Stratified slopes, numerical and empirical stability analysis

Urbanisation means that many natural slopes in and around cities are often subjected to cuts resulting in dramatic changes in the geometry of slope faces mostly by increasing slope angle which could lead to failures with catastrophic consequences. As most natural slopes are of nonhomogeneous layered nature, understanding the stability behaviour of such slopes will be of utmost importance. The current practice in analysing slopes of complicated nature, geometrically and materially, is mostly to apply simplifications sacrificing accuracy leading to use of large factors of safety, which could undermine analytical and economic feasibility of projects. In this research limit-equilibrium and finite element methods are used, respectively by OASYS Slope and PLAXIS 2D, to empirically and numerically model and analyse geometrically non-homogeneous stratified slopes with the aim of understanding the effects of non-homogeneity of geometry and materials on stability under various inclination angles of slope face. The analysis included determination of factors of safety as well as a sensitivity analysis looking into the combined effects of contributing parameters

Bathymetric terrain model of the Atlantic margin for marine geological investigations.

Bathymetric terrain models of seafloor morphology are an important component of marine geological investigations. Advances in acquisition and processing technologies of bathymetric data have facilitated the creation of high-resolution bathymetric surfaces that approach the resolution of similar surfaces available for onshore investigations. These bathymetric terrain models provide a detailed representation of the Earth’s subaqueous surface and, when combined with other geophysical and geological datasets, allow for interpretation of modern and ancient geological processes. The purpose of the bathymetric terrain model presented in this report is to provide a high-quality bathymetric surface of the Atlantic margin of the United States that can be used to augment current and future marine geological investigations. The input data for this bathymetric terrain model, covering almost 305,000 square kilometers, were acquired by several sources, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Geophysical Data Center and the Ocean Exploration Program, the University of New Hampshire, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. These data have been edited using hydrographic data processing software to maximize the quality, usability, and cartographic presentation of the combined terrain model

Yucca Mountain Saturated Zone Carbon-14

This Scientific Investigation Plan (SIP) provides an overview of the work described in “Yucca Mountain Saturated Zone Carbon-14”, a proposal funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Repository Development under the UCCSN/YMP Co-op in support of the Science and Technology Initiatives. The objective of this work is to provide improved estimates of the time required for ground water to travel from the site of the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, to the accessible environment

Beach response due to the pressure equalization modules (PEM) system

Coastal erosion is a significant problem with dramatic effects on the coastline. There is an urgent need to introduce new and cost-effective measures that can mitigate the impacts on the shoreline. This study has been initiated to investigate the response of the beach at Teluk Cempedak due to the beach nourishment and Pressure Equalization Modules (PEM) system. The objectives of this study are the determination of closure depth and effectiveness of the system in treating the erosion process. The depth of closure was examined using both data from a series of beach profile surveys and from empirical formulae. The widely accepted Fixed Depth Change (FDC) method was explored and the hc before and after the installation of PEM system was investigated. The research found that multiple closure points can occur along the profile lines. The closure depth after the installation of PEM system was found to be deeper and the closure point is further seaward at the southern part of the beach. The Hellemeier’s equation over predict hc by 76 %, however it reveals that the equation is still robust in determining an upper limit of hc. The simplified equation was developed at Teluk Cempedak beach in predicting closure depth and can be equated to 0.98 times H0.137. From the survey data, it is found that after three years, the total sand volume and beach elevation are significantly higher in PEM areas. Generally, the result presented indicates the decreasing value of rate of erosion. Thus it revealed that PEM system is able to stimulate accretion of sand and yet slow down the erosion process. However, based on the sand volume distribution pattern, after three years, it is obviously seen that the accretion of sand occurring at the northern part while erosion process is taking place in the southern part of the beach. Based on the distribution pattern of bed elevation over the chainage, overall, the upper part of the beach is convex unlike earlier i.e before the installation of PEM system, where the beach was low and concave. This phenomena indicates that the system contribute to a significant accretion of sand and thus created a higher beach level at about 10 m to 55 m towards the sea. However, this trend only can be seen at a certain chainage. The PEM efficiency in terms of increment in bed elevation can only be observed at CH 400 till CH 800 while at CH 900 towards the south, the efficiency is decreasing. This shows that the accretion of sand is only occurring at the northern part and the beach is eroding at the southern part. Therefore, based on the available four years record of data, there is a certain part of the beach benefiting from the PEM system. However, some parts are still experiencing the erosion process

Digitally Available Interval-Specific Rock-Sample Data Compiled from Historical Records, Nevada Test Site and Vicinity, Nye County, Nevada

Between 1951 and 1992, underground nuclear weapons testing was conducted at 828 sites on the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada. Prior to and following these nuclear tests, holes were drilled and mined to collect rock samples. These samples are organized and stored by depth of borehole or drift at the U.S. Geological Survey Core Library and Data Center at Mercury, Nevada, on the Nevada Test Site. From these rock samples, rock properties were analyzed and interpreted and compiled into project files and in published reports that are maintained at the Core Library and at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Henderson, Nevada. These rock-sample data include lithologic descriptions, physical and mechanical properties, and fracture characteristics. Hydraulic properties also were compiled from holes completed in the water table. Rock samples are irreplaceable because pre-test, in-place conditions cannot be recreated and samples cannot be recollected from the many holes destroyed by testing. Documenting these data in a published report will ensure availability for future investigators

Digitally Available Interval-Specific Rock-Sample Data Compiled from Historical Records, Nevada Test Site and Vicinity, Nye County, Nevada.

Between 1951 and 1992, 828 underground tests were conducted on the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada. Prior to and following these nuclear tests, holes were drilled and mined to collect rock samples. These samples are organized and stored by depth of borehole or drift at the U.S. Geological Survey Core Library and Data Center at Mercury, Nevada, on the Nevada Test Site. From these rock samples, rock properties were analyzed and interpreted and compiled into project files and in published reports that are maintained at the Core Library and at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Henderson, Nevada. These rock-sample data include lithologic descriptions, physical and mechanical properties, and fracture characteristics. Hydraulic properties also were compiled from holes completed in the water table. Rock samples are irreplaceable because pre-test, in-place conditions cannot be recreated and samples cannot be recollected from the many holes destroyed by testing. Documenting these data in a published report will ensure availability for future investigators

Performance Analysis of SUnSAL

In Remote Sensing (RS) cameras, used for earth observation, are generally mounted on satellite or on aero plane. Due to very high altitude of Hyperspectral Cameras (HSCs) the spatial resolution of images taken by such camera is very poor, in order of 4 m by 4m to 20m by 20m. So a single pixel from image taken by HSC may contain more than one materials and it is not possible to know about the materials present in single pixel. HSC measures the reflectance of object in the wavelength of range from 0.4 to 2.5um at 200 bands with spectral resolution of 10nm. High spectral resolution enables the accurate estimation of number of materials present in scene, known as endmembers, their spectral signature and fractional proportion within pixel, known as abundance map. This process is known as Hyperspectral Unmixing (HU). Due to large data size, environmental noise, endmember variability, not availability of pure endmembers HU is a challenging task. HU enables various application like an agricultural assessment, environmental monitoring, change detection, mineral exploitation, ground cover classification, target detection and surveillance. There are three approaches to solve this task: Geometrical, statistical and sparse regression. First two methods are Blind Source Separation (BSS) techniques. Third approach is based on sparsity and considered as semi-blind approach because it assumes the availability of spectral library. Spectral library contains the spectral signatures of various materials measured on the earth surface using advance Spectro radiometers. In sparse unmixing a mixed pixel is represented in the form of linear combination of a number of spectral signature known in advance and available in standard library. In this paper, mathematical steps for Spectral Unmixing using variable Splitting and Augmented Lagrangian (SUnSAL) are simplified. performance of SUnSAL is evaluated with the help of standard and publically available synthetic data base

Combination of content analysis and context features for digital photograph retrieval.

In recent years digital cameras have seen an enormous rise in popularity, leading to a huge increase in the quantity of digital photos being taken. This brings with it the challenge of organising these large collections. The MediAssist project uses date/time and GPS location for the organisation of personal collections. However, this context information is not always sufficient to support retrieval when faced with a large, shared, archive made up of photos from a number of users. We present work in this paper which retrieves photos of known objects (buildings, monuments) using both location information and content-based retrieval tools from the AceToolbox. We show that for this retrieval scenario, where a user is searching for photos of a known building or monument in a large shared collection, content-based techniques can offer a significant improvement over ranking based on context (specifically location) alone