An in-situ method for assessing soil aggregate stability in burned landscapes

Due to soil repellency in burned areas, slope runoff and soil erodibility escalates following forest fires, increasing the vulnerability to post-fire debris flows. Soil aggregate stability is a critical determinant of soil infiltration capacity and erosion susceptibility. The prevalent method of assessing soil aggregate stability in burned areas, the counting the number of water drop impacts (CND) method, is time-intensive and impractical for in-situ measurements. In response, this study introduces a novel technique based on the shock and vibration damage (SVD) effect for evaluating soil aggregate stability in burned areas. Thirteen distinct soil aggregate types were meticulously prepared for indoor simulated fire testing, with due consideration to factors such as bulk weight, organic matter content, and water repellency, which influence stability of soil aggregates. Employing a custom-built test apparatus, the mass loss rate (MLR) of soil aggregates was determined through orthogonal experiments using the SVD method and compared against the standard CND technique's quantification of water droplet-induced aggregate destruction. The findings demonstrated that SVD method, employing Test Scheme 6 (testing 20 aggregates, 1-meter impact height, 40% water content, and five impacts), exhibits excellent agreement (Kendall coefficient = 0.797) and correlation (R2 = 0.634) with CND method outcomes. This testing scheme, characterized by rapid determination and effective discrimination, is identified as the optimal testing approach. The SVD testing apparatus is straightforward, portable, and easily disassembled, rendering it suitable for on-site use. It can be used to distinguish the stability level of soil aggregates swiftly and quantitatively under various fire intensities in burned areas in situ, which is an important guiding significance for the study of soil erosion, erosion control, and post-fire debris flow initiation mechanism in burned areas

Trade-off between efficiency and fairness in timetabling on a single urban rail transit line under time-dependent demand condition

When minimizing the total waiting time of all passengers during timetabling, a small number of passengers would have to endure a very long waiting time. This suggests that fairness issue exists in timetabling. This study analyzes this problem by taking an urban railway timetable as a case. Two fairness criteria are analyzed, namely min–max fairness and α-fairness. A mixed-integer programming model is developed to optimize the timetable by considering the trade-off between efficiency and fairness. A simulated annealing-based adaptive large neighborhood search metaheuristic algorithm is applied to solve the problem. A real-world experiment is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. It finds that an ‘efficient’ timetable does not always perform well from the perspective of fairness. Moreover, there is a trade-off between the fairness and efficiency. The proposed model can effectively optimize the rail timetable by keeping its efficiency while simultaneously improving fairness

Occurrence and conceptual sedimentary model of Cambrian gypsum-bearing evaporites in the Sichuan Basin, SW China

During the Cambrian, gypsum-bearing evaporites formed in the Sichuan Basin, SW China. These rocks are important for oil and gas sealing, but details of their distribution and origin are not well established. This study examines the regional distribution and origin of the gypsum-bearing evaporites using a comprehensive analysis of drilling data from 34 wells, 5 measured cross-sections in the basin and surrounding area, and 96 maps of area-survey data. Results show that in the stratigraphic succession, the gypsum-bearing evaporites occur mainly in the Lower Cambrian Longwangmiao Formation, the Middle Cambrian Douposi Formation, and the Middle–Upper Cambrian Xixiangchi Group. Geographically, the rocks are found mainly in the southeastern part of the basin, and the distribution of deposits shows an overall SW–NE trend. The sedimentary environments for evaporite formation were evaporative lagoon and inter-platform basin in a platform setting. Gypsum was generated by the underwater concentration of sea water in a strongly evaporative environment. Both an evaporative restricted platform and a mixed-deposition restricted platform model appear to be applicable to the development of gypsum in the Sichuan Basin. The gypsum-bearing evaporites with the best sealing capacity are located mostly in the southeastern part of the basin. These constraints can be applied directly to regional exploration, and have implications for the regional paleogeography and paleoclimate. Keywords: Sichuan Basin, Cambrian, Gypsum-bearing evaporite, Evaporative lagoon, Inter-platform basin, Platfor