Landslide hazard in the Abruzzo area (Central Italy): case studies of different types of landslides in different environments and morphostructural domains.

Author(s):  
Giorgio Paglia ◽  
Cristiano Carabella ◽  
Carmela Epifani ◽  
Gianluca Esposito ◽  
Massimiliano Fazzini ◽  
...  

<p>The Abruzzo Region (Central Italy) is largely affected by landslide phenomena, widespread from the mountainous to the coastal areas. The area is located in the central-eastern part of the Italian peninsula and it is framed in a complex geological and geomorphological framework, closely connected to the combination of endogenous (morphotectonics) and exogenous processes (slope, fluvial, karst and glacial processes). Landslide phenomena are linked to the interaction of geological, geomorphological, and climatic factors (instability factors) in response to trigger mechanisms, mostly represented by heavy rainfall events, seismicity, or human action. This work illustrates the results of multidisciplinary analyses carried out in the Abruzzo area in recent years, in different physiographic and geomorphological-structural contexts (chain, foothills, fluvial, and coastal areas). These analyses are based on the combination of classic and advanced methods, including morphometric analysis of the topography and hydrography, detailed geological and geomorphological field mapping, geostructural analysis, photogeological analysis, supported by stability analysis and 2D/3D numerical modeling. Five case studies are representative of the main active geomorphological processes affecting different environments and morphostructural domains, with reference to the predisposing and/or triggering factors. The main landslide cases analyzed and discussed in this work consist of: debris flow and rockfalls in a mountain area, widely altered by wildfire events (<em>Montagna del Morrone case</em>); complex landslides systems in the foothills, characterized by a very rough topography documenting the activity of long-term landslide processes (<em>Ponzano and San Martino sulla Marrucina cases</em>); sliding and complex landslides (topples and rockfalls) in fluvial and coastal areas, following a heavy snow precipitation event and a moderate seismic sequence (<em>Castelnuovo di Campli case</em>) and induced by episodic and localized cliff recession processes combined with wave-cut and gravity-induced slope processes (<em>Abruzzo rock coast cases</em>). The work outlines the importance of combining geological and geomorphological approaches with integrated detailed analysis of field and laboratory data to characterize morphology, bedrock features, structural features and jointing, superficial continental deposits, and landforms distribution. This allows supporting large-scale analyzes to evaluate hazard and risk posed by different types of landslides with different magnitudes in different environments. This work could represent an effective integrated approach in geomorphological studies for landslide hazard modeling at different spatial scales, readily available to interested stakeholders.  Furthermore, it could provide a scientific basis for the implementation of sustainable territorial planning, emergency management, and loss-reduction measures.</p>

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1247-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Weaver

Abstract This is Part II of a two-part study of mesoscale land–atmosphere interactions in the summertime U.S. Southern Great Plains. Part I focused on case studies drawn from monthlong (July 1995–97), high-resolution Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) simulations carried out to investigate these interactions. These case studies were chosen to highlight key features of the lower-tropospheric mesoscale circulations that frequently arise in this region and season due to mesoscale heterogeneity in the surface fluxes. In this paper, Part II, the RAMS-simulated mesoscale dynamical processes described in the Part I case studies are examined from a domain-averaged perspective to assess their importance in the overall regional hydrometeorology. The spatial statistics of key simulated mesoscale variables—for example, vertical velocity and the vertical flux of water vapor—are quantified here. Composite averages of the mesoscale and large-scale-mean variables over different meteorological or dynamical regimes are also calculated. The main finding is that, during dry periods, or similarly, during periods characterized by large-scale-mean subsidence, the characteristic signature of surface-heterogeneity-forced mesoscale circulations, including enhanced vertical motion variability and enhanced mesoscale fluxes in the lowest few kilometers of the atmosphere, consistently emerges. Furthermore, the impact of these mesoscale circulations is nonnegligible compared to the large-scale dynamics at domain-averaged (200 km × 200 km) spatial scales and weekly to monthly time scales. These findings support the hypothesis that the land– atmosphere interactions associated with mesoscale surface heterogeneity can provide pathways whereby diurnal, mesoscale atmospheric processes can scale up to have more general impacts at larger spatial scales and over longer time scales.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Tian ◽  
Baoqing Zhang ◽  
Pute Wu

Abstract. Drought indices are hard to balance in terms of versatility (effectiveness for multiple types of drought), flexibility of timescales, and inclusivity (to what extent they include all physical processes). A lack of consistent source data increases the difficulty of quantifying drought. Here, we present a global monthly drought dataset from 1948 to 2010 based on a multitype and multiscalar drought index, the standardized moisture anomaly index incorporating snow dynamics (SZIsnow), driven by systematic fields from an advanced data assimilation system. The proposed SZIsnow dataset includes different physical water‒energy processes, especially snow processes. Our evaluation of the dataset demonstrates its ability to distinguish different types of drought across different timescales. Our assessment also indicates that the dataset adequately captures droughts across different spatial scales. The consideration of snow processes improved the capability of SZIsnow, and the improvement is particularly evident over snow-covered high-latitude (e.g., Arctic region) and high-altitude areas (e.g., Tibetan Plateau). We found that 59.66 % of Earth's land area exhibited a drying trend between 1948 and 2010, and the remaining 40.34 % exhibited a wetting trend. Our results also show that the SZIsnow dataset successfully captured the large-scale drought events that occurred across the world; there were 525 drought events with an area larger than 500,000 square kilometers globally during the study period, of which nearly 70 % had a duration longer than 6 months. Therefore, this new drought dataset is well suited to monitoring, assessing, and characterizing drought, and can serve as a valuable resource for future drought studies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2933-2950 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Federico ◽  
E. Avolio ◽  
M. Petracca ◽  
G. Panegrossi ◽  
P. Sanò ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper shows the results of a tailored version of a previously published methodology, designed to simulate lightning activity, implemented into the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). The method gives the flash density at the resolution of the RAMS grid scale allowing for a detailed analysis of the evolution of simulated lightning activity. The system is applied in detail to two case studies occurred over the Lazio Region, in Central Italy. Simulations are compared with the lightning activity detected by the LINET network. The cases refer to two thunderstorms of different intensity which occurred, respectively, on 20 October 2011 and on 15 October 2012. The number of flashes simulated (observed) over Lazio is 19435 (16231) for the first case and 7012 (4820) for the second case, and the model correctly reproduces the larger number of flashes that characterized the 20 October 2011 event compared to the 15 October 2012 event. There are, however, errors in timing and positioning of the convection, whose magnitude depends on the case study, which mirrors in timing and positioning errors of the lightning distribution. For the 20 October 2011 case study, spatial errors are of the order of a few tens of kilometres and the timing of the event is correctly simulated. For the 15 October 2012 case study, the spatial error in the positioning of the convection is of the order of 100 km and the event has a longer duration in the simulation than in the reality. To assess objectively the performance of the methodology, standard scores are presented for four additional case studies. Scores show the ability of the methodology to simulate the daily lightning activity for different spatial scales and for two different minimum thresholds of flash number density. The performance decreases at finer spatial scales and for higher thresholds. The comparison of simulated and observed lighting activity is an immediate and powerful tool to assess the model ability to reproduce the intensity and the evolution of the convection. This shows the importance of using computationally efficient lightning schemes, such as the one described in this paper, in forecast models.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Medvedev ◽  
Natalia Telnova ◽  
Natalia Alekseenko ◽  
Alexander Koshkarev

<p>High-mountainous Lake Sevan (Republic of Armenia) laying at an altitude of about 1900 m above sea level is a unique object of remote environmental monitoring due to the multidirectional dynamics of water level over the past 100 years. The artificial decrease in the lake water level began in 1930s, with the most intensive fall (over 10 m) from 1949 to 1962. In the 1990s, there was a slight increase in the level, then water level continued to fall until 2001. According to the current program of Armenian government, the lake level is planned to rise by at least 6 m in the coming years.</p><p>The current increase in water level of Lake Sevan leads to activation of both abrasive and accumulative coastal processes, intensification of eutrophication and mass flowering of lake waters. Planned increase in water level also threats residential and recreational facilities which are abundant along shoreline of Lake Sevan. At the same time, the spatial and temporal differentiation between the current intensity of coastal processes and the state of coastal ecosystems is quite significant. In order to reveal the regularities of this differentiation, we preliminary carried out a retrospective large-scale mapping of the shoreline dynamics of Lake Sevan using archival and modern cartographic small-scaled materials and high-detailed remote sensing data for the period of over 100 years. Based on the results of interpretation of the mosaic of large-scale aerial imagery of 1960s different types of coasts were identified; the speed of receding of the lake shoreline during the period of its maximum decline was reconstructed.</p><p>For several chosen key coastal areas, characterized by the most significant changes in shoreline and different types of current coastal processes, since 2018 we have been conducting operational remote monitoring of the coastal zone from light-weight UAVs DJI Phantom 4 Pro. UAV surveys are conducted at the low altitude range (100–200 m) with the use of both optical and thermal cameras. Resulted multitemporal UAV data are dense photogrammetric point clouds (with the density more than 300 points per sq. m), three-dimensional digital surface and terrain models with spatial and vertical resolution up to 10 cm, ultrahigh-detailed orthoimagery with the spatial extent about 1 sq. km. Thematic interpretation of acquired UAV data resulted to detailed land cover mapping of key coastal areas, reliable detection of local sources of water pollution, identification of buildings and facilities more threatened to inundation under the different scenarios of water level rising. The integral synthetic assessment is made for the current environmental state of coastal ecosystems under risk. Among more vulnerable ecosystems are coastal lagoons with associated wetland complexes and planted coastal forests which being degraded and damaged as a result of increase in lake level and inadequate management can substantially contribute to the deterioration of integral water quality in Lake Sevan.</p><p>The study is supported by the RFBR project no. 18-55-05015-Arm_a.</p><p> </p>


Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts ◽  
Christopher J. Smith

AbstractThe Etruscans, who dominated central Italy for much of the first half of the first millennium BC, are ripe for new analysis: the quantity of data for their culture is now substantial, wide ranging, and qualifies for large-scale comparison. In this paper, we survey how research in the last decade has affected our understanding of settlements, of changing models of the transfer of ideas, and of Etruscan religious behavior, among other topics. We place them into complex spatial, architectural, and economic narratives to show that the interplay between microhistorical case studies and macrohistorical trends has now achieved what ought to be a paradigmatic status. Despite the continuous flow of specialist publications and an industry of exhibitions, however, the Etruscans have not broken through into mainstream archaeological awareness. We argue that this could be achieved if future research becomes more thematic and agenda driven and embraces comparative study.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 3351-3395 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Federico ◽  
E. Avolio ◽  
M. Petracca ◽  
G. Panegrossi ◽  
P. Sanò ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper shows the results of a tailored version of a previously published methodology, designed to simulate lightning activity, implemented into the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). The method gives the flash density at the resolution of the RAMS grid-scale allowing for a detailed analysis of the evolution of simulated lightning activity. The system is applied in detail to two case studies occurred over the Lazio Region, in Central Italy. Simulations are compared with the lightning activity detected by the LINET network. The cases refer to two thunderstorms of different intensity. Results show that the model predicts reasonably well both cases and that the lightning activity is well reproduced especially for the most intense case. However, there are errors in timing and positioning of the convection, whose magnitude depends on the case study, which mirrors in timing and positioning errors of the lightning distribution. To assess objectively the performance of the methodology, standard scores are presented for four additional case studies. Scores show the ability of the methodology to simulate the daily lightning activity for different spatial scales and for two different minimum thresholds of flash number density. The performance decreases at finer spatial scales and for higher thresholds. The comparison of simulated and observed lighting activity is an immediate and powerful tool to assess the model ability to reproduce the intensity and the evolution of the convection. This shows the importance of the use of computationally efficient lightning schemes, such as the one described in this paper, in forecast models.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonghui Wang ◽  
Shao-Peng Wang ◽  
Liqing Zhao ◽  
Cunzhu Liang ◽  
Bailing Miao ◽  
...  

There is an urgent need to extend knowledge on ecosystem temporal stability to larger spatial scales because presently available local-scale studies generally do not provide effective guide for management and conservation decisions at the level of an entire region with diverse plant communities. We investigated temporal stability of plant biomass production across spatial scales and hierarchical levels of community organization and analyzed impacts of dominant species, species diversity and climatic factors using a multi-site survey of Inner Mongolian grassland. We found that temporal stability at a large spatial scale, i.e. a large area aggregating multiple local communities, was related to temporal stability of and asynchrony among spatially separated local communities and large-scale population dynamics of dominant species, yet not to species richness. Additionally, a lower mean and higher variation of yearly precipitation destabilized communities at local and large scales by destabilizing dominant species population dynamics. We argue that, for semi-arid temperate grassland, dynamics and precipitation responses of dominant species and asynchrony among local communities stabilize ecosystems at large spatial scales. Our results indicate that reduced amounts and increased variation of precipitation may present key threats to the sustainable provision of biological products and services to human well-being in this region.


Author(s):  
فتحي بن جمعة أحمد

ملخص البحث تعدّ هذه المحاولة في دراسة مجالات التفسير الموضوعي ومنهجية البحث فيه  مفتاحا لبعض القضايا المتعلقة بالموضوع، ومدخلا لدراسة التفسير الموضوعي يسهل على طلاب العلم والباحثين فهم كلام الله، وتدبر معانيه، والاهتداء به، والقيام ببحوث تطبيقية في مجالات التفسير الموضوعي. فقد بينت أن مجالات البحث في التفسير الموضوعي أربعة وهي البحث في المصطلح، والموضوع، والمحاور، والوحدة الموضوعيّة في السورة القرآنيّة. وقد أكدت أن البحث في محاور القرآن الكريم من مجالات البحث في التفسير الموضوعي التي لم تحظَ باهتمام الباحثين، ثم توسعت في سوق الأدلة والبراهين الدالة على أن الوحدة الموضوعية للسورة القرآنيّة مجال أساس من مجالات البحث في التفسير الموضوعي الذي لا ينبغي إغفاله، وإهمال شأنه. ثم بحثت في موضوع منهجيّة البحث في التفسير الموضوعي، ونظراً للخلط أوالاضطراب الذي بدا لدى بعض الباحثين في هذا الصدد، وضحت المقدمات المنهجيّة العامة الضرورية للبحث في التفسير الموضوعي ثم حاولت رسم الإطار التصوري والمنهجي العام والضوابط الأساسية التي يجب أن يتبعها الباحث إذا أراد الكتابة في التفسير الموضوعي. ثم بيّنت الخطوات الأساسيّة للبحث في التفسير الموضوعي ومنها حرية الباحث في اختيار موضوع بحثه والاطلاع على أكبر عدد ممكن من التفاسير بمختلف أنواعها مع الاستفادة من التراث البشري في حقول المعرفة المتنوعة على أن تكون الهيمنة للقرآن أولا وأخيرا على الكتب الأخرى والنظريات البشرية. الكلمات الرئيسة: القرآن، تفسير، موضوعي، مجالات، منهج. Abstract This article is an attempt to address the issue of the scopes and research methodology in the thematic commentary of the Holy Qur’Én. It could be considered as an introductory work for students and researchers who are interested in this field of research which will help them develop a good understanding of the meanings and teachings of the Qur’Én and its application to the real life. It may also help them undertake case studies and research in the field of thematic commentary of the Qur’Én. It has been explained in the article that the scope of the thematic commentary of the Qur’Én includes four areas; i.e. the concept, the topic, the central themes and the thematic unity of the SËrah/Chapter. The article gives a special emphasis on the study of the Qur’Énic central themes as it was overlooked by some researchers. It also provides a systematic investigation on the thematic unity of the SËrah/Chapter and considers it a significant area of research in the thematic commentary of the Qur’Én. The article also addresses the issue of the research methodology in the field of the thematic commentary of the Qur’Én. In this regard, the author highlights the principles, conditions and framework for undertaking research projects in this field of study and explains the major steps that should be followed in the execution of the research. These steps include freedom of choosing the research topic, freedom of benefitting from different types of tafsÊr (interpretation of the Qur’Én) works and schools and benefitting from the human heritage in different fields of knowledge, provided that the Qur’Én should have controlling power on other books and human theories.   Key Words: The Qur’Én, TafsÊr, Thematic, Scopes, Methodology. Abstrak Artikel ini ialah satu percubaan menangani isu  skop dan metodologi penyelidikan dalam tafsiran Al-Qur’Én Holy mengikut tema. Ia boleh dianggap sebagai satu kajian permulaan untuk pelajar-pelajar dan sarjana-sarjana yang meminati bidang ini penyelidikan yang akan membantu mereka merangka satu pemahaman yang baik tentang makna-makna dan ajaran-ajaran Qur’Én dan perlaksanaannya dalam kehidupan sebenar. Ia mungkin juga  dapat membantu mereka menjalankan kajian kes dalam bidang penyelidikan tafsiran Al-Qur’Én mengikut tema. Artikel ini akan menjelaskan  skop tafsiran Al-Qur’Én mengikut  tema ini merangkumi empat bidang:  konsep tafsiran mengikut tema, topiknya, tema-tema kecil dan tema umum Surah Al-Qur’Én. Artikel ini memberi satu penekanan khas pada kajian tafsiran Al-Qur’Én mengikut  tema kerana ia agak kurang mendapat perhatian beberapa penyelidik. Ia juga menampilkan satu kajian sistematik pada pemahaman tema Surah dalam Al-Qur’Én dan menganggapnya satu bidang penyelidikan penting dalam kajian tafsiran Al-Qur’Én mengikut tema. Artikel juga memberikan perhatian kepada bidang metodologi penyelidikan terhadap usaha tafsiran Al-Qur’Én secara bertema. Dalam hal ini, pengkaji akan menonjolkan prinsip-prinsip, syarat-syarat dan rangka kerja untuk projek-projek projek penyelidikan dalam lapangan ini dan menerangkan langkah-langkah utama yang harus diikuti dalam pelaksanaan penyelidikan yang berkenaan. Lang-langkah ini termasuk kebebasan memilih tajuk penyelidikan, kebebasan dalam mengambil  manfaat daripada jenis-jenis tafsiran Qur’Én yang berbeza serta sekolah-sekolah pemikiran yang berbeza dalam aliran tafsir serta rangka bagaimana memanfaatkan warisan tamadun manusia berlandaskan ajaran Al-Qur’Én. Kata Kunci: Al-Qur’Én, TafsÊr, Tema, Bidang-bidang, Metodologi.


Author(s):  
Fedor Gippius ◽  
Fedor Gippius ◽  
Stanislav Myslenkov ◽  
Stanislav Myslenkov ◽  
Elena Stoliarova ◽  
...  

This study is focused on the alterations and typical features of the wind wave climate of the Black Sea’s coastal waters since 1979 till nowadays. Wind wave parameters were calculated by means of the 3rd-generation numerical spectral wind wave model SWAN, which is widely used on various spatial scales – both coastal waters and open seas. Data on wind speed and direction from the NCEP CFSR reanalysis were used as forcing. The computations were performed on an unstructured computational grid with cell size depending on the distance from the shoreline. Modeling results were applied to evaluate the main characteristics of the wind wave in various coastal areas of the sea.


Author(s):  
Xu Pei-Zhen ◽  
Lu Yong-Geng ◽  
Cao Xi-Min

Background: Over the past few years, the subsynchronous oscillation (SSO) caused by the grid-connected wind farm had a bad influence on the stable operation of the system and has now become a bottleneck factor restricting the efficient utilization of wind power. How to mitigate and suppress the phenomenon of SSO of wind farms has become the focus of power system research. Methods: This paper first analyzes the SSO of different types of wind turbines, including squirrelcage induction generator based wind turbine (SCIG-WT), permanent magnet synchronous generator- based wind turbine (PMSG-WT), and doubly-fed induction generator based wind turbine (DFIG-WT). Then, the mechanisms of different types of SSO are proposed with the aim to better understand SSO in large-scale wind integrated power systems, and the main analytical methods suitable for studying the SSO of wind farms are summarized. Results: On the basis of results, using additional damping control suppression methods to solve SSO caused by the flexible power transmission devices and the wind turbine converter is recommended. Conclusion: The current development direction of the SSO of large-scale wind farm grid-connected systems is summarized and the current challenges and recommendations for future research and development are discussed.


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