MT-InSAR and Dam Modeling for the Comprehensive Monitoring of an Earth-Fill Dam: The Case of the Benínar Dam (Almería, Spain)

The Benínar Dam, located in Southeastern Spain, is an earth-fill dam that has experienced filtration issues since its construction in 1985. Despite the installation of various monitoring systems, the data collected are sparse and inadequate for the dam’s lifetime. The present research integrates Multi-Temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MT-InSAR) and dam modeling to validate the monitoring of this dam, opening the way to enhanced integrated monitoring systems. MT-InSAR was proved to be a reliable and continuous monitoring system for dam deformation, surpassing previously installed systems in terms of precision. MT-InSAR allowed the almost-continuous monitoring of this dam since 1992, combining ERS, Envisat, and Sentinel-1A/B data. Line-of-sight (LOS) velocities of settlement in the crest of the dam evolved from maximums of −6 mm/year (1992–2000), −4 mm/year (2002–2010), and −2 mm/year (2015–2021) with median values of −2.6 and −3.0 mm/year in the first periods (ERS and Envisat) and −1.3 mm/year in the Sentinel 1-A/B period. These results are consistent with the maximum admissible modeled deformation from construction, confirming that settlement was more intense in the dam’s early stages and decreased over time. MT-InSAR was also used to integrate the monitoring of the dam basin, including critical slopes, quarries, and infrastructures, such as roads, tracks, and spillways. This study allows us to conclude that MT-InSAR and dam modeling are important elements for the integrated monitoring systems of embankment dams. This conclusion supports the complete integration of MT-InSAR and 3D modeling into the monitoring systems of embankment dams, as they are a key complement to traditional geotechnical monitoring and can overcome the main limitations of topographical monitoringReMoDams project ESP2017-89344-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and CompetitivenessSIAGUA project PID2021-128123OB-C21PID2021-128123OB-C22MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033/FEDER,UEPOAIUJA-2023/2024CEACTEMA from University of Jaén (Spain)RNM-282 research group from the Junta de Andalucía (Spain

Bayesian modeling of ecosystem services in human enviroment systems.

The adaptive management of ecosystem services requires knowledge about the interdependence of land use decision-making and the ecosystem features in a given landscape; and how this coupled humanenvironment system is influenced by drivers of global change. The problem in this context is, that both decisionmaking processes and the ecosystem changes are subject to large uncertainties and incomplete information. Furthermore, trade-offs between different ecosystem services and biodiversity exist and actors tend to maximize only one feature. The adaptive management of an entire system thus needs to find a solution, which optimizes all ecosystem services given uncertain information. For this purpose, we develop a Bayesian Network BN of the humanenvironment system allowing evaluating simultaneously the effect of different decision-making processes on ecosystem responses and updating the results when better information becomes available. We test the approach in a case study in the Swiss Alps, where we focus on integrating the value of different ecosystem services as a support for landscape planning. Results show that if uncertainties are not explicitly integrated into the modeling framework, the information provided to the decision-makers might be misleading. For a case study in a Costa Rican watershed, we expand the BN with exogenous drivers from market (e.g., change in price for crops), policy (e.g., change in national park border) and climate (e.g., change in frequency of heavy rainfall). Policy instruments like command and control, park zoning and payments for cosystem services can help reaching a more balanced management of a watershed. For the planning of those instruments, however, it is helpful to have a model which shows how the manager of individual land units, takes policy measures, together with expected market changes and climate change into account in his land use decision-making. For each management unit, the prior probability of a specific land use and cover is updated with a posterior probability, when additional information about the management unit (e.g., slope, soil type, governance) is available. This type of model can be used to plan and simulate new policy measures like payments for ecosystem services, because it simultaneously takes the ecosystem, socio-economic system and the policy system into account. The model allows identifying management units with high and low values for each ecosystem services and thus the targeting of available financial funds can be optimized. First working steps show that such a BN provides a robust modeling environment, useful for better informed and participatory decision-making

Fish communities as indicators of biological conditions of rivers: methods for reference conditions

Fish communities are a key element in fluvial ecosystems Their position in the top of the food chain and their sensitivity to a whole range of impacts make them a clear objective for ecosystem conservation and a sound indicator of biological integrity. The UE Water Framework Directive includes fish community composition, abundance and structure as relevant elements for the evaluation os biological condition. Several approaches have been proposed for the evaluation of the condition of fish communities, from the bio-indicator concept to the IBI (Index of biotic integrity) proposals. However, the complexity of fish communities and their ecological responses make this evaluation difficult, and we must avoid both oversimplified and extreme analytical procedures. In this work we present a new proposal to define reference conditions in fish communities, discussing them from an ecological viewpoint. This method is a synthetic approach called SYNTHETIC OPEN METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK (SOMF) that has been applied to the rivers of Navarra. As a result, it is recommended the integration of all the available information from spatial, modelling, historical and expert sources, providing the better approach to fish reference conditions, keeping the highest level of information and meeting the legal requirements of the WFD

Caracterización y clasificación de los regimenes de caudales de la cuenca del Ebro en función de su fluctuación intranual

Las pautas naturales de fluctuación intranual de los caudales varían de unos ríos a otros condicionando, tanto de forma directa como de forma indirecta mediante su efecto dinamizador de las características físicas que subyacen las comunidades biológicas, la distribución de las especies, su capacidad adaptativa, su capacidad de supervivencia, de dispersión, de reproducción,… y en definitiva la biodiversidad, producción y sostenibilidad de cada ecosistema fluvial

The natural variability approach. Application to the analysis of the hydrologic alteration in five rivers (Ebro basin, Spain)

Artículo internacional que aplica los criterios de NVA (Natural Variability Approach) a cinco ríos de la cuenca del Ebr

Integrated methodology for assessing the effects of geomorphological river restoration on fish habitat and riparian vegetation

Changes in the geomorphology of rivers have serious repercussions, causing losses in the dynamics and naturalness of their forms, going in many cases, from a type of meandering channel, with constant erosion and sedimentation processes, to a channelized narrow river with rigid and stable margins, where the only possibility of movement occurs in the vertical, causing the only changes in channel geometry occur in the river bed. On the other hand, these changes seriously affect the naturalness of the banks, preventing the development of riparian vegetation and reducing the cross connectivity of the riparian corridor. Common canalizations and disconnections of meanders increase the slope, and therefore speed, resulting in processes of regressive erosion, effect increased as a result of the narrowing of the channel and the concentration of flows. This process of incision may turn the flood plain to be "hung", being completely disconnected from the water table, with important consequences for vegetation. As an example of the effects of these changes, it has been chosen the case of the Arga River The Arga river has been channelized and rectified, as it passes along the meander RamalHondo and Soto Gil (Funes, Navarra). The effects on fish habitat and riparian vegetation by remeandering the Arga River are presented. and Ttwo very contrasting situationsrestoration hypothesis, in terms of geomorphology concerns, have been established to assess the effects these changes have on the habitat of one of the major fish species in the area (Luciobabus graellsii) and on the riparian vegetation. To accomplish this goal, it has been necessary to used the a digital elevation model provided by LIDAR flight, bathymetric data, flow data, as inputs, and a hydraulic simulation model 2D (Infoworks RS). The results obtained not only helped to evaluate the effects of the past alterations of geomorphologic characteristics, but also to predict fish and vegetation habitat responses to this type of changes

Integración de la Geomática en la formación del Ingeniero Civil

Tradicionalmente los planes de estudios de ingeniería civil implican la integración de diversas disciplinas formales en un nivel alto de conocimientos. Particularmente, la Ingeniería del Terreno, la Ordenación Territorial y el Medio Ambiente requieren sólidos conocimientos y habilidades en Geología aplicada, Geomorfología y Topografía. Estas disciplinas se han estudiado a fondo en los programas tradicionales de ingeniería civil, pero a menudo desconectadas entre ellas. Por otro lado, la Geomática es un campo emergente, como consecuencia de los avances en informática, comunicaciones y medición, así como en el campo de la de teledetección espacial y cuya formación es casi nula en dichos planes. El resultado es que el egresado en cualquiera de las ramas de ingeniería civil carece de aptitudes y competencias ante la solución de problemas basados en herramientas con un uso profundo de dichas técnicas geomáticas. Desde el Departamento de Ingeniería y Morfología del Terreno, de la ETSICCP de la UPM, entendemos que debe continuarse con el esfuerzo en la integración de la geología, la geomorfología y la geomática en ingeniería civil, apoyadas en los avances de tecnologías de la información. El trabajo presenta la experiencia y metodología propuesta en los dos últimos cursos, cuyos resultados son muy satisfactorios

Herramienta para análisis y restauración de bosques riparios clasificación jerárquica de los ríos basada en sistemas de información geográfica

Las tipologías propuestas derivan de análisis estadísticos realizados a partir de datos, distintos según las zonas estudiadas, relativos a variables que tienen un nivel de significación hidrológica y ecológica muy diferente, clasificaciones de tipo taxonómico, de escala única. •Las clasificaciones obtenidas no responden a una interpretación de los procesos físicos e hidrológicos que actúan a diferentes escalas espaciales y temporales en el ecosistema fluvial, ni parten de un planteamiento ecológico de reconocimiento de discontinuidades, o elementos de clasificación, en el continuo fluvial. •Los resultados no facilitan las comparaciones entre distintos tipos. •Tipos de mismos tramos fluviales en distintas regiones

A quasi-elastic aquifer deformational behavior: Madrid aquifer case study

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the quasi-elastic deformational behavior that has been induced by groundwater withdrawal of the Tertiary detrital aquifer of Madrid (Spain). The spatial and temporal evolution of ground surface displacement was estimated by processing two datasets of radar satellite images (SAR) using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI). The first SAR dataset was acquired between April 1992 and November 2000 by ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites, and the second one by the ENVISAT satellite between August 2002 and September 2010. The spatial distribution of PSI measurements reveals that the magnitude of the displacement increases gradually towards the center of the well field area, where approximately 80 mm of maximum cumulated displacement is registered. The correlation analysis made between displacement and piezometric time series provides a correlation coefficient greater than 85% for all the wells. The elastic and inelastic components of measured displacements were separated, observing that the elastic component is, on average, more than 4 times the inelastic component for the studied period. Moreover, the hysteresis loops on the stress–strain plots indicate that the response is in the elastic range. These results demonstrate the quasi-elastic behavior of the aquifer. During the aquifer recovery phase ground surface uplift almost recovers from the subsidence experienced during the preceding extraction phase. Taking into account this unique aquifer system, a one dimensional elastic model was calibrated in the period 1997–2000. Subsequently, the model was used to predict the ground surface movements during the period 1992–2010. Modeled displacements were validated with PSI displacement measurements, exhibiting an error of 13% on average, related with the inelastic component of deformation occurring as a long-term trend in low permeability fine-grained units. This result further demonstrates the quasi-elastic deformational behavior of this unique aquifer system.This work was developed during Pablo Ezquerro research stay within the Geohazards InSAR laboratory and Modeling group of the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España in the framework of DORIS project (Ground Deformation Risk Scenarios: an Advanced Assessment Service) funded by the EC-GMES-FP7 initiative (Grant Agreement nº 242212). This work has been also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Research (MICINN) under project TEC2011-28201-C02-02 and EU FEDER. Additional funding was obtained from Spanish Research Program through the project ESP2013-47780-C2-2-R

Geología aplicada y geomática: experiencia docente de integración en el currículo del ingeniero civil

Los planes de estudios de ingeniería civil implican la integración de diversas disciplinas formales en un nivel alto de conocimientos. La Ingeniería del Terreno requiere sólidos conocimientos y habilidades en Geología aplicada, Geomorfología y Topografía. Estas disciplinas se han estudiado a fondo en los programas tradicionales de ingeniería civil, pero a menudo desconectadas entre ellas. El Departamento de Ingeniería y Morfología del Terreno, en la UPM, tiene a su cargo la enseñanza de estas disciplinas en las titulaciones de ingeniería civil, geológica y geodésica. El EEES proporciona un nuevo marco para una mejor integración de las disciplinas, a partir de la experiencia acumulada en más de 200 años de docencia. La Geomática es un campo emergente, como consecuencia de los avances en informática, comunicaciones y medición, así como en el campo de la de teledetección espacial. Se presenta la experiencia de integración de la geología, la geomorfología y la geomática en ingeniería civil, apoyadas en los avances de tecnologías de la información. Se promueve el trabajo en grupos con el fin de adquirir formación geológica a través de la geomática, así como un amplio entrenamiento en búsqueda y tratamiento de datos. Los primeros resultados se obtuvieron en el curso 2008-2009, siendo satisfactorios en cuando a la adquisición de conocimientos y el tiempo empleado en ello. Esta experiencia ha servido de base para la programación de las enseñanzas de Ingeniería del Terreno en los grados de ingeniero civil, geológico y geodésico adaptados al EEES en la UPM