Preprints
There are 5726 Preprints listed.
Decoding the Eastward Tilt of the Indian Peninsular Plateau: Insights from Geodynamic Modelling
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The eastward tilting of the Indian Peninsular (IP) plateau has been a topic of ongoing debate in geoscience. This study introduces a fresh geodynamic perspective, employing extensive topographic analyses to identify the mechanisms behind this tilting. By analyzing the eastward-flowing river systems in relation to the plateau’s tilt, we constructed a series of east-west topographic profiles using [...]
A Conversational Intelligent Assistant for Enhanced Operational Support in Floodplain Management with Multimodal Data
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Floodplain management is crucial for mitigating flood risks and enhancing community resilience, yet floodplain managers often face significant challenges, including the complexity of data analysis, regulatory compliance, and effective communication with diverse stakeholders. This study introduces Floodplain Manager AI, an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) based virtual assistant designed to [...]
Evolution of desalination research and water production in the Middle East: a five-decade perspective
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
Rapid urbanization and population growth, coupled with depleting groundwater reservoirs, have significantly increased reliance on desalination technologies in the arid Middle East, which accounts for nearly half (46%) of global desalination capacity. This large production volume has raised critical questions on the status of desalination research in this water-stressed region, and on whether it [...]
MinPlotX: A powerful tool for formula recalculation, visualization, and comparison of large mineral compositional datasets
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
MinPlotX is an open-source software for mineral formula recalculation and compositional plotting providing an easy-to-use stand-alone graphical user interface (GUI) as well as an advanced programming interface (API). The aim of MinPlotX is to provide publication-ready tables of mineral formulae and plots of mineral composition. The new GUI-based approach allows for a wider variety of calculation [...]
A simplified physics model for estimating subsurface CO2 storage resources constrained by fault slip potential
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at rates of several gigatonnes (Gt) per year may be needed to mitigate climate change. However, one major uncertainty is that the risk of injection-induced earthquakes may grow with this scale of deployment. In this work, we develop a tool, named CO2BLOCKSEISM, which uses simplified physics models to screen subsurface storage resources constrained by fault [...]
ESG mapping of the Australian mining sector – The state of play on mobilising spatial datasets for decision making
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
The global energy transition will drive increased demand for a broad range of mined minerals.40 Australia is well positioned to support the global energy transition, given its mature mining sector41 and rich and diverse mineral resources. The potential growth in the mining sector represents an42 economic opportunity, however, navigating the associated environmental, social, and governance43 (ESG) [...]
Stories, Storytelling and Storylines for Geoscience Communication
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Geoscientists need to recognize and embrace our role as storytellers, so that we can more effectively use storytelling to advance our science. As narrative-driven storylines become an increasing tool in disaster and climate risk communications, understanding the ‘science’ of stories and storytelling becomes an ever more critical geoscientific skillset.
Temporal variation in counterclockwise vertical-axis block rotations across a rift overlap zone, southwestern Ethiopia, East Africa
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Tectonics and Structure
The southward propagation of the southern Main Ethiopian Rift (sMER) and the northward propagation of the Kenya Rift have generated the Broadly Rifted Zone (BRZ), a ~40-km-wide region of extensional overlap between the Chew Bahir Basin-Gofa Province and the sMER. However, the tectonic interaction between these propagating rifts is not well-understood. We present new paleomagnetic and [...]
Impact of farm size on the function of landscape-level payments for ecosystem services: An agent-based model study
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
Reducing pesticide use and restoring biodiversity are among the most pressing environmental challenges. Enhancing natural pest control ecosystem services through the integration of non-crop habitats (NCH) offers promising potential, creating a positive feedback loop by harnessing insect biodiversity to reduce pesticide reliance. Policy support is needed at the landscape level to encourage [...]
SC-PREC4SA: A serially complete daily precipitation dataset for South America
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study introduces the serially complete precipitation dataset for South America (SC-PREC4SA), a daily precipitation dataset (1960-2015) designed to address observational gaps and ensure temporal consistency across diverse climates. The raw dataset underwent quality control, gap-filling, and homogenization procedures. Applied robust quality control highlighted common but also overlooked [...]
Catastrophe risk models as quantitative tools for climate change loss and damage: A demonstration for flood in Malawi, Vietnam, and the Philippines
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
Climate change loss and damage is a critical part of the international climate policy framework,addressing the residual climate impacts that cannot be avoided through mitigation or adaptation,which disproportionately affect vulnerable communities with limited capacity to recover. Major gaps remain in quantifying loss and damage, including developing equitable, operational mechanisms for financing [...]
Projecting Global Changes in Land Use and Ecosystem Services Using SEALS (Spatial Economic Allocation Landscape Simulator)
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Spatial Science, Statistical Models
Understanding how economic systems and ecosystems interact across space is crucial to ensure societal needs are met without compromising environmental quality. Spatially explicit economic models usually describe human activities and ensuing land-use dynamics at a resolution that this is too coarse (typically 10-1000 regions) to understand how these affect many biophysical processes, including [...]
Delineating HCV forest areas using density analysis: it's not clear-cut
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Natural Resources and Conservation
High conservation value (HCV) areas include natural habitats with high ecological, biological, social or cultural values. The use of spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identify HCV areas is more cost-efficient and less time consuming that field surveys. GIS-based approaches can also be necessary for identifying HCV areas in heterogeneous landscapes where, e.g., HCV [...]
Evaluating Temporal and Spatial Variations in Vegetation Coverage in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (2004-2023) Using kNDVI
Published: 2024-12-17
Subjects: Higher Education
The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) is a crucial ecological zone in China, facing significant environmental challenges, particularly climate change. To better understand vegetation dynamics in this region, this study examines vegetation cover trends from 2004 to 2023 and identifies their driving factors using an innovative kernel-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (kNDVI) [...]
Internal Oscillations of Tropical Mesoscale Convective Disturbances
Published: 2024-12-17
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In real-world observations, long-lived tropical mesoscale convective disturbances (MCDs) often exhibit quasi-periodic variations. Previous studies suggested that these variations are mainly induced by external forcings. However, some studies showed evidence that tropical MCDs can display quasi-periodic behavior even without external forcings. In this study, a suite of idealized [...]