Interactions between land use and flood management in the Chi River Basin

The damages and hardships caused by floods and flooding remain an issue and are continuously increasing in the Chi River Basin, Thailand. It is difficult to make an accurate assessment of the costs and consequences associated with floods. However, flood hazards can also be seen as an opportunity, a chance to correct possible flaws and ambiguities in the flood management. The Chi River system cannot handle the regularly occurring floods, consequently, flooding of the low-lying areas occurs on a regular basis. Therefore, an integrated flood management framework needs to be developed to minimize the negative effects of floods of different magnitude. In response, a hydrological model (SWAT) and a hydraulic (1D/2D SOBEK) model were integrated to simulate floods in detailed way and to analyse the current system. A reliable simulation of the river flows and inundated areas is an essential component of a holistic flood management plan. The developed modelling framework enabled to analyse the impact of different structural measures such as river normalisation, green river (bypass), and retention basin. In addition, non-structural measures including reservoir operation and spatial land use planning were assessed in their capability to protect people and valuable infrastructure. For each measure, several possible scenarios were tested and evaluated based on economic and technical efficiency criteria to determine the most promising and efficient scenario. However, effective interventions may involve a judicious combination of flood mitigation approaches, rather than reliance on a stand-alone solution. A truly optimum combination of aforesaid measures was then chosen since it could considerably reduce flood extent and its damage. Finally, the study illustrates the effects of land use changes on floods, which indicated little or no significant potential impact on flood regime at river basin level, but rather at sub-basin scale. This finding is important for a better understanding of the scale and direction of impacts of developments in the future. Integrated land use planning was shown to be an essential component of a comprehensive flood management framework. &nbsp

Effect of Material Uncertainties on Fatigue . . .

The present paper deals with the e#ect of uncertainties on the prediction of fatigue failure of aerospace and mechanical components. Typically the design of such structures has been based on costly experiments or modified versions of Paris law which are applicable to very restricted range of conditions. The present formulation employs cohesive zone elements in order to resolve the fractured zone in combination with an extrapolation scheme that makes the analysis over hundred of thousands of cycles computationally e#cient. The e#ect of randomness in the cohesive strength is examined with respect to the total lifetime of the specimen

uncertainties: a cohesive element model

Fatigue life calculations including the crack initiation phase and materia

Zaangażowanie społeczności w zarządzanie nawodnieniami w Laotańskiej Republice Ludowo-Demokratycznej

Sustainable water resources management and community engagement are essential for water security. Referring to the above context, this study proposed to carry out an assessment of community engagement for irrigation water management in the Nam Haad Left Irrigation Project (NHLIP). The household and community level practices and the farmers’ levels of participation in irrigation water management of the NHLIP were carefully considered. From respondents’ responses, the results revealed that a husband-wife partnership plays a remarkable role in irrigation water management of the NHLIP for rice farming. The results also proved that most of the respondents engage with a high participation level in managing irrigation water of the NHLIP project as illustrated by a high score of 3.80 on the five-point Likert scale. To determine the significance of each activity on farmers’ levels of participation in irrigation water management of the NHLIP, a stepwise multiple regression analysis was employed and the standardized regression equation for determining overall participation levels can be presented as: Y = 0.538x1 + 0.831x8 + 0.534x14 + 0.607x18 + 7.572. Finally, the outcomes of this study indicated the willingness of participation in cooperating and supporting the activities related to the improvement and management of the NHLIP project.Dla bezpieczeństwa wodnego istotne są zrównoważone zarządzanie zasobami wody i zaangażowanie społeczeństwa. W badaniach prezentowanych w niniejszej pracy dokonano oceny zaangażowania społeczności w zarządzanie nawodnieniami w ramach projektu Nam Haad Left Irrigation Project (NHLIP). Szczegółowo rozważano praktyki na poziomie gospodarstwa domowego i społeczności lokalnej oraz poziom uczestnictwa rolników w zarządzaniu nawodnieniami. Wyniki uzyskane z odpowiedzi respondentów wskazują, że znaczący udział w gospodarowaniu wodą do nawodnień upraw ryżu w ramach projektu mają mąż i żona. Wyniki świadczą również, że większość respondentów uczestniczy z dużym zaangażowaniem w projekcie, czego dowodem jest wysoka punktacja (3,80) w pięciostopniowej skali Likerta. Do określenia istotności każdego rodzaju aktywności i udziału rolnika w zarządzanie nawodnieniami w ramach projektu NHLIP zastosowano krokową regresję wieloraką, a standaryzowane równanie regresji opisujące poziom całkowitego zaangażowania ma postać: Y = 0,538x1 + 0,831x8 + 0,534x14 + 0,607x18 + 7,572. Podsumowując, wyniki badań wskazują chęć udziału i współpracy w ulepszaniu i zarządzaniu projektem NHLIP

Reliability Based Optimization for Quality Assurance

inspection ABSTRACT: The present paper proposes a concept of Reliability Based Optimization (RBO) for quality assurance. In general the RBO approach is viewed as a minimization of the expected total cost of the structure including initial costs and costs due to failure, weight minimization with respect to reliability constraints, etc. The aim of the reliability based optimization is to find the best compromise between cost reduction, safety and reliability. Nevertheless, it is well-known that structures will normally degrade their structural performance during lifetime in a way that depends on their nature. Typical degrading phenomena under normal operational conditions are corrosion and fatigue effects. This leads to the development of an inspection and repair program which is known as maintenance. One of the most widely used methods for inspection is Nondestructive Inspection (NDI). Hence, in order to maintain the structural components in a good condition, NDI is required at regular intervals and the results can be used for maintenance to mitigate fatigue risk. In order to take into account the effect of NDI into an RBO concept, the parameters of inspection and repair activities are to be optimized, i.e. aime