Article
Environmental Sciences
Jing Li, Zhaofei Liu, Rui Wang, Xingxing Zhang, Xuan Liu, Zhijun Yao
Summary: This study evaluated the applicability of four satellite rainfall products in the Hengduan Mountain region and analyzed the critical rainfall and rainfall thresholds for triggering debris flows. The results showed that CMORPH and GPM performed well in simulating rainfall consistency and extreme conditions. The findings of this study have important implications for predicting and warning debris flow hazards.
Article
Engineering, Geological
Hongjuan Yang, Kaiheng Hu, Shaojie Zhang, Shuang Liu
Summary: This study explores the use of satellite techniques to determine the triggering conditions of debris flow. It found that satellite-based thresholds need to be compared and adjusted with ground-based thresholds. Additionally, incorporating factors such as antecedent precipitation, rainfall intensity, and duration can improve the accuracy of the thresholds.
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Geological
Suk Woo Kim, Kun Woo Chun, Minseok Kim, Filippo Catani, Byoungkoo Choi, Jung Il Seo
Summary: The study analyzed rainfall data for 613 shallow landslides in South Korea from 1963 to 2018 to determine rainfall thresholds and investigate the influence of antecedent rainfall. The results suggest that the southern region of the Korean Peninsula is more susceptible to rainfall-induced landslides, and the effect of antecedent rainfall conditions should be further tested considering regional climate and local site conditions for a better understanding of landslide occurrence.
Article
Geography, Physical
Haruka Tsunetaka, Norifumi Hotta, Fumitoshi Imaizumi, Yuichi S. Hayakawa, Takeshi Masui
Summary: This study explored the relationship between rainfall patterns and sediment storage changes in triggering debris flows. Field-based monitoring in Japan revealed that longer consecutive periods of rainfall above threshold tended to trigger debris flows, but sediment discharge and recharge cycles also played a role in changing the rainfall threshold required for debris-flow occurrences.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Antonello Troncone, Luigi Pugliese, Enrico Conte
Summary: This study proposes a simple-to-use method for predicting the occurrence of shallow landslides due to rainfall. The method combines the evaluation of pore water pressure changes caused by infiltration with the calculation of the critical value of pore water pressure using the infinite slope scheme. It requires only a few input parameters, which can be obtained from conventional tests.
Article
Engineering, Geological
Raul Oorthuis, Marcel Hurlimann, Jean Vaunat, Jose Moya, Antonio Lloret
Summary: This study analyzed 12 years of rainfall and torrential flow data, as well as 8 years of soil hydrologic conditions in the Rebaixader catchment in Central Pyrenees, Spain. The results showed that soil hydrological conditions are key factors for triggering torrential flows and can improve early-warning predictions.
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Omar F. Al-Thuwaynee, Massimo Melillo, Stefano Luigi Gariano, Hyuck Jin Park, Sang -Wan Kim, Luigi Lombardo, Paulo Hader, Meriame Mohajane, Renata Pacheco Quevedo, Filippo Catani, Ali Aydda
Summary: Several studies have found that existing empirical rainfall thresholds for landslide occurrence do not consider the morphological and hydrological conditions of the areas. Therefore, a software tool called DEWS is introduced for selecting representative rain gauges, which is a crucial step in defining empirical rainfall threshold models. DEWS employs four filters and requires three data inputs, and its reliability has been tested in South Korea.
ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
David Dunkerley
Summary: The use of 'Huff quartiles' for classifying rainfall events may lead to neglecting rainfall intensity. This study explores a modification to this approach by introducing an intensity threshold, which can improve the relevance of rainfall event classification and result in the re-classification of some events.
Article
Engineering, Geological
Nicoletta Santangelo, Giovanni Forte, Melania De Falco, Giovanni Battista Chirico, Antonio Santo
Summary: This study collected over 200 events described as debris flow in the Campania Region of Southern Italy between 1924 and 2020, classifying them as gravity processes or fluvial processes. The classification is essential for designing early warning systems and risk mitigation plans based on different rainfall events triggering the two phenomena. The research explored a large rainfall database to identify the time scales and seasonality of the rainfall events triggering the two classes of phenomena.
Review
Environmental Sciences
Antonino D'Ippolito, Valeria Lupiano, Valeria Rago, Oreste G. Terranova, Giulio Iovine
Summary: Landslides are a major concern due to the fatalities, damages, and economic losses they cause, often triggered by rainfall. This paper reviews the two main approaches, physical and hydrological, for modeling the relationships between rainfall characteristics and landslide events. Real application cases from Southern Italy are presented, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each method and discussing potential research perspectives and their use in early warning systems.
Article
Water Resources
Ali Shokri, Ashkan Shokri, Jahangir Abedi Koupai
Summary: The hydrological cycle consists of several components and modeling is necessary to better understand hydrological systems and aid in water resource management. Event-based rainfall-runoff modeling is a popular method, but traditional models have limitations in accounting for antecedent conditions. To address this, this study proposes pre event baseflow as an indicator to assess catchment conditions for flood forecasting, and demonstrates the potential of a new equation to improve hydrological modeling accuracy.
ADVANCES IN WATER RESOURCES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Studies
Fabio Luino, Jerome De Graff, Marcella Biddoccu, Francesco Faccini, Michele Freppaz, Anna Roccati, Fabrizio Ungaro, Michele D'Amico, Laura Turconi
Summary: This study analyzed the historical shallow landslides and mud-debris flows triggered by rainfall events in northern Italy and found that soil-related factors play a significant role in differentiating landslide activation in different regions. Rainfall thresholds for landslide occurrence vary based on soil region, textural class, and dominant soil typological units. The results of this study provide valuable information for forecasting and preventing geohydrological processes and developing effective warning strategies to mitigate risks and reduce socio-economic damage.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yuzheng Wang, Lei Nie, Chang Liu, Min Zhang, Yan Xu, Yuhang Teng, Chonghao Bao, Yuanyuan He, Fansheng Kong, Xiangjian Rui, Tao Zhang, Chao Du, Lihaolin Jin, Zhengguo Li
Summary: This study developed new multi-parameter debris flow initiation warning models through mathematical regression analysis method based on field investigation data. The models were compared with the previous research method and historical rainfall data, showing high reliability and practical value in monitoring and predicting debris flow disasters. These models provide an effective scientific basis for future work in this field.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Shuang Liu, Kaiheng Hu, Qun Zhang, Shaojie Zhang, Xudong Hu, Desheng Tang
Summary: This study investigates the impacts of destructive earthquakes on rainfall thresholds for triggering debris flows in Sichuan Province, China. The research findings suggest that post-quake thresholds are significantly lower than pre-seismic ones, and the earthquakes of different intensities have varying effects on rainfall thresholds. The study may lead to an improved post-quake debris-flow warning strategy, especially in sparsely instrumented regions.
FRONTIERS IN EARTH SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Yan Zhao, Xingmin Meng, Tianjun Qi, Guan Chen, Yajun Li, Dongxia Yue, Feng Qing
Summary: Debris flows are a significant hazard in mountainous regions. This study presents a method for estimating daily rainfall thresholds for debris flows based on underlying surface factors. The estimated thresholds were verified using historical debris flow events and can provide a reference for early warning in areas lacking monitoring data.
BULLETIN OF ENGINEERING GEOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Paulina Alejandra Deseano Diaz, Dagmar van Dusschoten, Angelika Kuebert, Nicolas Brueggemann, Mathieu Javaux, Steffen Merz, Jan Vanderborght, Harry Vereecken, Maren Dubbert, Youri Rothfuss
Summary: This study aimed to assess the influence of above-and below-ground environmental conditions on the performance of Centaurea jacea L., a drought-resistant grassland forb species. The results showed that root water uptake mainly occurred in the 0-15 cm soil layer, even when water was more easily available in deeper layers. In wet soil, transpiration rate was driven by vapor pressure deficit and light intensity.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Dominik Hoven, Achim Mester, Harry Vereecken, Anja Klotzsche
Summary: High-frequency ground-penetrating radar (GPR) full-wave-form inversion (FWI) can improve the characterization of small-scale structures in the subsurface. The starting models and source wavelets are crucial for reliable FWI results. Frequency-hopping approach is required for higher frequency data, and time shifts have a greater influence on FWI performance than amplitude variations.
Article
Water Resources
Yongping Wei, Shuanglei Wu, Zhixiang Lu, Ray Ison, Andrew Western, Murugesu Sivapalan
Summary: This study developed a system thinking framework to unravel the complex interactions between water reallocations and societal, economic, and ecological subsystems in the Heihe River Basin in China. The results showed that ecological degradation occurred later than economic development and the slow change in societal values and limited considerations of technological development and government regulations towards environmental protection resulted in weak and untimely responses of water reallocations to ecological degradation. This framework can assist in strategic water reallocation decision-making in river basins.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
David Mengen, Thomas Jagdhuber, Anna Balenzano, Francesco Mattia, Harry Vereecken, Carsten Montzka
Summary: This study proposes a novel approach for estimating volumetric soil moisture content for agricultural areas using multi-orbit Sentinel-1 C-band time series. The approach achieves a temporal resolution of one to two days and utilizes a short-term change detection method. The method reduces the impact of varying incidence angles on the backscattering signal through incidence angle normalization and Fourier Series transformation. The algorithm also corrects for vegetational changes using the C-band co-polarized backscattering signal. The method shows promising results and can be applied globally in a cloud-processing environment.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Christian Poppe Teran, Bibi S. Naz, Alexander Graf, Yuquan Qu, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen, Roland Baatz, Phillipe Ciais, Harry Vereecken
Summary: European grasslands achieve higher water-use efficiency in summer by increasing gross primary production and regulating transpiration. This study analyzed remote sensing data from 1995 to 2018 and found that water-use efficiency decreased by 4.2% in Central Europe, posing a threat to ecosystem functioning. However, European grasslands increased their water-use efficiency by 24.2% through regulated transpiration and increased carbon assimilation. The study also emphasizes the role of hydro-climate in modulating water-use efficiency response to droughts and the importance of adaptive canopy conductance for ecosystem functioning.
COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Water Resources
Fang Li, Wolfgang Kurtz, Ching Pui Hung, Harry Vereecken, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen
Summary: Groundwater, an important source of water for humans, has a significant influence on human production and life. This study aims to improve hydrological modeling by assimilating groundwater data into the Terrestrial System Modeling Platform (TSMP) for a real-world case in the Rur catchment in Germany. The assimilation of daily groundwater table depth measurements through the Localized Ensemble Kalman Filter (LEnKF) into TSMP resulted in reduced bias and root mean square error (RMSE) compared to the open loop runs. The best results were achieved with a localization radius of 10 km, leading to an 81% reduction in RMSE at the measurement locations.
FRONTIERS IN WATER
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Martyn N. Futter, Thomas Dirnboeck, Martin Forsius, Jaana K. Back, Nathalie Cools, Eugenio Diaz-Pines, Jan Dick, Veronika Gaube, Lauren M. Gillespie, Lars Hogbom, Hjalmar Laudon, Michael Mirtl, Nikolaos Nikolaidis, Christian Poppe Teran, Ute Skiba, Harry Vereecken, Holger Villock, James Weldon, Christoph Wohner, Syed Ashraful Alam
Summary: Integrated long-term, in-situ observations are crucial to document environmental change, ground-truth remote sensing and model outputs, and predict future Earth system behavior. Research infrastructures can support harmonized data collection, curation, and publication, and integrating these networks can provide insights into the terrestrial carbon sink.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Bagher Bayat, Bamidele Oloruntoba, Carsten Montzka, Harry Vereecken, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen
Summary: Groundwater is a crucial water resource for Africa, and it is important to assess its sustainability and capacity to meet current water needs. This study quantified the groundwater sustainable yield across Africa based on simulations of land surface hydrology and water balance approach. The results show that Africa has a potential sustainable yield that could potentially satisfy the current water requirements of both humans and the environment.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yuquan Qu, Diego G. Miralles, Sander Veraverbeke, Harry Vereecken, Carsten Montzka
Summary: In many parts of the world, conditions for wildfires are increasing. This study examines the impact of weather and fuel conditions on wildfires and finds that weather plays a larger role than fuel, especially in tropical rainforests, mid-latitudes, and Siberian boreal forests. Fuel conditions are more dominant in North American and European boreal forests, as well as African and Australian savannahs. The study also highlights the complementary predictability of weather and fuel conditions for wildfire forecasting, with seasonal or interannual predictions feasible in areas where fuel conditions dominate.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lena Laerm, Felix Maximilian Bauer, Normen Hermes, Jan van der Kruk, Harry Vereecken, Jan Vanderborght, Thuy Huu Nguyen, Gina Lopez, Sabine Julia Seidel, Frank Ewert, Andrea Schnepf, Anja Klotzsche
Summary: The production of crops is crucial for ensuring the human food supply, but climate change presents new challenges. This study collects root and soil data to explore crop responses to the changing environment. Two minirhizotron facilities were used to obtain a comprehensive collection of root and soil data, which can be utilized to investigate processes within the soil-plant continuum and analyze root images.
Article
Agronomy
Mona Giraud, Samuel Le Gall, Moritz Harings, Mathieu Javaux, Daniel Leitner, Felicien Meunier, Youri Rothfuss, Dagmar van Dusschoten, Jan Vanderborght, Harry Vereecken, Guillaume Lobet, Andrea Schnepf
Summary: A plant's development is closely related to the water and carbon flows in its environment. Climate change can alter these flows and affect plant phenotypes. The study presents a comprehensive model that simulates the feedback loops between a plant's development and water and carbon flows. The results showed that drought reduces water-use efficiency and limits the availability of sucrose for growth.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alexander Graf, Georg Wohlfahrt, Sergio Aranda-Barranco, Nicola Arriga, Christian Bruemmer, Eric Ceschia, Philippe Ciais, Ankur R. Desai, Sara Di Lonardo, Mana Gharun, Thomas Gruenwald, Lukas Hoertnagl, Kuno Kasak, Anne Klosterhalfen, Alexander Knohl, Natalia Kowalska, Michael Leuchner, Anders Lindroth, Matthias Mauder, Mirco Migliavacca, Alexandra C. Morel, Andreas Pfennig, Hendrik Poorter, Christian Poppe Teran, Oliver Reitz, Corinna Rebmann, Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Marius Schmidt, Ladislav Sigut, Enrico Tomelleri, Ke Yu, Andrej Varlagin, Harry Vereecken
Summary: Research finds that climate change mitigation efforts through increasing carbon uptake can lead to a decrease in land surface albedo, causing a warming effect, especially in afforestation and snow-free environments. However, a balanced approach that optimizes both carbon uptake and albedo can achieve long-term cooling without causing warming in any time period.
COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Mohammad Ghoreishi, Amin Elshorbagy, Saman Razavi, Guenter Bloeschl, Murugesu Sivapalan, Ahmed Abdelkader
Summary: This paper examines the conflict-and-cooperation phenomena in the Eastern Nile River basin and proposes a quantitative model to represent the main factors influencing willingness to cooperate at both the national and river basin scales. The findings suggest that political stability and foreign direct investment contribute to the changing cooperation patterns in the basin. However, long-term lack of trust among riparian countries hinders basin-wide cooperation. Although the proposed model has limitations, it provides a quantitative representation of cooperation pathways and can be used to analyze the effects of future management decisions on conflict and cooperation in the basin.
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Tobias Selzner, Jannis Horn, Magdalena Landl, Andreas Pohlmeier, Dirk Helmrich, Katrin Huber, Jan Vanderborght, Harry Vereecken, Sven Behnke, Andrea Schnepf
Summary: This study evaluates a 2-step workflow for automated root system architecture (RSA) reconstruction using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The first step involves segmentation of MRI images into root and soil using a 3D U-Net, while the second step utilizes an automated tracing algorithm to reconstruct the root systems. The results show that the U-Net segmentation offers significant benefits in terms of reconstruction speed and root length.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lena Larm, Felix Maximilian Bauer, Jan van der Kruk, Jan Vanderborght, Shehan Morandage, Harry Vereecken, Andrea Schnepf, Anja Klotzsche
Summary: Non-invasive imaging techniques were used to study root and soil water distribution within the soil-plant continuum. The presence of roots was found to increase the variability of soil permittivity, possibly due to the redistribution of soil water. This study provides valuable insights for optimizing agricultural practices such as irrigation and fertilization.
VADOSE ZONE JOURNAL
(2023)