Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Engineering
Predictive modelling of envelope flood extents using geomorphic and climatic-hydrologic catchment characteristics
Published: 2020-05-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A topographic index (flood descriptor) that combines the scaling of bankfull depth with morphology was shown to describe the tendency of an area to be flooded. However, this approach depends on the quality and availability of flood maps and assumes that outcomes can be directly extrapolated and downscaled. This work attempts to relax these problems and answer two questions: 1) Can functional [...]
UNSEEN trends: Detecting decadal changes in 100-year precipitation extremes
Published: 2020-05-25
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Climate, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Sample sizes of observed climate extremes are typically too small to reliably constrain non-stationary behaviour. To facilitate detection of non-stationarities in 100-year precipitation values over a short period of 35 years (1981-2015), we apply the UNprecedented Simulated Extreme ENsemble (UNSEEN) approach, by pooling ensemble members and lead times from the ECMWF seasonal prediction system [...]
An open, scalable, and flexible framework for automated aerial measurement of field experiments
Published: 2020-05-24
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Engineering, Life Sciences, Plant Breeding and Genetics Life Sciences, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Unoccupied areal vehicles (UAVs or drones) are increasingly used in field research. Drones capable of routinely and consistently capturing high quality imagery of experimental fields have become relatively inexpensive. However, converting these images into scientifically useable data has become a bottleneck. A number of tools exist to support this workflow, but there is no framework for making [...]
60 YEARS OF AIRBORNE AFMAG METHOD EVOLUTION
Published: 2020-05-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Development and following commercial use of the airborne electromagnetic method based on natural fields in the audio-frequency band (AFMAG) started in late 50s of the last century. After several decades of the development downtime, limitations inherent to the method were resolved in 80s by adapting the tensor analysis, remote reference noise bias removal techniques and computation of the tippers. [...]
The off-fault deformation on the North Anatolian Fault Zone and assessment of slip rate from carbonate veins
Published: 2020-05-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
In the easternmost segment of the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) zone there are discrepancies in earthquake characteristics arising from differences between geodetically determined and geologically observed slip rates. We investigated the spatial distribution of deformation across a NAF fault segment, Turkey. Field observations were conducted on the offset of physiographic features along the [...]
Same but different: A framework to design and compare riverbank plastic monitoring strategies
Published: 2020-05-24
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Plastic pollution in rivers negatively impacts human livelihood and aquatic ecosystems. Monitoring data are crucial for a better understanding of sources, sinks and transport mechanisms of riverine macroplastics. In turn, such understanding is key to develop effective plastic pollution prevention, mitigation and removal strategies. Riverine plastic has been observed in all compartments, of which [...]
On the thermo-poro-mechanics of chemically active faults
Published: 2020-05-21
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Shear zones in outcrops and core drillings on active faults commonly reveal two scales of localization, with centimeter to tens of meters thick deformation zones embedding much narrower zones of mm- to cm-scale. The narrow zones are often attributed to some form of fast instability such as earthquakes or slow slip events. Surprisingly, the double localisation phenomenon seem to be independent of [...]
Using Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling to capture cyanobacteria dynamics in Northern European lakes
Published: 2020-05-21
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
Cyanobacteria blooms in lakes and reservoirs currently threaten water security and affect the ecosystem services provided by these freshwater ecosystems, such as drinking water and recreational use. Climate change is expected to further exacerbate the situation in the future because of higher temperatures, extended droughts and nutrient enrichment, due to urbanisation and intensified agriculture. [...]
Probabilistic soil moisture dynamics of water- and energy-limited ecosystems
Published: 2020-05-17
Subjects: Agriculture, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Life Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
This paper presents an extension of the stochastic ecohydrological model for soil moisture dynamics at a point of Rodriguez-Iturbe et al. (1999) and Laio et al. (2001). In the original model, evapotranspiration is a function of soil moisture and vegetation parameters, so that the model is suitable for water-limited environments. Our extension introduces a dependence on maximum evapotranspiration [...]
Detecting Ground Deformation in the Built Environment using Sparse Satellite InSAR data with a Convolutional Neural Network
Published: 2020-05-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Signal Processing
The large volumes of Sentinel-1 data produced over Europe are being used to develop pan-national ground motion services. However, simple analysis techniques like thresholding cannot detect and classify complex deformation signals reliably making providing usable information to a broad range of non-expert stakeholders a challenge. Here we explore the applicability of deep learning approaches by [...]
A Near-Real-Time Approach for Monitoring Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Time Series: Stochastic Continuous Change Detection
Published: 2020-05-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Forest disturbances greatly affect the ecological functioning of natural forests. Timely information regarding extent, timing and magnitude of forest disturbance events is crucial for effective disturbance management strategies. Yet, we still lack an acute, near-real-time and high-performance remote sensing tools for monitoring abrupt and subtle forest disturbances. This study presents a new [...]
Predicting the yield stress of a 3D printed porous material from its internal structure
Published: 2020-05-12
Subjects: Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Structural Materials
The design of any engineering structure requires the knowledge, and therefore determination, of the yield, i.e. limit of elasticity, for the building material. Whilst destructive experimental testing is currently necessary to do so, our work is part of initiatives which aim at deriving the yield without such laboratory experiments. The seminal work of Gurson (1977) on a simplified pore structure, [...]
Permeability hysteresis from micro-channels opening during dissolution/reprecipitation cycle
Published: 2020-05-11
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Permeability is a critical parameter for geological resources characterisation. Its evolution with respect to porosity is particularly interesting and many research initiatives focus on deriving such relationships, to understand some hydraulic impacts of microstructure alteration. Permeability evolution from chemical reactions for instance can become complex as flow channels may open during rock [...]
Three Common Statistical Missteps We Make in Reservoir Characterization
Published: 2020-05-11
Subjects: Chemical Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Petroleum Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Methodology, Statistics and Probability
Reservoir characterization analysis resulting from incorrect applications of statistics can be found in the literature, particularly in applications where integration of various disciplines is needed. Here, we look at three misapplications of ordinary least squares linear regression (LSLR) and show how they can lead to poor results and offer better alternatives, where available. The issues are [...]
On doing large-scale hydrology with Lions: Realising the value of perceptual models and knowledge accumulation
Published: 2020-05-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Moving the study domain in hydrology to larger and larger regions leaves us with significant knowledge gaps because we are unable to observe the hydrology of many parts of the world, while in-depth hydrologic studies cover only a fraction of our landscape. On medieval maps, knowledge gaps were shown as images of lions. How do we best acknowledge and reduce these gaps in hydrology, i.e. our [...]