Monitoring Land Surface Deformation with Satellite ScanSAR Images: Case Studies on Large Earthquakes in China

This chapter presents a new application of scanning interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ScanSAR) interferometry in monitoring land surface deformation caused by large earthquakes. To make better use of the ScanSAR data and obtain a wider deformation observation, this research studied and analyzed certain key elements of ScanSAR interferometry, including coherence, co-registering, methods of removing orbit errors, correction of atmosphere effects, and geoid undulation. The wide swath mode (WSM) is also known as the ScanSAR mode by which synthetic aperture time is shared by adjacent sub-swaths and azimuth resolution that is traded off for a wider coverage. So, it is possible to monitor a larger area of earthquake deformation. In this study, we obtained ScanSAR and Image Mode (IM) data and analyzed coherence, co-registering, methods of removing orbit errors, correction of atmosphere effects, and geoid undulation to monitor land surface deformation caused by large earthquakes in the 405 × 405 km field of the Wenchuan earthquake and Yutian earthquake, respectively, in China. The results obtained agree well with that of the investigations of the crustal motion in the study areas

Neo-tectonic Movement in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region of China and Its Effects on the Coastal Sedimentary Environment

This chapter presents the Late Quaternary neo-tectonic movement in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China and its effects on the coastal sedimentary environment. Taking the Xilin Hill fault as the example, we have explained the reason of the PRD formation, inferred its interactions with local/regional climate and sea-level changes, and analyzed the evolution of the PRD formation and its controlling factors of the coastal sedimentary environment

Analysis of Urban Impervious Surface in Coastal Cities: A Case Study in Lianyungang, China

Impervious surface is an important indicator of the level of urbanization. It is of great significance to study the impervious surface to promote the sustainable development of the city. In the process of urban development, the increase of impervious surface cities is bound to be accompanied by a reduction of one or more types of land use in the city. This paper, taking Lianyungang as an example, introduces the methods of extracting urban impervious surface based on VIS model, NDVI (normalized vegetation index), MNDWI (modified normalized water body index), and unsupervised classification, analyzes the changes of impervious surface in Lianyungang from 1987 to 2014, and on this basis, analyzes the trend and driving forces of land use types in Lianyungang city in depth. The results show that the impervious surface of Lianyungang increased by a total of 29.70% between 1987 and 2014. While the impervious surface continues to increase, the area of cultivated land and coastal areas (including salt works and tidal flats) has been greatly reduced, and the types of land use have undergone significant changes

Analysis for the Effect of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) on the Coastal Environments of Jiangsu Province, China

In this chapter, we present the analysis for the effect of summertime SST on the coastal environments of Jiangsu province, China. We analyze the relationship between the SST and the Jiangsu precipitation in summer based on GPCP’s precipitation data and NOAA’s SST data from 1979 to 2011, using approaches that include correlation analysis, regression analysis, and lead-lag analysis. The results show that certain strong oceanic signals affect summer Jiangsu precipitation, showing that SST of some oceanic areas significantly affect the precipitation of Jiangsu in summer. By the lead-lag analysis, it is found that the spring SST plays an important role in the summer precipitation in the coastal areas of Jiangsu, China

Evaluation of the Influence of Aquatic Plants and Lake Bottom on the Remote-Sensing Reflectance of Optically Shallow Waters

Aquatic plants and lake bottoms in optically shallow waters (OSWs) wield great influence on reflectance spectra, resulting in the inapplicability of most existing bio-optical models for water colour remote sensing in lakes. Based on radiative transfer theory and measured spectra from a campaign for Lake Taihu in October 2008, absorption and backscattering coefficients were used to simulate the remote-sensing reflectance, which are considered to be reliable if matched to their measured counterparts. Several cases of measured spectra at different depths, Secchi disk depth transparency, and aquatic plant height and coverage were analyzed thoroughly for spectral properties. The contribution of aquatic plants was evaluated and compared with the measured and simulated remote-sensing reflectance values. This is helpful for removing the influence of aquatic plants and lake bottoms from the spectra and for constructing an improved chlorophyll a retrieval model for OSWs, such as that for Lake Taihu, China

Analysis for Soil Moisture in Jiangsu Province, China, Using GLDAS Data

In this chapter, we present the analysis for the evolution characteristics of temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture. We choose a newly developed method that is based on the information flow (IF) concept to research the causality between annual mean temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture in Jiangsu province, China, from 1961 to 2011 by using the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS). The correlation and the causality of air temperature and precipitation on soil moisture were compared and discussed. The causality value of 0–10 cm layer is significantly different from zero, while the deeper, in comparison to the surface layer, is negligible. This result unambiguously shows the causality in the sense that the precipitation increase and the temperature decrease are causing the shallow soil moisture to increase. Temperature and all layers of soil moisture have a negative correlation, but precipitation inverses. Precipitation strongly has the greatest effects on soil moisture in the surface layer, though the rest layers are not obvious

A quantitative enhanced assessment for ancient landslide reactivation risk considering cross-time scale joint response mechanism

Ancient landslide has strong concealment and disturbance sensitivity due to its special geotechnical mechanical characteristics, and it is the potential hazard that cannot be ignored in human activities and major engineering planning. The quantitative assessment of ancient landslide reactivation risk has become more necessary for pre-disaster scientific warning. However, because the mechanisms of deformation and damage during the evolution of ancient landslides are quite complex, traditional landslide risk assessment methods only select the single-time scale and relatively stable environmental factors for analysis, lacking consideration of dynamic triggering factors such as rainfall. Focusing on the complexity, a quantitative enhanced assessment for ancient landslide reactivation risk considering cross-time scale joint response mechanism is proposed. First, on the basis of systematic analysis of the implicit genesis mechanism and explicit characterization, an evaluation system of the cross-time scale joint characteristics of ancient landslide reactivation is constructed. Then, XGBoost algorithm and SBAS-InSAR are used to establish the long-time scale developmental evolution mechanism model and the short-time scale dynamical trigger model, respectively. Subsequently, we propose a cross-time scale joint response mechanism. The information entropy weight method is applied to calculate the contribution degree of long-short time scale assessment models for ancient landslide reactivation based on the constraints of quantitative interval thresholds, and the assessment processes of different time scales are dynamically and quantitatively correlated. Finally, the updated optimization of the assessment of ancient landslide reactivation risk is achieved. In this research, experimental analysis was carried out for ancient landslide groups in a geological hazard-prone area in Fengjie County, Chongqing, a typical mountainous region of China. The results of the comparative analysis validate the superiority of the method in this paper. It helps to accurately assess the ancient landslide potential hazard in advance, providing scientific basis and technical support for the risk assessment of mountainous watershed geological hazards and major engineering projects

Analyzing the Characteristics of Soil Moisture Using GLDAS Data: A Case Study in Eastern China

In this paper, we use GLDAS (Global Land Data Assimilation System) to analyze the effects of air temperature and precipitation on the characteristics of soil moisture in the eastern region of China from 1961 to 2011. We find that the temperature and precipitation in different seasons have different degrees of influence on the characteristics of soil moisture in each layer. The results show that over the last 50 years, the soil moisture in eastern China has a tendency to dry out, especially between the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The change of soil moisture with the depth of soil layer has similar inter-annual and seasonal patterns. Soil moisture in different depths (0–200 cm) positively correlates with the air temperatures of spring, summer and autumn, but negatively correlates with the air temperature in winter at 0–10 cm, 40–100 cm and 100–200 cm. Similarly, soil moisture is positively related to the precipitation in spring, summer and autumn, and the opposite is true in winter. The results also show that precipitation has a significant effect on the shallow soil moisture (0–10 cm), while air temperature most affects the deep soil moisture (100–200 cm)

A Side Scan Sonar Image Target Detection Algorithm Based on a Neutrosophic Set and Diffusion Maps

To accurately achieve side scan sonar (SSS) image target detection, a novel target detection algorithm based on a neutrosophic set (NS) and diffusion maps (DMs) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the neutrosophic subset images were obtained by transforming the input SSS image into the NS domain. Secondly, the shadowed areas of the SSS image were detected using the single gray value threshold method before the diffusion map was calculated. Lastly, based on the diffusion map, the target areas were detected using the improved target scoring equation defined by the diffusion distance and texture feature. The experiments using SSS images of single clear and unclear targets, with or without shadowed areas, showed that the algorithm accurately detects targets. Experiments using SSS images of multiple targets, with or without shadowed areas, showed that no false or missing detections occurred. The target areas were also accurately detected in SSS images with complex features such as sand wave terrain. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm were assessed

Heterogeneity of cancer-associated fibroblasts in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) consist of heterogeneous cellular populations that contribute critical roles in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). A series of computer-aided analyses were performed to determine various aspects of CAFs in HNSCC, including their cellular heterogeneity, prognostic value, relationship with immune suppression and immunotherapeutic response, intercellular communication, and metabolic activity. The prognostic significance of CKS2+ CAFs was verified using immunohistochemistry. Our findings revealed that fibroblasts group demonstrated prognostic significance, with the CKS2+ subset of inflammatory CAFs (iCAFs) exhibiting a significant correlation with unfavorable prognosis and being localized in close proximity to cancer cells. Patients with a high infiltration of CKS2+ CAFs had a poor overall survival rate. There is a negative correlation between CKS2+ iCAFs and cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and natural killer (NK) cells, while a positive correlation was found with exhausted CD8+ T cells. Additionally, patients in Cluster 3, characterized by a high proportion of CKS2+ iCAFs, and patients in Cluster 2, characterized by a high proportion of CKS2- iCAFs and CENPF-/MYLPF- myofibroblastic CAFs (myCAFs), did not exhibit significant immunotherapeutic responses. Moreover, close interactions was confirmed to exist between cancer cells and CKS2+ iCAFs/ CENPF+ myCAFs. Furthermore, CKS2+ iCAFs demonstrated the highest level of metabolic activity. In summary, our study enhances the understanding of the heterogeneity of CAFs and provided insights into improving the efficacy of immunotherapies and prognostic accuracy for HNSCC patients