Coastal flooding risk calculations for the Belgian coast

Coastal flooding risk calculations are carried out for the entire Belgian coastal zone to support the management ofthe coastal defence system. The floodprone low-lying coastal area has an average width of 20 km and is locatedon average 2 m below the surge level of an annual storm. The natural sea defences are sandy beaches anddunes, which have been strengthened by revetments in the coastal towns. The Belgian standard of coastalprotection is to be safe against a surge level with a return period of 1000 years, but at present it is investigated if and how this standard could be redefined based on risk analysis

ECOPLAN-SE: Ruimtelijke analyse van ecosysteemdiensten in Vlaanderen, een Q-GIS plugin

ECOPLAN-SE is een ruimtelijk expliciete tool (QGIS) voor het beoordelen van de impact van landgebruikveranderingen op de levering van ecosysteemdiensten. De ontwikkeling van deze tool kadert in het het SBO-project “ECOPLAN” (Planning for Ecosystem Services). ECOPLAN ontwikkelt ruimtelijk expliciete informatie en instrumenten voor de beoordeling van ecosysteemdiensten. Het ontwerpt instrumenten voor de evaluatie van functionele ecosystemen als een kostenefficiënte strategie om de landgebruiksefficiëntie en milieukwaliteit te verbeteren. Het ontwikkelt open source eindproducten voor het identificeren, kwantificeren, waarderen, valideren en monitoren van ecosysteemdiensten. Deze producten kunnen door administraties en consultants worden ingezet in projectontwikkeling, kosten-baten analyses, milieueffecten rapportering, etc

The impact of land use/land cover scale on modelling urban ecosystem services

Context Urbanisation places increasing stress on ecosystem services; however existing methods and data for testing relationships between service delivery and urban landscapes remain imprecise and uncertain. Unknown impacts of scale are among several factors that complicate research. This study models ecosystem services in the urban area comprising the towns of Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton which together represent a wide range of the urban forms present in the UK. Objectives The objectives of this study were to test (1) the sensitivity of ecosystem service model outputs to the spatial resolution of input data, and (2) whether any resultant scale dependency is constant across different ecosystem services and model approaches (e.g. stock- versus flow-based). Methods Carbon storage, sediment erosion, and pollination were modelled with the InVEST framework using input data representative of common coarse (25 m) and fine (5 m) spatial resolutions. Results Fine scale analysis generated higher estimates of total carbon storage (9.32 vs. 7.17 kg m−2) and much lower potential sediment erosion estimates (6.4 vs. 18.1 Mg km−2 year−1) than analyses conducted at coarser resolutions; however coarse-scale analysis estimated more abundant pollination service provision. Conclusions Scale sensitivities depend on the type of service being modelled; stock estimates (e.g. carbon storage) are most sensitive to aggregation across scales, dynamic flow models (e.g. sediment erosion) are most sensitive to spatial resolution, and ecological process models involving both stocks and dynamics (e.g. pollination) are sensitive to both. Care must be taken to select model data appropriate to the scale of inquiry

Phase diagram calculation of Ti-Zr-X systems

The ternary isothermal sections of five Ti-Zr-X systems (X = Hf, Nb, Ta, Mo, W) are computed with the regular solution model, the line compound model and the subregular model. The calculation is based on the assessed binary diagrams and on the corresponding thermodynamic properties. The computation operates with iteration and optimum methods. The calculated isothermal sections of the ternary system Ti-Zr-Hf are given as an example

VC and Cr3C2 doped WC-NbC-Co hardmetals

This study compares the microstructure and mechanical properties of plain and 0.9 or 3.6 wt% VC- or Cr3C2-doped WC-12 wt% Co hardmetals with 40 wt% NbC, prepared by pulsed electric current sintering (PECS) in the solid state for 4 min at 1240 °C and conventional pressureless liquid phase sintering (CS) for 1 h at 1420 °C. The addition of VC or Cr3C2 was found to inhibit grain growth of the residual WC grains, whereas the size of the solid solution (Nb,W,V/Cr)C grains was hardly influenced. The type of grain growth inhibitor and densification temperature however, strongly influenced the composition of the NbC solid solution formed, which was thermodynamically and experimentally assessed. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.status: publishe

Internal Friction uder Low-Amplitude torsional and High-Amplitude Uniaxial Load in Silicon Nitride.

High temperatures stimulate thermally activated deformation mechanisms. For single crystal ceramics the consequences are limited up to temperatures of about 1400*C. However, for polycrystalline ceramic materials it has been observed that at temperatures typically in excess of 1000*C, the deformation behaviour becomes increasingly time-dependent. This phenomeno is known to be affected by grain boundary processes. In ceramics produced with liquid phase forming sintering additives the latter will remain at least partially in the grain boundaries after processing. Ceramics containing such amorphous intergranular phases (IGPs) are even more prone to changes of the mechanical behaviour at high temperatures, since at temperatures exceeding the glass transition temperature of the IGPs their viscosity drops.JRC.(IAM)-Institute For Advanced Material