Preprints
There are 4725 Preprints listed.
A Performance Comparison of Unsupervised Machine Learning Algorithms for Clustering Water Depth Datasets at Urban Drainage Systems
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
As sensor measurements emerge in urban water systems, data-driven unsupervised machine learning algorithms have been drawn tremendous interest in infrastructure monitoring, flow prediction, and pollutant warning recently. However, most of them are applied in water distribution systems, and few studies consider using unsupervised clustering analysis to group the time-series hydraulic-hydrologic [...]
Predicting outbreak-level tornado counts and casualties from environmental variables
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Environmental variables are used routinely in forecasting when and where an outbreak of tornadoes are likely to occur, but more work is needed to understand how characteristics of severe weather outbreaks vary with the larger scale environmental factors. Here the authors demonstrate a method to quantify `outbreak-level tornado and casualty counts with respect to variations in large-scale [...]
Large-eddy simulation of traffic-related air pollution at a very high-resolution in a mega-city: Evaluation against mobile sensors and insights for influencing factors
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Urban air pollution has tremendous spatial variability at scales ranged from kilometer to meters due to unevenly distributed emission sources, complex flow patterns, and photochemical reactions. However, high-resolution air quality information is not available through traditional approaches such as ground-based measurements and regional air quality models (with typical resolution >1 km). Here [...]
Coupling Mars ground and orbital views: generate viewsheds of Mastcam images from the Curiosity rover, using ArcGIS® and public datasets.
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Other Planetary Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences
The Mastcam (Mast Camera) instrument onboard the NASA Curiosity rover provides an exclusive view of Mars: the color high-resolution Mastcam images allow users to study Gale crater’s geological terrains and landscapes along the rover path. This view from the ground complements the spatially broader view provided by spacecrafts from orbit. However, for a given Mastcam image, it can be challenging [...]
Structure and kinematics of an extensional growth fold, Hadahid Fault System, Suez Rift, Egypt
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Normal faulting drives extensional growth folding of the Earth’s upper crust during continental extension, yet we know little of how fold geometry relates to the structural segmentation of the underlying fault. We use field data from the Hadahid Fault System, Suez Rift, Egypt to investigate the geometry and kinematics of a large (30 km long, up to 2.5 km displacement), exceptionally well exposed [...]
Streamflow depletion from groundwater pumping in contrasting hydrogeological landscapes: Evaluation and sensitivity of a new management tool
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Groundwater pumping can reduce streamflow by reducing groundwater discharge and/or inducing streamflow infiltration, which together are referred to as streamflow depletion. Recently, analytical depletion functions (ADFs) have been suggested as rapid and accurate tools for streamflow depletion assessment, but their performance has only been tested in a few hydrogeological settings. To evaluate [...]
Protecting rivers by integrating supply-wastewater infrastructure planning and coordinating operational decisions
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
Placing water quality in rivers at the centre of water infrastructure planning and management is an important objective. In response there has been a range of whole system analyses. Few studies, however, consider both abstraction (water removed from rivers) and discharge (water returned) to inform the future planning of water systems. In this work we present a systems approach to analysing future [...]
Quantitative analysis of a footwall-scarp degradation complex and syn-rift stratigraphic architecture, Exmouth Plateau, NW Shelf, offshore Australia
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Interactions between footwall-, hangingwall- and axial-derived depositional systems make syn-rift stratigraphic architecture difficult to predict, and preservation of net-erosional source landscapes is limited. Distinguishing between deposits derived from fault-scarp degradation (consequent systems) and those derived from long-lived catchments beyond the fault block crest (antecedent systems) is [...]
Setting up the preservation of fluvial channel belts
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Subsidence alone is often too slow to create the necessary relief needed to preserve continuous channel belts over 10s of km, as are often observed in outcrops on Earth and Mars, as well as subsurface seismic volumes. However, an alternative source of topographic relief exists along US Gulf of Mexico and SE Atlantic coastal plains, which are regions generally considered flat. Alluvial ridges, [...]
Using thermal springs to quantify deep groundwater flow and its thermal footprint in the Alps and North American orogens
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The extent of deep groundwater flow in mountain belts and its thermal effects are uncertain. Here, we use a new database of discharge, temperature and composition of thermal springs in the Alps to estimate the extent of deep groundwater flow and its contribution to the groundwater and heat budget. The results indicate that springs are fed exclusively by meteoric water and make up 0.1% of the [...]
Global projections of compound coastal meteorological extremes
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Compound coastal and inland flooding can result in catastrophic impacts in densely populated low-lying coastal areas. The dynamics and interactions between the underlying meteorological drivers in view of climate change are not fully understood at global scale. Here, we show that under a high emissions scenario the concurrence probability of extreme meteorological tides and inland precipitation [...]
Modeling the spatial dynamics of marsh ponds in New England salt marshes
Published: 2020-04-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ponds are common features on salt marshes, yet it is unclear how they affect large-scale marsh evolution. We developed a spatially explicit model that combines cellular automata for pond formation, expansion, and drainage, and partial differential equations for elevation dynamics. We use the mesotidal Barnstable marsh (MA, USA) as a case study, for which we measured pond expansion rate by remote [...]
Inter-model spread in the pattern effect and its contribution to climate sensitivity in CMIP5 and CMIP6 models
Published: 2020-04-23
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Radiative feedbacks depend on the spatial patterns of sea-surface temperature (SST) and thus can change over time as SST patterns evolve – the so-called ‘pattern effect’. This study investigates inter-model differences in the magnitude of the pattern effect and how these differences contribute to the spread in the effective equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) within CMIP5 and CMIP6 models. [...]
Runout of rock avalanches limited by basal friction but controlled by fragmentation
Published: 2020-04-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Rock avalanches display exceptionally long runouts, which are found to correlate with their volume and attributed to size dependent dynamic lowering of the effective basal friction. However, even for similar volumes, runouts are seen to span several orders of magnitude suggesting additional controlling factors. Here, we document experiments with analogue models of rock avalanches aimed at testing [...]
Using large-scale NO2 data from citizen science for air quality compliance and policy support
Published: 2020-04-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Citizen science projects that monitor air quality have recently drastically expanded in scale. Projects involving thousands of citizens generate spatially dense datasets using low-cost passive samplers for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which complement data from the sparse reference network operated by environmental agencies. However, there is a critical bottleneck in using these citizen-derived [...]