Heavy Storms Research Articles

Waterscape in Hjari Veraldar The 'Last Habitable Edge of the Earth'

Iceland is a geologically active land and home to some of the world’s most active volcanoes and the largest glaciers in Europe. Due to its harsh environmental circumstances, its inhabitants’ living conditions are unpredictable. Icelanders live in a sort of ‘rescue mood’, ready to face a variety of natural disasters, such as avalanches, flooding, heavy storms, eruptions, landslides and earthquakes. In this northern sea island, water is the most influential element in culture, language, economy, leisure, landscape, planning strategy, and islanders’ everyday life. Water comes in all forms, both as a provider and a threat. Based on this premise, this commentary is a synthesis image of the forms of water from an outlander point of view, reading an alien landscape in which the forms of water are one of the most enchanting interpretation experiences in the landscape. This anecdote is a narration of the forms of water concerning urbanisation, land and human in different subtle layers of Icelandic culture, economy and landscape design

Effect of straw incorporation on controlling runoff and soil erosion in cropland with different land degradation degrees

AbstractStraw incorporation plays a vital role in regulating runoff and soil erosion of cropland. However, the benefits of straw incorporation to control runoff and soil erosion on croplands under different degradation degrees have not been fully clarified. This study was performed to investigate the benefits of straw incorporation to reduce runoff and soil erosion under different degradation degrees and determine its dominant influencing factors. The event runoff and soil erosion were measured from late May to late September 2022 using 16 runoff plots (9 m in length and 3.3 m in width) in the black soil region of Northeast China. The results showed that straw incorporation significantly reduced runoff and soil erosion on croplands with different degradation intensities. Compared to croplands without straw incorporation, runoff and soil erosion of straw incorporation decreased by 48. 8%, 40.0%, 30.9%, 25.5%, and 55.2%, 48.8%, 40.8%, and 36.5% for croplands of no, light, moderate, and strong degradation intensities, respectively. The roles of straw incorporation in controlling runoff and erosion decreased with rainfall intensity. Compared to light rainfall, runoff reduction ratio and erosion reduction ratio of moderate and heavy rainfalls reduced by 19.5%–61.3% and 27.5%–64.4%. The benefit of straw incorporation to control runoff and erosion was limited on strong degraded cropland or under heavy storm. Moreover, soil hydrological properties and crop growth characteristics decreased by land degradation and improved by straw incorporation, which inevitably affected runoff and soil erosion. Soil bulk density, maximum rainfall intensity of 30‐min, saturated water content, precipitation, rainfall intensity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and total porosity were the dominant factors affecting the roles of straw incorporation in controlling runoff and erosion on degraded croplands. The results of this study are helpful to prevent land degradation or recover the functions of degraded lands in semi‐humid region.

Discharge coefficients to be used in inlet hydraulics

Urban pluvial floods can be produced or exacerbated by an insufficient density of inlets or by their poor hydraulic efficiency. Therefore, proper consideration of the hydraulic performance of inlets is essential to guarantee the correct functioning of urban drainage systems during heavy storm events. Recent advances in computational analysis in the field of hydrodynamics modelling allow the use of the well-known concept of dual drainage for design and planning purposes by simulating flow transfers between the surface layer (streets) and underground layers (sewers) through a proper hydraulic characterisation of inlet efficiency. Powerful commercial software packages allow simulations of flow transfer and use different approaches and formulas. Many of these approaches include the possibility of treating a sewer inlet as an orifice. In this context, this paper presents a methodology to obtain orifice discharge coefficients for three inlets previously tested at the hydraulics laboratory of the Technical University of Catalonia. Discharge coefficients of 0.18–0.58 were obtained for Froude numbers of 1.12–4.40, quite far from the usual recommended values. The proposed procedure can also be applied to non-tested grates.

On the survivability of WECs through submergence and passive controllers

The survivability of WECs during extreme seas and heavy storms has proven to be challenging during the deployment of devices as they often fail during extreme storms. The survival mechanism is often inherited with the device design and mode of operation. It is not economically and logistically viable for devices to be taken back onshore in case of storms. Some devices lock their PTOs during heavy storms and others lock all the moving parts all together, in the case of CETO, its design has an advantage where it can be submergepad. CETO is a buoyant actuator WEC composed of a buoy submerged close to the surface. Three tethers connect CETO to the sea-bottom through rotary PTOs, allowing the device to be wound down, submerged, and therefore, less exposed to the extreme loads at the sea surface during large storms. This paper will study the survivability of the device during extreme sea-states and will examine the required depth to bring its response back to operational conditions. This work will also look at the alteration of some passive controllers, such as a conventional spring to minimize the response of the device instead of maximising the power capture. With the PTO objective altered in extreme sea-states to minimize the response instead of capturing power, the possibility of harvesting power during extreme sea-states with the device submerged will be checked. Finally, the survivability strategy of CETO through submergence will be showcased with wave tank experiments conducted at IHC as part of the Europewave program.

최근 15년간(2007 ~ 2021년) 문화유산 풍수해의 특징과 추세

최근 15년간(2007 ~ 2021년) 문화유산 풍수해의 특징과 추세

INTERROGATING THE EFFECTS OF SAND MINING: A CASE STUDY OF AGILA DISTRICT, ADO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

This study is of believe that Illegal acts and discerning sand excavation/mining has become arisk to the ambiances. While theresearchrelied on personal geological observation on the mining sites, qualitative data were used from secondary literature. Using Agila’s river and coastal mining sites as a case study, the study revealed that it sparks to diversifications in river channels ways, physical ecosystem and food webs. As well it speeds up the river’scurrent and eventually eroding the river banks. Destroying the soil profile and removing the flora reduces the population of animals and eliminates habitat both the surface and subsurface resources. Sand dunes has played a vital aspect role in stoppage against heavy storms, erosion causes by some agents of transportations like winds, waves or floods. Numerous tiny habitants that are a component of the marine and coastal food chain and whose removal would pose some hazards to some other species rely on them for existence. The water tables in the surrounding areas decline as a result of sand mining, drying out the drinking water wells on the river embankments. Turbidity rises at the mining site as also the aquifers near the shore are affected by saline water intrusion. Sand mined areas loose scenic beauty, it emits radiation reliant on the component minerals, dust pollution, emits vibration/noise and it damages roads and some infrastructures. This researchinspected and reviewed the sand mining impacts on river, dune, marine, hydrological, biological and sociological environments with some case studies of the study area.

Enhancing security and capacity in FSO transmission for next-generation networks using OFDM/OCDMA-based ICSM codes

In order to address the growing demands for both enhanced security levels and increased transmission capacity, this research proposes a novel approach for free space optical (FSO) transmission. The proposed design incorporates an identity column shift matrix (ICSM) code to ensure robust security. Additionally, capacity enhancement is achieved through the utilization of a 4-level quadrature amplitude modulation (4-QAM) scheme in conjunction with an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulator. The performance of the system is evaluated across three channels, each transmitting data at a rate of 20 Gb/s, while operating in an FSO channel that is subjected to varying atmospheric attenuation effects and atmospheric turbulence. Real meteorological data from three different cities [Alexandria, Egypt; Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA); and Hyderabad, India], situated across two continents, are incorporated to demonstrate the practicality of implementing the proposed model in real-world environments. The experimental results reveal that an increase in atmospheric turbulence leads to a higher bit error rate (BER) and lower received optical power (ROP), resulting in degraded data reception. Furthermore, the study examines the impact of weather conditions, indicating that the longest and shortest propagation ranges of 12.5 and 0.286 km, respectively, are achieved under clear weather and heavy dust storms. These conditions yield an ROP of −9.5 dBm and a log (BER) of approximately −2.5. Conversely, in the presence of strong turbulence, the performance further deteriorates. The proposed model demonstrates its ability to transmit a message signal over a distance of 0.8375 km, with a log (BER) of −2.6 under weak atmospheric turbulence. However, under strong atmospheric turbulence at the same distance, the log (BER) increases to −0.5. Regarding specific cities, the FSO range for transmitting information signals is found to be 9.58 km in Jeddah, which decreases to 6.58 km in Alexandria and 5.17 km in Hyderabad due to the increased atmospheric attenuation in these cities.

Improvement of genetic health and diversity of Zostera marina (eelgrass) in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey ten years after Hurricane Sandy: Support for the “storm stimulus” hypothesis

Hurricane Sandy struck the New York metropolitan region on October 29, 2012. The storm severely impacted the physical state of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey with its heavy storm surge, affecting many forms of benthic life and ripping up extensive beds of Zostera marina. Pre-Sandy studies of the genetic status of Z. marina in Barnegat Bay indicated low levels of heterozygosity and high levels of inbreeding. This present study examines the long-term effects of Hurricane Sandy on the eelgrass meadows of New Jersey. Heterozygosity analysis (mean Ho= 0.482 ± 0.013 and mean He= 0.498± 0.009) of the five Barnegat populations studied suggest an improvement in diversity from pre-Sandy values of 2008. Mean inbreeding levels (overall Fis = 0.077 ± 0.034) also indicated reduced inbreeding, and the fixation index (overall mean pairwise Fst = 0.064 ±0.006) suggested increased connectivity between populations with low levels of differentiation. Although we found no indication of bottlenecks in the last 2–3 years, by employing m-ratio calculations, there was strong evidence for long-term, historical bottlenecks in all populations, potentially due to the mass wasting disease epidemic in the 1930s. Unexpectantly, the post-Sandy genetic health and diversity of Z. marina in Barnegat Bay appears to have improved since it was last surveyed in 2008, supporting the “Storm Stimulus” hypothesis.

Application of multi-source data in a tornado process in Jiangsu province

This paper analyzes the weather background and triggering mechanism before the occurrence of an EF3 tornado on 14 May 2021, in southern Jiangsu, using multi-source data. Results show that 1) the tornado occurred in the warm and humid area inside the low-level shear line and the inverted trough at the surface, the southeast wind field to the east of the surface convergence line and high value area of water vapor flux on the left side of low altitude jet axis exit zone. 2) The intensity of the heavy rainfall supercell storm was strengthened after entering the Taihu Lake, and mesocyclones were detected with decreasing heights and increasing shear strengths which leading to the formation of the tornado parent storm. Tornado vortex storm bottom height dropped to 0.3km, the shear value increased to 169.1 × 10−3 s-1, strong echoes above 60 dBZ reached to the ground, the difference between the lowest elevation Radial velocity (LLDV) and the maximum Radial velocity (MXDV) reached up to the largest value when tornado occurred. 3) The strong convergence of the ground and the enhancement of mesoscale frontal zone resulted in the strong development of thunderstorm cells. The deep rear inflow behind the heavy precipitation supercell storm passed through the stratiform cloud area and produced strong updraft due to the convergence of wind direction and wind speed. The updrafts generated vertical vorticity under the influence of wind shear, which was further stretched in the middle layer of the troposphere to form the core of the tornado. 4) The flat underlying surface, abundant water vapor, lake surface thermal boundary, and strong wind convergence on the east bank of Taihu Lake provided favorable conditions for the occurrence of the tornado. The centers of the mesocyclones in the lower and middle layers were close to each other in the horizontal direction, which provided stable and vertical updrafts for the mesocyclones and strengthened the suction effect of the mesocyclones on the low-level vortices, facilitating the formation of the tornado.

Coastal protection challenges after heavy storms on the Polish coast

The paper presents the implications for future coastal protection and management policies at the marginal shelf sea on the Polish Baltic Sea coast. These emerged after a series of almost overlapping storms in January and February 2022, causing massive dune retreat at locations where hitherto relatively stable beaches demonstrated sediment deficits under long periods of more energetic wave climate and especially elevated sea levels. On the other hand, sand-saturated areas showed greater resilience. The potential sediment scarcity is expected to be linked to a possible interaction between local geological makeup and climate change-induced increases in storminess. Sandy beaches with pronounced organic intrusions become no longer sufficiently resilient. The culprit seems to be peat outcrops on the emerged beaches and its lenses inside dune massifs. Under such circumstances, it can be expected that in the future, initially isolated erosion hotspots will gradually transform into large erosion embayments. Consequently, future coastal protection and management will no longer be able to rely solely on pure nature-based solutions, but, respecting the building with nature paradigm, will involve more complex schemes with unnatural materials kept at the minimum volume to avoid disruption of seascape/landscape and discontinuity and disconnectivity of ecosystem services. However, it is important to realize that such more advanced protection measures will come at a higher cost, and coastal segments without vital economic or ecological value will have to be abandoned.

A coupled CFD-DEM investigation into hydro-mechanical behaviour of gap-graded soil experiencing seepage erosion considering cyclic hydraulic loading

The internal erosion of soils is a critical factor that can cause infiltration damage in slope and embankment works. Under conditions of heavy rainfall, storm surge, and waves, the soil is subjected to the cyclic changing hydraulic loads that are different from constant or monotonically changing hydraulic gradient loads, resulting in significant differences in the internal erosion response. The internal erosion response of gap-graded soil under cyclic hydraulic gradient is investigated in microscopic view based on the three-dimensional coupled computational fluid dynamics and discrete element (CFD-DEM) method. Three average hydraulic gradients (i.e., i¯= 7, 9, 11) and different cyclic hydraulic gradient amplitudes (i.e., Δi = 2 ∼ 10) are considered. It is found that the erosion mass me is significantly increased under cyclic hydraulic loading, as the amplitude of the cyclic hydraulic gradient increases, the erosion ratio gradually increases. The particle migration in the upstream layer is more susceptible to the influence of cyclic hydraulic gradients, and the distribution of fine particles is more uniform after erosion with the increase of Δi. The mechanism of the effect of cyclic hydraulic gradient is revealed from a micro perspective, including coordination number, connectivity distribution, particle force characteristics, local packing profile and the force chain evolution, it is found that the cyclic hydraulic loading affects the erosion process mainly by disturb or destroy the local clogging. The work provides insights into the effect of more complex hydraulic loading on internal erosion from a micromechanical perspective.

Neobični nalazi mekousne pastrve Salmo obtusirostris (Actynopterigii: Salmonidae) u morskom okolišu duž srednjoistočne obale Jadrana kao posljedica ekstremnih vremenskih nepogoda

The discovery of individuals of softmouth trout Salmo obtusirostris in the marine environment has been recorded several times in the period from 2015 to the present day in the wider area of the Neretva River delta and southern Adriatic coast. Although this phenomenon appears to be happening more frequently along the Adriatic coast, scientific reports regarding family Salmonidae species found in the marine environment are still very rare in the eastern Adriatic, especially for the softmouth trout. The findings reported here represent the first marine records of this endemic freshwater species. An increasing frequency of these findings may indicate that a higher number of individuals are ending up in the coastal environment during heavy storm events or other unusual hydrologic occurrence. Extreme weather conditions have become more frequent in recent years, mainly as a result of climate change and have led to unexpected phenomena and impacts on nature. The long-term effects on fish and community structure of rivers flowing into the sea require further research, as these weather-induced situations can be expected to become more common. Further investigation into the physiological costs and population consequences of these unusual ecological findings is warranted.

Abundance and some parameters of reproduction for pink salmon <i>Oncorhynchus gorbuscha</i> on Sakhalin coast of the Tatar Strait

Annual data on biomass and number of pink salmon in catches, mainly landed from their feeding aggregations by trap nets, are presented for the Sakhalin coast of the Tatar Strait in 2003–2022. Number of the spawners entered to the rivers of this coast and number of the juveniles migrated downstream are assessed for some years. Dynamics of the pink salmon run to the rivers does not correlate with the dynamics of this species catch in the coastal waters that confirms the earlier conclusion about mixed origin of pink salmon in the feeding aggregations at the coast. The basis of pink salmon catches in recent years is the fish originated from the rivers of the adjacent mainland coast, whereas the stocks of pink salmon on the Sakhalin coast of the Tatar Strait are in depression caused by unfavorable environmental conditions of their spawning and embryonic development (as the spawning grounds erosion by extreme floods) and subsequent feeding of juveniles in the coastal waters (as heavy storms in the time of their migration from rivers).

Partial climatic risk screening, adaptation and livelihoods in a coastal urban area in Ghana

Coastal urban areas worldwide are increasingly becoming convergence points for climatic hazards, demographic shifts, and spatial development. However, the presence of societal demands that impact both livelihoods and urban planning in response to climatic hazards undermines the potential positive outcomes. This research, conducted in a coastal urban area of Ghana's Greater Accra Region, utilized the Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods (CRiSTAL) developed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to analyze the experiences of climatic hazards and overall livelihoods of the population. The study employed Ghana's Census Sampling Frame for implementation, and Participatory Learning Approaches, to collect data which it identified floods, heavy storms, and heat stress as the most significant hazards. These hazards greatly influenced the population's physical, social, and financial livelihood assets, resulting in losses and damages caused by heavy rains, storms, and subsequent floods. Extreme heat also had a notable impact on human and financial resources. The local population prioritized human mobility and livelihood diversification as important adaptation strategies. The findings have important policy implications, highlighting the need to address barriers and disruptions in resilience-building and sustainability efforts, emphasizing the significance of prioritizing policy investment and considering climate change uncertainties in planning towards minimizing “urban climate policy inhibition” (Urban-CPI). The study also revealed valuable lessons, such as CRiSTAL's ability to bridge the gap between climatic risk and livelihood issues, bringing them closer to communities and enhancing preparedness to adapt to climatic risks and impacts on livelihoods.

Observations on the Effects of the Hail on Some Apple Varieties under the Conditions of 2021

The research was carried out on 3 apple varieties, namely Golden delicious, Jonathan and Starkrimson, grown in the N-E area of Romania, within the Research Station for fruit growing Iasi, on Fălticeni development center. The plantation was established in 1990, being in 31 since planting. The trees are grafted on the MM106 rootstock, with a planting distance of 4 meters between rows and 2.5 meters between trees, with a density of 1000 trees/ha. During the agricultural year 2021, hail was observed as an extreme climatic phenomenon, recorded in June, July and August, when the trees were in the phenological stage BBCH 71-74, BBCH 75, BBCH 77 and BBCH 79. Extreme phenomena were accompanied by heavy rains and storms that affected both the quality and quantity of fruit production. The highest degree of damage was recorded in the Golden delicious variety in all four hail falls, with a percentage between 5% and 67%. Therefore, the fruit production was affected, their quality being impaired and not being commercialized as high quality fruit, for fresh consumption, but only industrialized.

Use of dens by the desert fox in the desertic environment

The study was carried out on the use of dens by the desert fox in the desertic environment at Jajiwal Dhora and Guda Bhakri study sites in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. Dens played a vital role in protecting desert fox and their pups from adverse environmental conditions. During study period total 104 dens were recorded out of them, 42 were resting dens and 62 were breeding dens. At Jajiwal Dhora study site 72 dens were observed and at Guda Bhakari study site 32 dens were noted. The desert fox used the dens for pup rearing, resting and saving themselves from different climatic factors such as heavy rain, dust storms, warm air and coldness. Desert fox use the den according to the seasonal changes. Northern-facing dens were mainly used during summer, while southern-facing dens were used in winter. The rodents, birds and bushes dominated areas and agricultural fields were mainly preferred by the desert fox for digging the dens. Direct observation, questionnaire and interview methods were used for the investigation.

A process-based hydrological model for continuous multi-year simulations of large-scale watersheds

Process-based hydrological models are useful tools to understand the mechanisms responsible for extreme floods and droughts and thus facilitate watershed management. This paper describes a watershed model, based on the coupled surface-subsurface distributed model Penn State Hydrologic Model (PIHM), to capture the hydrologic response of large watersheds over decades. Mathematical models for coupling surface-subsurface fluxes were developed to achieve mass conservation in multi-year simulations. A Voronoi technique was implemented to improve accuracy and computational efficiency. The model was used to simulate the Cedar River Watershed, IA from 2003 to 2018. Model predictions were compared against streamflow observations at four gauging stations. Results show good model performance with average Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency values greater than 0.70. The model results helped to identify the main hydrologic processes that contributed to the historic 2008 flood in the Cedar River Watershed. In addition to heavy storms, several other factors played an important role, including snowmelt and rainstorms in the spring, as well as low evapotranspiration values associated with traditional row crop agriculture in the first half of the year.

#BoycottMurree campaign on twitter: Monitoring public response to the negative destination events during a crisis

Research on how the public responds and attributes their experiences to negative destination events on social media during a crisis is limited. This study fills the research gap by analyzing public response on social media to highly visible immoral destination events and service failures. A chain of negative events took place when a heavy snow storm hit a popular tourism destination (i.e., Murree); these events were extensively publicized on Twitter, and is used as a case. Applying text mining as a combination of topic modeling and sentiment analysis to 89,897 tweets in the dataset, the study analyzes temporal and topical dynamics of public discussion to investigate the useful insights of such data at each disaster stage based on the extended Fink's four-stages of crisis and disaster model. The study shows that the public response on twitter as a number of tweets is moderated by the series of negative events. Results reveal that the majority of tweets are posted in the chronic phase. The most popular tweeted themes are related to tourists' switching intentions – and voicing, portraying negative image of Murree as a tourism destination. Further, anger has been the most dominating emotion, following fear, sadness, and joy during the crisis life cycle. Moreover, the most negative emotions expressed in Tweets relate to topics: local and international sentiments about the incidents followed by the public emotions toward crisis and negative destination image. The findings offer practical implications in tourism, hospitality, and crisis management domains having the potential for future research, which will truly offer value addition for potential researchers.

Effects of wildfire, torrential rainfall and straw mulching on the physicochemical soil properties in a Mediterranean forest

With the effects of fire, weather and post-fire management on soil properties having been studied mostly individually, there is little understanding of the combined effects of wildfire, heavy storm and straw mulching. In this study, we evaluated the changes in soil properties following a high-severity fire, post-fire soil treatment using straw mulch, and a torrential storm in a forest stand in north-western Portugal. The main physicochemical properties of the soil were evaluated in different soil conditions: a) burnt and untreated, b) burnt and mulched areas, and c) unburnt sites on three survey dates 1) soon after wildfire, 2) after the rainstorm, and 3) one year after wildfire. We found that soil water repellency strongly increased ephemerally immediately after wildfire, decrease after the storm and disappeared after one year. Fire reduced the soil organic matter (by 50%, on average), total nitrogen (by 85–90%) and available phosphorous (by about 45%) at both the mulched and untreated sites, and this effect was not changed by the ensuing rainfall. In comparison to the unburnt sites, the pH increased in the burnt soils, and the electrical conductivity decreased. Finally, the dynamics of the major cations and minor elements were affected differently by the wildfire and rainfall under the different soil conditions. One year after the fire, the most notable changes compared to the unburnt soil were detected in magnesium, potassium and almost all the minor elements. Based on these findings, instructions were given to the land managers (aim to control soil hydrophobicity following wildfire, supply more soil organic matter to the soil to avoid a decline in soil fertility, and use alternative actions to straw mulching to control the soil chemistry) that were aimed at more effective post-fire management in severely burnt areas in Mediterranean forests.

Road Risk-Index Analysis Using Satellite Products.

This paper proposes a service called intelligent routing using satellite products (IRUS) that can be used in order to analyze risks to the road infrastructure during bad weather conditions, such as heavy rainfall, storms, or floods. By diminishing movement risk, rescuers can arrive safely at their destination. To analyze these routes, the application uses both data provided by Sentinel satellites from the Copernicus program and meteorological data from local weather stations. Moreover, the application uses algorithms to determine the night driving time. From this analysis we obtain a risk index for each road provided by Google Maps API and then we present the path alongside the risk index in a friendly graphic interface. In order to obtain an accurate risk index, the application analyzes both recent and past data (up to 12 months).