Simple guidelines to minimise exposure to earthquake-triggered landslides

Reducing landslide risk in many mountainous regions is most effectively achieved by reducing exposure to landslides, because landslides cannot be predicted or stopped and engineering solutions are generally impractical or impossible. Because landslide hazard is very site-specific, available hazard maps may not be detailed enough, or contain appropriate and up-to- date information, to inform decision-making. We use our experience of studying the characteristics of landslides in recent large earthquakes to describe three simple guidelines that can be used to minimise exposure to future earthquake-triggered landslide hazard. The most effective measure is to choose a location that minimises the angle to the skyline, and to keep that angle below 25° if at all possible. It is also important to avoid steep channels (those with slopes of >15°), especially if there are many steep hillsides upstream. Finally, the slope of the ground at your location should always be minimised. These guidelines do not specify where landslides will occur, but can be used to distinguish between areas which are more or less likely to be affected by landslides in a large earthquake. They can be used to reduce risk before an earthquake occurs by helping to inform decisions on where to situate key infrastructure, such as schools or health posts. They can be used to inform decisions about the locations of houses, markets, or other areas where people are likely to spend considerable periods of time, or for deciding on appropriate types of land use. The guidelines can also be used in disaster preparedness and response planning, by identifying suitable evacuation routes and open spaces for use as evacuation sites or emergency shelters. We provide some brief guidance on what to do immediately after an earthquake in order to minimise exposure to landslides, and discuss the relevance of these guidelines for protecting against rainfall-triggered landslides which may occur more frequently

The legacy of 20th Century landscape change on today’s woodland carabid communities

Aim For many species, the effects of landscape change can involve a time lag and result in an extinction debt. The landscape matrix plays a vital role in supporting species populations. However, the importance of the historical composition and configuration of landscape mosaics has received little attention, with studies focusing on the effects of loss and fragmentation of single (focal) habitat over time. We investigated the importance of historical and contemporary landscape heterogeneity (composition and configuration) to identify how landscape change has, and is continuing to have, an effect on current woodland carabid communities. Location Lowland Britain. Methods Carabids were sampled from woodlands in 36 tetrads of 4 km2. Ordination methods analysed current community response to representations of contemporary and historical (1930’s) landscape heterogeneity. The effects of 80 years of landscape change on current carabid assemblages were compared among tetrads. Results Results are consistent with an extinction debt; carabid communities correlated significantly with the historical composition and configuration of the landscape, but not contemporary landscape configuration. Community assemblages have been shaped, and many species remain affiliated with landscape conditions that no longer exist, notably, large patches of broadleaf woodland and semi-natural grassland. Recent introduction of conifer plantations has had a negative effect on the abundance of many woodland species. For many common, slow-dispersing species, contemporary and historical landscapes offered sub-optimum woodland coverage indicating a lag effect that exceeds 80 years. Increased arable landcover and loss of semi-natural grassland and heathland points towards an ongoing detrimental impact on carabid populations. Main conclusions Compared with focal-habitat studies, the landscape mosaic approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of widespread landscape change on species communities. Conservation guidance includes new planting, maintenance and restoration of semi-natural habitats, implemented across multiple spatial scales and where feasible, considering both historical and contemporary landscape heterogeneity

A review of climate change and the implementation of marine biodiversity legislation in the United Kingdom

1. Marine legislation, the key means by which the conservation of marine biodiversity is achieved, has been developing since the 1960s. In recent decades, an increasing focus on ‘holistic’ policy development is evident, compared with earlier ‘piecemeal’ sectoral approaches. Important marine legislative tools being used in the United Kingdom, and internationally, include the designation of marine protected areas and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) with its aim of meeting ‘Good Environmental Status’ (GES) for European seas by 2020. 2. There is growing evidence of climate change impacts on marine biodiversity, which may compromise the effectiveness of any legislation intended to promote sustainable marine resource management. 3. A review of key marine biodiversity legislation relevant to the UK shows climate change was not considered in the drafting of much early legislation. Despite the huge increase in knowledge of climate change impacts in recent decades, legislation is still limited in how it takes these impacts into account. There is scope, however, to account for climate change in implementing much of the legislation through (a) existing references to environmental variability; (b) review cycles; and (c) secondary legislation and complementary policy development. 4. For legislation relating to marine protected areas (e.g. the EC Habitats and Birds Directives), climate change has generally not been considered in the site-designation process, or for ongoing management, with the exception of the Marine (Scotland) Act. Given that changing environmental conditions (e.g. rising temperatures and ocean acidification) directly affect the habitats and species that sites are designated for, how this legislation is used to protect marine biodiversity in a changing climate requires further consideration. 5. Accounting for climate change impacts on marine biodiversity in the development and implementation of legislation is vital to enable timely, adaptive management responses. Marine modelling can play an important role in informing management decisions

Acoustics of weirs: Potential implications for micro-hydropower noise.

There is great potential for the expansion of the small or micro scale hydropower network. Of the 43 thousand weirs in the UK there are only 500 consented hydro schemes. Planning applications for such schemes require a noise assessment. Noise evaluation of a proposed renewable scheme is often complicated by the turbine sites having distinct noise characteristics in the first instance, which are often caused by the weirs themselves. Three types of weir were studied: Broad Crest weirs were studied in detail; this is complimented by further studies in Flat V and Crump weirs. Flow data was collected for ten sites from the Environment Agency and the National Rivers Flow Archive to assess the collected Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and calculated Sound poWer Level (SWL) in relation to various river flows. Weir head height, width and meteorological data were also collected. It has been shown that the SPL data collection method used was the right choice, as the greatest amplitudes at the water impact interface at all weir types was recorded. SPL and SWL were found to be within a 36e82 dBz and 45e86 dBz range respectively for all weir types. These values can be used in computer simulations of sound propagation. The mean SPL and SWL difference between the weir types are 6.1 dBz and 6.3 dBz. Head height has the greatest effect on SPLs. Attenuation with distance was found to be similar to that of a free field line source in general

A comparison between London and Baghdad surface urban heat islands and possible engineering mitigation solutions

This study adopts remote sensing techniques to compare the Surface urban Heat Island (SUHI) in Bagh-dad and London as they represent different climatic conditions, natural environments and levels of urbandevelopment. It tests the reported correlation of land surface temperature (LST) with land cover in theliterature under different conditions and, based on the findings, suggests engineering mitigation strate-gies for each city. The land surface was characterized using supervised classification and spectral indices,using the Landsat 8 optical bands (2–7), and the LST was retrieved from Landsat’s thermal band 10 afteremissivity calibration. Two Landsat 8 satellite images were used, acquired in July 2013 when maximumsurface temperature would be expected in both these capital cities. Image processing included radio-metric calibration and atmospheric correction and various land surface indices were then calculated.The independent validation of land cover types was performed using higher spatial resolution opticaldata, and LST patterns were validated using ASTER thermal images. Land cover types or indices and landsurface temperature display high correlations, with most having a positive relationship with LST, but veg-etation has a negative relationship. The hottest surface type also differs for the two cities. Consequently,covering the soil in Baghdad with new construction, for example, reduces the surface temperature andhence urban heat island effect, while the same action in London increases it. Thus, engineering solutionsto urban heat island issues need to take local factors into accoun

Source apportionment of groundwater pollutants in Apulian agricultural sites using multivariate statistical analyses: case study of Foggia province

<p>Abstract</p> <p>The electric grid in the United States has been suffering from underinvestment for years, and now faces pressing challenges from rising demand and deteriorating infrastructure. High congestion levels in transmission lines are greatly reducing the efficiency of electricity generation and distribution. In this paper, we assess the faults of the current electric grid and quantify the costs of maintaining the current system into the future. While the proposed “smart grid” contains many proposals to upgrade the ailing infrastructure of the electric grid, we argue that smart meter installation in each U.S. household will offer a significant reduction in peak demand on the current system. A smart meter is a device which monitors a household’s electricity consumption in real-time, and has the ability to display real-time pricing in each household. We conclude that these devices will provide short-term and long-term benefits to utilities and consumers. The smart meter will enable utilities to closely monitor electricity consumption in real-time, while also allowing households to adjust electricity consumption in response to real-time price adjustments.</p

HVDC links between North Africa and Europe: Impacts and benefits on the dynamic performance of the European system

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Mokhtar Benasla, Tayeb Allaoui, Mostefa Brahami, Mouloud Denai, and Vijay K. Sood, ‘HVDC links between North Africa and Europe: Impacts and benefits on the dynamic performance of the European system’, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, November 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 20 November 2018. The published version is available online at doi: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.075. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This manuscript version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.In the last decade, there have been several initiatives for the deployment of cross-Mediterranean HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) links to enable the transmission of electrical power from renewable energy sources between North Africa and Europe. These initiatives were mainly driven by the potential economic, environmental and technical benefits of these HVDC interconnections. In previous studies on these projects, some technical aspects of critical importance have not been addressed or studied in sufficient detail. One of these key aspects relates to the impact and possible benefit of these HVDC links on the dynamic performance of the European system which is the major focus of this paper. Several issues relating to the dynamic performance of the system are addressed here. Based on the experience gained from existing AC/DC projects around the world, this paper shows that the HVDC links between North Africa and Europe can greatly improve the dynamic performance of the European system especially in the southern regions. In addition, some challenges on the operation and control of these HVDC links are highlighted and solutions to overcome these challenges are proposed. This review paper, therefore, serves as a preliminary study for further detailed investigation of specific impacts or benefits of these interconnections on the overall performance of the European system.Peer reviewe

The influence of substrate and vegetation configuration on green roof hydrological performance

A four-year record of rainfall and runoff data from nine different extensive (80 mm substrate) green roof test beds has been analysed to establish the extent to which the substrate composition and vegetation treatment affect hydrological performance. The test beds incorporated three different substrate components with different porosity and moisture retention characteristics, and three different vegetation treatments (Sedum, Meadow Flower and unvegetated). Consistent differences were observed, with the vegetated beds showing higher levels of rainfall retention and better detention compared with unvegetated beds. The seasonal Meadow Flower beds had similar hydrological performance to Sedum-vegetated beds. There was a 27% performance reduction in annual volumetric retention attributable to differences in substrate and vegetation. The beds with the most porous/permeable substrates showed the lowest levels of both retention and detention. As with previous studies, retention efficiency in all nine beds showed a strong dependency on rainfall depth (P), with retention typically >80% for events where P < 10 mm, but significantly lower when P > 10 mm. The effects of vegetation and substrate were most evident for rainfall events where P > 10 mm, with the mean per-event retention varying between beds from 26.8% to 61.8%. On average, the test beds were able to retain the first 5 mm of rainfall in 65% of events where P > 5 mm, although this ranged from 29.4% to 70.6% of events depending on configuration. In terms of detention, all but one of the test beds could achieve runoff control to a green field runoff equivalent of 2 l/s/ha for more than 75% of events. Detention was also characterised via the calibration of a reservoir-routing modelthatlinked net rainfall to the measured runoff response. The parameter values identified here – when combined with a suitable evapotranspiration/retention model – provide a generic mechanism for predicting the runoff response to a time-series or design rainfall for any unmonitored system with comparable components, permitting comparison against local regulatory requirements