Search results for "fall"

Multivariate nonparametric estimation of the Pickands dependence function using Bernstein polynomials

2017

Abstract Many applications in risk analysis require the estimation of the dependence among multivariate maxima, especially in environmental sciences. Such dependence can be described by the Pickands dependence function of the underlying extreme-value copula. Here, a nonparametric estimator is constructed as the sample equivalent of a multivariate extension of the madogram. Shape constraints on the family of Pickands dependence functions are taken into account by means of a representation in terms of Bernstein polynomials. The large-sample theory of the estimator is developed and its finite-sample performance is evaluated with a simulation study. The approach is illustrated with a dataset of…

Bioclimatic atlas of the terrestrial Arctic

2023

AbstractThe Arctic is the region on Earth that is warming at the fastest rate. In addition to rising means of temperature-related variables, Arctic ecosystems are affected by increasingly frequent extreme weather events causing disturbance to Arctic ecosystems. Here, we introduce a new dataset of bioclimatic indices relevant for investigating the changes of Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. The dataset, called ARCLIM, consists of several climate and event-type indices for the northern high-latitude land areas > 45°N. The indices are calculated from the hourly ERA5-Land reanalysis data for 1950–2021 in a spatial grid of 0.1 degree (~9 km) resolution. The indices are provided in three subsets…

A non-homogeneous Poisson based model for daily rainfall data

2007

In this paper we report some results of the application of a new stochastic model applied to rainfall daily data. The Poisson models, characterized only by the expected rate of events (impulse occurrences, that is the mean number of impulses per unit time) and the assigned probability distribution of the phenomenon magnitude, do not take into consideration the datum regarding the duration of the occurrences, that is fundamental from a hydrological point of view. In order to describe the phenomenon in a way more adherent to its physical nature, we propose a new model simple and manageable. This model takes into account another random variable, representing the duration of the rainfall due to…

A paradigm of extreme rainfall pluvial floods in complex urban areas: the flood event of 15 July 2020 in Palermo (Italy)

2021

Abstract. In the last few years, some regions of the Mediterranean area have witnessed a progressive increase in extreme events, such as urban and flash floods, as a response to the increasingly frequent and severe extreme rainfall events, which are often exacerbated by the ever-growing urbanization. In such a context, the urban drainage systems may not be sufficient to convey the rainwater, thus increasing the risk deriving from the occurrence of such events. This study focuses on a particularly intense urban flood that occurred in Palermo (Italy) on 15 July 2020; it represents a typical pluvial flood due to extreme rainfall on a complex urban area that many cities have experienced in rece…

Physically based modeling of rainfall-triggered landslides: a case study in the Luquillo forest, Puerto Rico

2013

This paper presents the development of a rainfall-triggered landslide module within an existing physically based spatially distributed ecohydrologic model. The model, tRIBS-VEGGIE (Triangulated Irregular Networks-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator and Vegetation Generator for Interactive Evolution), is capable of a sophisticated description of many hydrological processes; in particular, the soil moisture dynamics are resolved at a temporal and spatial resolution required to examine the triggering mechanisms of rainfall-induced landslides. The validity of the tRIBS-VEGGIE model to a tropical environment is shown with an evaluation of its performance against direct observations made w…

Assessment of the embodied energy for manufacturing and laying a submarine outfall pipeline

2008

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to a submarine outfall pipeline intended for the disposal of treated MWW in the South Tyrrhenian Sea, on Western Coast of Sicily. The pipe serves 115 thousands inhabitants; it is 3,1 km long with an outer diameter of 800 mm and is allocated in a submarine trench down to 18 m bsl. The pipe ends with a multiport diffuser with outer diameter 500 mm. The whole pipeline is made in HDPE and is statically stabilized by cast iron rings and concrete anchor blocks. From the detailed constructive project of the pipeline the most relevant items involved were drawn and the most important ones were selected, both as materials employed and as laying …

Compared regimes of NDVI and Rainfall in semi-arid regions of Africa

2006

International audience; Bi-monthly normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at an 8km spatial resolution from the advanced very high resolution radiometers (AVHRR) was used from 1981 to 1995 to analyse the vegetation response to rainfall supply in semi-arid regions of Africa. Within the 200-600 mm annual rainfall belt, for which the apparent NDVI response to rainfall was the strongest, three regions were selected which exhibited different patterns in their NDVI regimes and/or relationships with rainfall. The regions, located in western, southern and eastern Africa, were split into coherent sub-regions in terms of mean regime of photosynthetic activity through a cluster analysis. Overal…

Robust spatio-temporal descriptors for real-time SVM-based fall detection

2014

Relationship Between Extreme Rainfall and Surface Temperature in Sicily (Italy)

2018

The study of the relationship between extreme rainfall events and surface temperature represents an important issue in hydrology and meteorology and it could be of capital importance for evaluating the effect of global warming on future precipitation. Various approaches have been tested across different parts of the world, and, in many cases, it has been observed an intensification of precipitation with increasing temperature consistently with the thermodynamic Clausius-Clapeyron relation (CC-rate of 6-7% °C-1), according to which a warmer atmosphere is capable of holding more moisture. Nevertheless, in different locations, the scaling rate between temperature and extreme precipitation has …

Overestimation of the strength of size-assortative pairing in taxa with cryptic diversity: a case of Simpson's paradox.

2015

5 pages; International audience; Size-assortative pairing is one of the most common pairing patterns observed in nature and it probably occurs in many taxa with cryptic diversity. Observed patterns of size-assortative pairing in natural populations may thus be influenced by the co-occurrence of noninterbreeding cryptic groups of individuals living in sympatry. To quantify this potential bias, we sampled amphipods from the Gammarus pulex/Gammarus fossarum crustacean species complex in rivers containing two sympatric and morphologically cryptic groups, i.e. molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs). Within each river, MOTUs did not interbreed and differed in mean body size. We measured th…