Uncertainty and Quality rating in Analytical Vulnerability Assessment

Fragility curves represent a major component of seismic risk and vulnerability assessment of buildings and infrastructure facilities. A recently conducted extensive literature review under the framework of developing the “GEM Guide for Selecting of Existing Analytical Fragility Curves and Compilation of the Database”, shows that there is a wealth of existing analytically derived fragility curves that can be used for future applications. However, the main challenge in using these curves is how to identify and, if necessary, combine suitable fragility curves from a pool of curves with different characteristics and, often unknown, reliability. The present article introduces a rating system that has been developed following detail review and critique of the various methodologies on the derivation of analytical fragility curves that have been generated in the past two decades. The main scope is to provide guidance, either in choosing suitable and robust existing fragility curves or in generating new fragility curves. The quality rating system rates the quality of a curve according to the effect that various parameters, simulation procedures and assumptions on the reliability of fragility curve. It also assists and steers potential analysts towards a better identification and quantification of expected uncertainties throughout the process

The Global Earthquake Model Physical Vulnerability Database

There are almost 50 years of research on fragility and vulnerability assessment, both key elements in seismic risk or loss estimation. This paper presents the online database of physical vulnerability models that has been created as part of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) initiative. The database comprises fragility and vulnerability curves, damage-to-loss models, and capacity curves for various types of structures. The attributes that have been selected to characterize each function, the constraints of setting up a usable database, the challenges in collecting these models, and the current trends in the development of vulnerability models are discussed in this study. The current collection of models leverages upon the outputs of several initiatives, such as GEM’s Global Vulnerability Consortium and the European Syner-G project. This database is publicly available through the web-based GEM OpenQuake-platform http://doi.org/10.13117/GEM.DATASET.VULN.WEB-V1.

Coastal sea level monitoring in the Mediterranean and Black seas

Employed for over a century, the traditional way of monitoring sea level variability by tide gauges – in combination with modern observational techniques like satellite altimetry – is an inevitable ingredient in sea level studies over the climate scales and in coastal seas. The development of the instrumentation, remote data acquisition, processing, and archiving in the last decades has allowed the extension of the applications to a variety of users and coastal hazard managers. The Mediterranean and Black seas are examples of such a transition – while having a long tradition of sea level observations with several records spanning over a century, the number of modern tide gauge stations is growing rapidly, with data available both in real time and as a research product at different time resolutions. As no comprehensive survey of the tide gauge networks has been carried out recently in these basins, the aim of this paper is to map the existing coastal sea level monitoring infrastructures and the respective data availability. The survey encompasses a description of major monitoring networks in the Mediterranean and Black seas and their characteristics, including the type of sea level sensors, measuring resolutions, data availability, and existence of ancillary measurements, altogether collecting information about 240 presently operational tide gauge stations. The availability of the Mediterranean and Black seas sea level data in the global and European sea level repositories has been also screened and classified following their sampling interval and level of quality check, pointing to the necessity of harmonization of the data available with different metadata and series in different repositories. Finally, an assessment of the networks' capabilities for their use in different sea level applications has been done, with recommendations that might mitigate the bottlenecks and ensure further development of the networks in a coordinated way, a critical need in the era of human-induced climate changes and sea level rise.En prens

Coastal Sea Level Monitoring in the Mediterranean and Black Seas

Spanning over a century, a traditional way to monitor sea level variability by tide gauges is – in combination with modern observational techniques like satellite altimetry – an inevitable ingredient in sea level studies over the climate scales and in coastal seas. The development of the instrumentation, remote data acquisition, processing and archiving in last decades allowed for extending the applications towards a variety of users and coastal hazard managers. The Mediterranean and Black50 seas are an example for such a transition – while having a long tradition for sea level observations with several records spanning over a century, the number of modern tide gauge stations are growing rapidly, with data available both in real-time and as a research product at different time resolutions. As no comprehensive survey of the tide gauge networks has been carried out recently in these basins, the aim of this paper is to map the existing coastal sea level monitoring infrastructures and the respective data availability. The survey encompasses description of major monitoring networks in the Mediterranean and Black55 seas and their characteristics, including the type of sea level sensors, measuring resolutions, data availability and existence of ancillary measurements, altogether collecting information about 236 presently operational tide gauge stations. The availability of the Mediterranean and Black seas sea level data in the global and European sea level repositories has been also screened and classified following their sampling interval and level of quality-check, pointing to the necessity of harmonization of the data available with different metadata and series at different repositories. Finally, an assessment of the networks’ capabilities60 for their usage in different sea level applications has been done, with recommendations that might mitigate the bottlenecks and assure further development of the networks in a coordinated way, being that more necessary in the era of the human-induced climate changes and the sea level ris

Identification des fréquences de résonance et du module d’élasticité par la méthode d’analyse vibratoire

p.p. 207-213Le présent travail dont la méthodologie, largement utilisée dans le domaine de la dynamique vibratoire pour l’identification de module d’élasticité des matériaux, repose sur la recherche et l’interprétation du spectre des fréquences propres issues des vibrations naturelles en appliquant la théorie des poutres élastiques . La démarche expérimentale consiste en des essais de vibrations longitudinales sur des poutres (acier, bois) suffisamment longues pour déterminer les fréquences propres des matériaux. Les résultats d’identification ont montré une très bonne corrélation entre les valeurs théorique et les valeurs expérimentales obtenues :fréquences de résonance et modules d’élasticité des matériaux élaboré

Effect of water deficit on Argan tree seedlings (Argania spinosa L. Skeels): Morphological and physiological aspect

The Argan tree, Argania spinosa L., Skeels, is an endemic species in North-West Africa perfectly adapted to aridity and drought. It is in this context that we studied the physiological impact of water deficit on the Argan tree seedlings for eight weeks at a field capacity of 30%. The obtained results reveal that the stressed seedlings manifested by the strategy of the root elongation from the second week, the roots reached 31 cm compared with 15 cm of the control. However, the seedlings showed severe dehydration of 41% in leaves and 45% in roots. Besides, the content of chlorophyll pigments has relatively decreased from the second week, a slight yellowing and leaf drop was observed. The seedlings have accumulated proteins in a very significant way in leaves (from 25 to 107 mg.g-1 by fresh weight) and (from 23 to 90 mg.g-1 by fresh weight) in roots. Proline was also accumulated; the content was 4 and 2 μg.g-1 by fresh weight respectively in leaves and roots compared with 1.3 and 1.1 μg.g-1 1 by fresh weight in control respectively. The accumulation of the protein and proline is higher in leaves than in roots. The content of malondialdehyde was higher in leaves than in roots. This increase is significantly related to the prolongation of the stress period from the second week. The enzymatic activity of peroxidase is in relative increase according to the duration of the water stress applied in both leaves and roots. We deduce from these results that Argan seedlings possess the characteristic of xeropyhte that tolerate aridity. Key words: Argania spinosa,  drought stress,  proline,  chlorophylls,  proteins

Wall shear rates and stagnation mass transfer on a plate in axisymmetric and cross impinging jets

This article presents a study on the stagnation wall shear rate and mass transfer ofimpinging jets on a flat plate. The performance of a cross-shaped orifice nozzle was comparedwith a reference convergent circular nozzle having similar equivalent diameter. An array ofelectrodiffusion micro probes inserted into the plate was used for wall shear ratesmeasurements. Mass transfer in the impinging region was calculated from the measured wallshear rates for a Reynolds number around 5500 and over a range of streamwise distancesbetween the nozzle and the impinging plane within 1 to 5 nozzle equivalent diameters. Themost important observation in the present investigation is that the wall shear rates and the masstransfer in the impingement region of the cross-shaped orifice nozzle are up to 175% and 40%,respectively, higher than that of the convergent nozzle. The performance of the cross-shapedorifice jet is probably related to its particular vortex dynamics characteristic of the near exitregion. All the results confirm that the jet passive control enhance the mass transfer