet, M. Y.

    2016-12-01

    Social media data is a widely used source to making inference within public crisis periods and events in disaster times. Specifically, since Twitter provides large-scale data publicly in real-time, it is one of the most extensive resources with location information. This abstract provides an overview of a real-time Twitter analysis system to support flood preparedness and response using a comprehensive information-centric flood ontology and natural language processing. Within the scope of this project, we deal with acquisition and processing of real-time Twitter data streams. System fetches the tweets with specified keywords and classifies them as related to flooding or heavy weather conditions. The system uses machine learning algorithms to discover patterns using the correlation between tweets and Iowa Flood Information System's (IFIS) extensive resources. The system uses these patterns to forecast the formation and progress of a potential future flood event. While fetching tweets, predefined hashtags are used for filtering and enhancing the relevancy for selected tweets. With this project, tweets can also be used as an alternative data source where other data sources are not sufficient for specific tasks. During the disasters, the photos that people upload alongside their tweets can be collected and placed to appropriate locations on a mapping system. This allows decision making authorities and communities to see the most recent outlook of the disaster interactively. In case of an emergency, concentration of tweets can help the authorities to determine a strategy on how to reach people most efficiently while providing them the supplies they need. Thanks to the extendable nature of the flood ontology and framework, results from this project will be a guide for other natural disasters, and will be shared with the community.

  19. Flood action plans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Slopek, R.J.

    1995-01-01

    Safe operating procedures developed by TransAlta Utilities for dealing with flooding, resulting from upstream dam failures or extreme rainfalls, were presented. Several operating curves developed by Monenco AGRA were described, among them the No Overtopping Curve (NOC), the Safe Filling Curve (SFC), the No Spill Curve (NSC) and the Guaranteed Fill Curve (GFC). The concept of an operational comfort zone was developed and defined. A flood action plan for all operating staff was created as a guide in case of a flooding incident. Staging of a flood action plan workshop was described. Dam break scenarios pertinent to the Bow River were developed for subsequent incorporation into a Flood Action Plan Manual. Evaluation of the technical presentations made during workshops were found them to have been effective in providing operating staff with a better understanding of the procedures that they would perform in an emergency. 8 figs

  20. Dendrogeomorphic analysis of flash floods in a small ungauged mountain catchment (Central Spain)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruiz-Villanueva, Virginia; Díez-Herrero, Andrés; Stoffel, Markus; Bollschweiler, Michelle; Bodoque, José M.; Ballesteros, Juan A.

    2010-06-01

    Flash floods represent one of the most significant natural hazards with serious death tolls and economic damage at a worldwide level in general and in Mediterranean mountain catchments in particular. In these environments, systematic data is often lacking and analyses have to be based on alternative approaches such as dendrogeomorphology. In this study, we focus on the identification of flash floods based on growth disturbances (GD) observed in 98 heavily affected Mediterranean pine trees ( Pinus pinaster Ait.) located in or next to the torrential channel of the Pelayo River in the Spanish Central System. Flash floods are quite common in this catchment and are triggered by heavy storms, with high discharge and debris transport rates favoured by high stream gradients. Comparison of the anomalies in tree morphology and the position of the trees in the channel showed that the intensity of the disturbance clearly depends on geomorphology. The dating of past flash flood events was based on the number and intensity of GD observed in the tree-ring series and on the spatial distribution of affected trees along the torrent, thus allowing seven flash flood events during the last 50 years to be dated, namely in 1963, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1996, 2000, and 2005.

  1. Prediction of polymer flooding performance using an analytical method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tan Czek Hoong; Mariyamni Awang; Foo Kok Wai

    2001-01-01

    The study investigated the applicability of an analytical method developed by El-Khatib in polymer flooding. Results from a simulator UTCHEM and experiments were compared with the El-Khatib prediction method. In general, by assuming a constant viscosity polymer injection, the method gave much higher recovery values than the simulation runs and the experiments. A modification of the method gave better correlation, albeit only oil production. Investigation is continuing on modifying the method so that a better overall fit can be obtained for polymer flooding. (Author)

  2. The development of flood map in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zakaria, Siti Fairus; Zin, Rosli Mohamad; Mohamad, Ismail; Balubaid, Saeed; Mydin, Shaik Hussein; MDR, E. M. Roodienyanto

    2017-11-01

    In Malaysia, flash floods are common occurrences throughout the year in flood prone areas. In terms of flood extent, flash floods affect smaller areas but because of its tendency to occur in densely urbanized areas, the value of damaged property is high and disruption to traffic flow and businesses are substantial. However, in river floods especially the river floods of Kelantan and Pahang, the flood extent is widespread and can extend over 1,000 square kilometers. Although the value of property and density of affected population is lower, the damage inflicted by these floods can also be high because the area affected is large. In order to combat these floods, various flood mitigation measures have been carried out. Structural flood mitigation alone can only provide protection levels from 10 to 100 years Average Recurrence Intervals (ARI). One of the economically effective non-structural approaches in flood mitigation and flood management is using a geospatial technology which involves flood forecasting and warning services to the flood prone areas. This approach which involves the use of Geographical Information Flood Forecasting system also includes the generation of a series of flood maps. There are three types of flood maps namely Flood Hazard Map, Flood Risk Map and Flood Evacuation Map. Flood Hazard Map is used to determine areas susceptible to flooding when discharge from a stream exceeds the bank-full stage. Early warnings of incoming flood events will enable the flood victims to prepare themselves before flooding occurs. Properties and life's can be saved by keeping their movable properties above the flood levels and if necessary, an early evacuation from the area. With respect to flood fighting, an early warning with reference through a series of flood maps including flood hazard map, flood risk map and flood evacuation map of the approaching flood should be able to alert the organization in charge of the flood fighting actions and the authority to

  3. Feasibility of oil recovery by chemical flooding through horizontal wells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    El-Abbas, A.M.; El-Sallaly, M. E.; Sayyouh, M. H.; El-Batanony, M. H.; Darwich, T. M.; Desouky, S. M. [Cairo Univ (Egypt)

    1998-12-31

    Crude oil production in the Gulf of Suez by polymer, surfactant, and surfactant/polymer flooding from a horizontal well in a scaled five-spot sandpacked model was studied. The suitability of the enhanced oil recovery predictive models, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, was investigated for their ability to predict the experimental data and to assess the feasibility of oil recovery by chemical flooding. Good agreement was found between the predicted and experimental values. Experimental results showed that oil recovery was significantly affected by the physical properties of the crude oil and chemical solutions; that oil recovery was higher for a polymer flooding than for a surfactant flooding operation; and that oil recovery was improved by increasing the perforated length ratio up to a value of 0.81. A tendency for oil recovery to decrease was observed when the horizontal well was positioned below or above the central axis path of the formation at the advanced injection stages; and oil recovery by surfactant or polymer flooding was significantly affected by the onset timing of the surfactant or polymer slug injection. The oil-water bank stability in surfactant and polymer flooding processes was found to be dependent on slug size and slug injection time. 23 refs., 1 tab., 17 figs.

  4. Improving a DSM Obtained by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Flood Modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mourato, Sandra; Fernandez, Paulo; Pereira, Luísa; Moreira, Madalena

    2017-12-01

    According to the EU flood risks directive, flood hazard map must be used to assess the flood risk. These maps can be developed with hydraulic modelling tools using a Digital Surface Runoff Model (DSRM). During the last decade, important evolutions of the spatial data processing has been developed which will certainly improve the hydraulic models results. Currently, images acquired with Red/Green/Blue (RGB) camera transported by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are seen as a good alternative data sources to represent the terrain surface with a high level of resolution and precision. The question is if the digital surface model obtain with this data is adequate enough for a good representation of the hydraulics flood characteristics. For this purpose, the hydraulic model HEC-RAS was run with 4 different DSRM for an 8.5 km reach of the Lis River in Portugal. The computational performance of the 4 modelling implementations is evaluated. Two hydrometric stations water level records were used as boundary conditions of the hydraulic model. The records from a third hydrometric station were used to validate the optimal DSRM. The HEC-RAS results had the best performance during the validation step were the ones where the DSRM with integration of the two altimetry data sources.

  5. 2 Dimensional Hydrodynamic Flood Routing Analysis on Flood Forecasting Modelling for Kelantan River Basin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azad Wan Hazdy

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Flood disaster occurs quite frequently in Malaysia and has been categorized as the most threatening natural disaster compared to landslides, hurricanes, tsunami, haze and others. A study by Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID show that 9% of land areas in Malaysia are prone to flood which may affect approximately 4.9 million of the population. 2 Dimensional floods routing modelling demonstrate is turning out to be broadly utilized for flood plain display and is an extremely viable device for evaluating flood. Flood propagations can be better understood by simulating the flow and water level by using hydrodynamic modelling. The hydrodynamic flood routing can be recognized by the spatial complexity of the schematization such as 1D model and 2D model. It was found that most of available hydrological models for flood forecasting are more focus on short duration as compared to long duration hydrological model using the Probabilistic Distribution Moisture Model (PDM. The aim of this paper is to discuss preliminary findings on development of flood forecasting model using Probabilistic Distribution Moisture Model (PDM for Kelantan river basin. Among the findings discuss in this paper includes preliminary calibrated PDM model, which performed reasonably for the Dec 2014, but underestimated the peak flows. Apart from that, this paper also discusses findings on Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD and flood plain analysis. Flood forecasting is the complex process that begins with an understanding of the geographical makeup of the catchment and knowledge of the preferential regions of heavy rainfall and flood behaviour for the area of responsibility. Therefore, to decreases the uncertainty in the model output, so it is important to increase the complexity of the model.

  6. Enhancement of global flood damage assessments using building material based vulnerability curves

    Science.gov (United States)

    Englhardt, Johanna; de Ruiter, Marleen; de Moel, Hans; Aerts, Jeroen

    2017-04-01

    This study discusses the development of an enhanced approach for flood damage and risk assessments using vulnerability curves that are based on building material information. The approach draws upon common practices in earthquake vulnerability assessments, and is an alternative for land-use or building occupancy approach in flood risk assessment models. The approach is of particular importance for studies where there is a large variation in building material, such as large scale studies or studies in developing countries. A case study of Ethiopia is used to demonstrate the impact of the different methodological approaches on direct damage assessments due to flooding. Generally, flood damage assessments use damage curves for different land-use or occupancy types (i.e. urban or residential and commercial classes). However, these categories do not necessarily relate directly to vulnerability of damage by flood waters. For this, the construction type and building material may be more important, as is used in earthquake risk assessments. For this study, we use building material classification data of the PAGER1 project to define new building material based vulnerability classes for flood damage. This approach will be compared to the widely applied land-use based vulnerability curves such as used by De Moel et al. (2011). The case of Ethiopia demonstrates and compares the feasibility of this novel flood vulnerability method on a country level which holds the potential to be scaled up to a global level. The study shows that flood vulnerability based on building material also allows for better differentiation between flood damage in urban and rural settings, opening doors to better link to poverty studies when such exposure data is available. Furthermore, this new approach paves the road to the enhancement of multi-risk assessments as the method enables the comparison of vulnerability across different natural hazard types that also use material-based vulnerability curves

  7. Techno-economic study of different alternatives for biodiesel production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marchetti, J.M.; Miguel, V.U.; Errazu, A.F.

    2008-01-01

    Biodiesel has become an attractive diesel fuel substitute due to its environmental benefits since it can be made from renewable resource. However, the high costs surrounding biodiesel production remains the main problem in making it competitive in the fuel market either as a blend or as a neat fuel. More than 80% of the production cost is associated with the feedstock itself and consequently, efforts are focused on developing technologies capable of using lower-cost feedstocks, such as recycled cooking oils and wastes from animal or vegetable oil processing operations. The main issue with spent oils is the high level of free fatty acids found in the recycled materials. The conventional technology employs sodium methoxide as a homogeneous base catalyst for the transesterification reaction and illustrates the drawbacks in working with feedstocks that contain high levels of free fatty acids. On the other hand, homogeneous acidic catalysts are being used for exactly such feedstocks. Both acid and basic homogeneous catalyzed processes require downstream purification equipment to neutralize the catalyst and to purify the biodiesel as well as the glycerol. Recent studies have been conducted to employ heterogeneous catalysts, such acidic or basic solid resins, or immobilized lipases. These catalysts will allow the use of different feedstocks that will permit operation at lower investment costs and will require less downstream process equipment. A conceptual design of these alternative production plants has been done with a techno-economic analysis in order to compare these alternatives. A process simulator was employed to carry out the conceptual design and simulation of each technology. Using these models it was possible to analyze different scenarios and to evaluate productivity, raw material consumption, economic competitiveness, and environmental impacts of each process. (author)

  8. Surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. Annual report, 1992--1993

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wasan, D.T.

    1994-08-01

    In this report, the authors present the results of experimental and theoretical studies in surfactant-enhanced alkaline flooding for light oil recovery. The overall objective of this work is to develop a very cost-effective method for formulating a successful surfactant-enhanced alkaline flood by appropriately choosing mixed alkalis which form inexpensive buffers to obtain the desired pH (between 8.5 and 12.0) for ultimate spontaneous emulsification and ultralow interfacial tension. In addition, the authors have (1) developed a theoretical interfacial activity model for determining equilibrium interfacial tension, (2) investigated the mechanisms for spontaneous emulsification, (3) developed a technique to monitor low water content in oil, and (4) developed a technique to study water-in-oil emulsion film properties.

  9. Economic and market issues on the sustainability of egg production in the United States: analysis of alternative production systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumner, D A; Gow, H; Hayes, D; Matthews, W; Norwood, B; Rosen-Molina, J T; Thurman, W

    2011-01-01

    Conventional cage housing for laying hens evolved as a cost-effective egg production system. Complying with mandated hen housing alternatives would raise marginal production costs and require sizable capital investment. California data indicate that shifts from conventional cages to barn housing would likely cause farm-level cost increases of about 40% per dozen. The US data on production costs of such alternatives as furnished cages are not readily available and European data are not applicable to the US industry structure. Economic analysis relies on key facts about production and marketing of conventional and noncage eggs. Even if mandated by government or buyers, shifts to alternative housing would likely occur with lead times of at least 5 yr. Therefore, egg producers and input suppliers would have considerable time to plan new systems and build new facilities. Relatively few US consumers now pay the high retail premiums required for nonconventional eggs from hens housed in alternative systems. However, data from consumer experiments indicate that additional consumers would also be willing to pay some premium. Nonetheless, current data do not allow easy extrapolation to understand the willingness to pay for such eggs by the vast majority of conventional egg consumers. Egg consumption in the United States tends to be relatively unresponsive to price changes, such that sustained farm price increases of 40% would likely reduce consumption by less than 10%. This combination of facts and relationships suggests that, unless low-cost imports grew rapidly, requirements for higher cost hen housing systems would raise US egg prices considerably while reducing egg consumption marginally. Eggs are a low-cost source of animal protein and low-income consumers would be hardest hit. However, because egg expenditures are a very small share of the consumer budget, real income loss for consumers would be small in percentage terms. Finally, the high egg prices imposed by

  10. Use of documentary sources on past flood events for flood risk management and land planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cœur, Denis; Lang, Michel

    2008-09-01

    The knowledge of past catastrophic events can improve flood risk mitigation policy, with a better awareness against risk. As such historical information is usually available in Europe for the past five centuries, historians are able to understand how past society dealt with flood risk, and hydrologists can include information on past floods into an adapted probabilistic framework. In France, Flood Risk Mitigation Maps are based either on the largest historical known flood event or on the 100-year flood event if it is greater. Two actions can be suggested in terms of promoting the use of historical information for flood risk management: (1) the development of a regional flood data base, with both historical and current data, in order to get a good feedback on recent events and to improve the flood risk education and awareness; (2) the commitment to keep a persistent/perennial management of a reference network of hydrometeorological observations for climate change studies.

  11. Modification of alternative additives and their effect on the rubber properties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ondrušová Darina

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The present paper deals with a targeted modification of two kinds of alternative additives - waste from glass production and natural mineral filler and explores their effect on the properties of polymeric materials. In the function of first alternative filler was used sludge from weighing the ingredients of glass batch in the glass production. The second used was natural aluminosilicate material based on zeolite (clinoptilolite. These alternative fillers have been modified in order to increase its efficiency, using the silanes: 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane, bis(triethoxysilylpropyl-tetrasulfide and 3-(triethoxysilylpropyl-methacrylate. In the case of alternative filler based on zeolite the influence of silanization conditions on the filler efficiency have been also studied. Prepared modified fillers were mixed into rubber compounds as partial replacement of commonly used filler – carbon black. The influence of prepared fillers on rheology and curing characteristics of rubber compounds and also on physical and mechanical properties of vulcanizates has been studied. Obtained results of measured characteristics of polymeric systems containing prepared alternative fillers were compared with the results obtained in the case of reference rubber compound with a commertially used filler – carbon black.

  12. Evaluation of Flooding Risk and Engineering Protection Against Floods for Ulan-Ude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borisova, T. A.

    2017-11-01

    The report presents the results of the study on analysis and risk assessment in relation to floods for Ulan-Ude and provides the developed recommendations of the activities for engineering protection of the population and economic installations. The current situation is reviewed and the results of the site survey are shown to identify the challenges and areas of negative water influence along with the existing security system. The report presents a summary of floods and index risk assessment. The articles describes the scope of eventual flooding, underflooding and enumerates the economic installations inside the urban areas’ research-based zones of flooding at the rated levels of water to identify the likeliness of exceedance. The assessment of damage from flood equal to 1% is shown.

  13. Physicochemical, agronomical and microbiological evaluation of alternative growing media for the production of rapini (Brassica rapa L.) microgreens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Gioia, Francesco; De Bellis, Palmira; Mininni, Carlo; Santamaria, Pietro; Serio, Francesco

    2017-03-01

    Peat-based mixes and synthetic mats are the main substrates used for microgreens production. However, both are expensive and non-renewable. Recycled fibrous materials may represent low-cost and renewable alternative substrates. Recycled textile-fiber (TF; polyester, cotton and polyurethane traces) and jute-kenaf-fiber (JKF; 85% jute, 15% kenaf-fibers) mats were characterized and compared with peat and Sure to Grow® (Sure to Grow, Beachwood, OH, USA; http://suretogrow.com) (STG; 100% polyethylene-terephthalate) for the production of rapini (Brassica rapa L.; Broccoletto group) microgreens. All substrates had suitable physicochemical properties for the production of microgreens. On average, microgreens fresh yield was 1502 g m -2 in peat, TF and JKF, and was 13.1% lower with STG. Peat-grown microgreen shoots had a higher concentration of K + and SO 4 2 - and a two-fold higher NO 3 - concentration [1959 versus 940 mg kg -1 fresh weight (FW)] than those grown on STG, TF and JKF. At harvest, substrates did not influence microgreens aerobic bacterial populations (log 6.48 CFU g -1 FW). Peat- and JKF-grown microgreens had higher yeast-mould counts than TF- and STG microgreens (log 2.64 versus 1.80 CFU g -1 FW). Peat-grown microgreens had the highest population of Enterobacteriaceae (log 5.46 ± 0.82 CFU g -1 ) and Escherichia coli (log 1.46 ± 0.15 CFU g -1 ). Escherichia coli was not detected in microgreens grown on other media. TF and JKF may be valid alternatives to peat and STG because both ensured a competitive yield, low nitrate content and a similar or higher microbiological quality. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

  14. Mixing Effects in Norway Spruce—European Beech Stands Are Modulated by Site Quality, Stand Age and Moisture Availability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Léa Houpert

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Although mixing tree species is considered an efficient risk-reduction strategy in the face of climate change, the conditions where mixtures are more productive than monocultures are under ongoing debate. Generalizations have been difficult because of the variety of methods used and due to contradictory findings regarding the effects of the species investigated, mixing proportions, and many site and stand conditions. Using data from 960 plots of the Swiss National Forest Inventory data, we assessed whether Picea abies (L. Karst–Fagus sylvatica L. mixed stands are more productive than pure stands, and whether the mixing effect depends on site- or stand-characteristics. The species proportions were estimated using species proportion by area, which depends on the maximum stand basal area of an unmanaged stand (BAmax. Four different alternatives were used to estimate BAmax and to investigate the effect of these differing alternatives on the estimated mixture effect. On average, the mixture had a negative effect on the growth of Picea abies. However, this effect decreased as moisture availability increased. Fagus sylvatica grew better in mixtures and this effect increased with site quality. A significant interaction between species proportions and quadratic mean diameter, a proxy for stand age, was found for both species: the older the stand, the better the growth of Fagus sylvatica and the lower the growth of Picea abies. Overyielding was predicted for 80% of the investigated sites. The alternative to estimate BAmax weakly modulated the estimated mixture effect, but it did not affect the way mixing effects changed with site characteristics.

  15. Yttrium bismuth titanate pyrochlore mixed oxides for photocatalytic hydrogen production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Merka, Oliver

    2012-10-18

    In this work, the sol-gel synthesis of new non-stoichiometric pyrochlore titanates and their application in photocatalytic hydrogen production is reported. Visible light response is achieved by introducing bismuth on the A site or by doping the B site by transition metal cations featuring partially filled d orbitals. This work clearly focusses on atomic scale structural changes induced by the systematical introduction of non-stoichiometry in pyrochlore mixed oxides and the resulting influence on the activity in photocatalytic hydrogen production. The materials were characterized in detail regarding their optical properties and their atomic structure. The pyrochlore structure tolerates tremendous stoichiometry variations. The non-stoichiometry in A{sub 2}O{sub 3} rich compositions is compensated by distortions in the cationic sub-lattice for the smaller Y{sup 3+} cation and by evolution of a secondary phase for the larger Bi{sup 3+} cation on the A site. For TiO{sub 2} rich compositions, the non-stoichiometry leads to a special vacancy formation in the A and optionally O' sites. It is shown that pyrochlore mixed oxides in the yttrium bismuth titanate system represent very active and promising materials for photocatalytic hydrogen production, if precisely and carefully tuned. Whereas Y{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7} yields stable hydrogen production rates over time, the bismuth richer compounds of YBiTi{sub 2}O{sub 7} and Bi{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7} are found to be not stable under irradiation. This drawback is overcome by applying a special co-catalyst system consisting of a precious metal core and a Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3} shell on the photocatalysts.

  16. The role of risk perception in making flood risk management more effective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchecker, M.; Salvini, G.; Di Baldassarre, G.; Semenzin, E.; Maidl, E.; Marcomini, A.

    2013-11-01

    Over the last few decades, Europe has suffered from a number of severe flood events and, as a result, there has been a growing interest in probing alternative approaches to managing flood risk via prevention measures. A literature review reveals that, although in the last decades risk evaluation has been recognized as key element of risk management, and risk assessment methodologies (including risk analysis and evaluation) have been improved by including social, economic, cultural, historical and political conditions, the theoretical schemes are not yet applied in practice. One main reason for this shortcoming is that risk perception literature is mainly of universal and theoretical nature and cannot provide the necessary details to implement a comprehensive risk evaluation. This paper therefore aims to explore a procedure that allows the inclusion of stakeholders' perceptions of prevention measures in risk assessment. It proposes to adopt methods of risk communication (both one-way and two-way communication) in risk assessment with the final aim of making flood risk management more effective. The proposed procedure not only focuses on the effect of discursive risk communication on risk perception, and on achieving a shared assessment of the prevention alternatives, but also considers the effects of the communication process on perceived uncertainties, accepted risk levels, and trust in the managing institutions. The effectiveness of this combined procedure has been studied and illustrated using the example of the participatory flood prevention assessment process on the Sihl River in Zurich, Switzerland. The main findings of the case study suggest that the proposed procedure performed well, but that it needs some adaptations for it to be applicable in different contexts and to allow a (semi-) quantitative estimation of risk perception to be used as an indicator of adaptive capacity.

  17. Between Contemporary Art and Cultural Analysis: Alternative Methods for Knowledge Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Billy Ehn

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Artistic research suggests alternative methods for producing various kinds of knowledge, whether within or without the confines of academe. These methods may involve either the production of investigative artworks or the writing by the artist of a doctoral dissertation about his or her own work. For cultural researchers, the methods employed by artists engaged in these processes are both familiar and challenging, as conventional ethnography is mixed with more unpredictable experiments. This article presents several contemporary artworks, including sculpture, film, dance, installation and performance that explore various aspects of reality. What can be learnt from these works? And what could be achieved by an open exchange between artists and academic researchers? Four methodological approaches are highlighted as being of particular interest. The first relates to artists’ tendency to live experimentally, using themselves both as actors and as research objects. The second arises from the very tangible ways in which contemporary artworks approach the theme of materiality. The third relates to the emotional nature of much of contemporary art – even when it is categorised as conceptual – in its creation, forms of presentation, and influence on the spectator. Finally, many artists are gifted with the ability to find and communicate surprising meanings in ordinary life. How do they do this? Part of the answer seems to be that although artists are open to the implementation of “wild whims”, they exploit their spontaneity in a highly professional manner.

  18. Analysis of flood inundation in ungauged basins based on multi-source remote sensing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Wei; Shen, Qiu; Zhou, Yuehua; Li, Xin

    2018-02-09

    Floods are among the most expensive natural hazards experienced in many places of the world and can result in heavy losses of life and economic damages. The objective of this study is to analyze flood inundation in ungauged basins by performing near-real-time detection with flood extent and depth based on multi-source remote sensing data. Via spatial distribution analysis of flood extent and depth in a time series, the inundation condition and the characteristics of flood disaster can be reflected. The results show that the multi-source remote sensing data can make up the lack of hydrological data in ungauged basins, which is helpful to reconstruct hydrological sequence; the combination of MODIS (moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer) surface reflectance productions and the DFO (Dartmouth Flood Observatory) flood database can achieve the macro-dynamic monitoring of the flood inundation in ungauged basins, and then the differential technique of high-resolution optical and microwave images before and after floods can be used to calculate flood extent to reflect spatial changes of inundation; the monitoring algorithm for the flood depth combining RS and GIS is simple and easy and can quickly calculate the depth with a known flood extent that is obtained from remote sensing images in ungauged basins. Relevant results can provide effective help for the disaster relief work performed by government departments.

  19. Hydrologic and nutrient response of groundwater to flooding of cranberry farms in southeastern Massachusetts, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seasonal flooding of cranberry farms is essential for long-term sustainability of cranberry production in southeastern Massachusetts, with roughly 90% of growers flooding for fall harvesting and winter protection. Although considered a significant source of recharge to the regional unconfined aquif...

  20. Review of the flood risk management system in Germany after the major flood in 2013

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annegret H. Thieken

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Widespread flooding in June 2013 caused damage costs of €6 to 8 billion in Germany, and awoke many memories of the floods in August 2002, which resulted in total damage of €11.6 billion and hence was the most expensive natural hazard event in Germany up to now. The event of 2002 does, however, also mark a reorientation toward an integrated flood risk management system in Germany. Therefore, the flood of 2013 offered the opportunity to review how the measures that politics, administration, and civil society have implemented since 2002 helped to cope with the flood and what still needs to be done to achieve effective and more integrated flood risk management. The review highlights considerable improvements on many levels, in particular (1 an increased consideration of flood hazards in spatial planning and urban development, (2 comprehensive property-level mitigation and preparedness measures, (3 more effective flood warnings and improved coordination of disaster response, and (4 a more targeted maintenance of flood defense systems. In 2013, this led to more effective flood management and to a reduction of damage. Nevertheless, important aspects remain unclear and need to be clarified. This particularly holds for balanced and coordinated strategies for reducing and overcoming the impacts of flooding in large catchments, cross-border and interdisciplinary cooperation, the role of the general public in the different phases of flood risk management, as well as a transparent risk transfer system. Recurring flood events reveal that flood risk management is a continuous task. Hence, risk drivers, such as climate change, land-use changes, economic developments, or demographic change and the resultant risks must be investigated at regular intervals, and risk reduction strategies and processes must be reassessed as well as adapted and implemented in a dialogue with all stakeholders.