Abstract. The seismic hazard of the Iberian Peninsula is analysed using a nonparametric methodology based on statistical kernel functions; the activity rate is derived from the catalogue data, both its spatial dependence (without a seismogenic zonation) and its magnitude dependence (without using Gutenberg–Richter's relationship). The catalogue is that of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional, supplemented with other catalogues around the periphery; the quantification of events has been homogenised and spatially or temporally interrelated events have been suppressed to assume a Poisson process. The activity rate is determined by the kernel function, the bandwidth and the effective periods. The resulting rate is compared with that produced using Gutenberg–Richter statistics and a zoned approach. Three attenuation relationships have been employed, one for deep sources and two for shallower events, depending on whether their magnitude was above or below 5. The results are presented as seismic hazard maps for different spectral frequencies and for return periods of 475 and 2475 yr, which allows constructing uniform hazard spectra.
[EN] Given the great impacts associated with the construction and maintenance of infrastructures in both the environmental, the economic and the social dimensions, a sustainable approach to their design appears essential to ease the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Multicriteria decision-making methods are usually applied to address the complex and often conflicting criteria that characterise sustainability. The present study aims to review the current state of the art regarding the application of such techniques in the sustainability assessment of infrastructures, analysing as well the sustainability impacts and criteria included in the assessments. The Analytic Hierarchy Process is the most frequently used weighting technique. Simple Additive Weighting has turned out to be the most applied decision-making method to assess the weighted criteria. Although a life cycle assessment approach is recurrently used to evaluate sustainability, standardised concepts, such as cost discounting, or presentation of the assumed functional unit or system boundaries, as required by ISO 14040, are still only marginally used. Additionally, a need for further research in the inclusion of fuzziness in the handling of linguistic variables is identified. ; The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, along with FEDER funding (Project no. BIA2017-85098-R). ; Navarro, IJ.; Yepes, V.; Martí, JV. (2019). A Review of Multicriteria Assessment Techniques Applied to Sustainable Infrastructure Design. Advances in Civil Engineering. 2019(6134803):1-16. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6134803 ; S ; 1 ; 16 ; 2019 ; 6134803 ; Kyriacou, A. P., Muinelo-Gallo, L., & Roca-Sagalés, O. (2019). The efficiency of transport infrastructure investment and the role of government quality: An empirical analysis. Transport Policy, 74, 93-102. doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.11.017 ; García-Segura, T., Yepes, V., Martí, J. V., & Alcalá, J. (2014). Optimization of ...
Abstract. One of the most important tasks of modern volcanology is the construction of hazard maps simulating different eruptive scenarios that can be used in risk-based decision making in land-use planning and emergency management. The first step in the quantitative assessment of volcanic hazards is the development of susceptibility maps (i.e., the spatial probability of a future vent opening given the past eruptive activity of a volcano). This challenging issue is generally tackled using probabilistic methods that use the calculation of a kernel function at each data location to estimate probability density functions (PDFs). The smoothness and the modeling ability of the kernel function are controlled by the smoothing parameter, also known as the bandwidth. Here we present a new tool, QVAST, part of the open-source geographic information system Quantum GIS, which is designed to create user-friendly quantitative assessments of volcanic susceptibility. QVAST allows the selection of an appropriate method for evaluating the bandwidth for the kernel function on the basis of the input parameters and the shapefile geometry, and can also evaluate the PDF with the Gaussian kernel. When different input data sets are available for the area, the total susceptibility map is obtained by assigning different weights to each of the PDFs, which are then combined via a weighted summation and modeled in a non-homogeneous Poisson process. The potential of QVAST, developed in a free and user-friendly environment, is here shown through its application in the volcanic fields of Lanzarote (Canary Islands) and La Garrotxa (NE Spain).
Abstract. The Canary Islands are an active volcanic region densely populated and visited by several millions of tourists every year. Nearly twenty eruptions have been reported through written chronicles in the last 600 yr, suggesting that the probability of a new eruption in the near future is far from zero. This shows the importance of assessing and monitoring the volcanic hazard of the region in order to reduce and manage its potential volcanic risk, and ultimately contribute to the design of appropriate preparedness plans. Hence, the probabilistic analysis of the volcanic eruption time series for the Canary Islands is an essential step for the assessment of volcanic hazard and risk in the area. Such a series describes complex processes involving different types of eruptions over different time scales. Here we propose a statistical method for calculating the probabilities of future eruptions which is most appropriate given the nature of the documented historical eruptive data. We first characterize the eruptions by their magnitudes, and then carry out a preliminary analysis of the data to establish the requirements for the statistical method. Past studies in eruptive time series used conventional statistics and treated the series as an homogeneous process. In this paper, we will use a method that accounts for the time-dependence of the series and includes rare or extreme events, in the form of few data of large eruptions, since these data require special methods of analysis. Hence, we will use a statistical method from extreme value theory. In particular, we will apply a non-homogeneous Poisson process to the historical eruptive data of the Canary Islands to estimate the probability of having at least one volcanic event of a magnitude greater than one in the upcoming years. This is done in three steps: First, we analyze the historical eruptive series to assess independence and homogeneity of the process. Second, we perform a Weibull analysis of the distribution of repose time between successive eruptions. Third, we analyze the non-homogeneous Poisson process with a generalized Pareto distribution as the intensity function.
31 pagina y 6 figuras ; [EN] In this contribution we analyse the content of the document "Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection ", as well as others that relate to the future policy on soil protection in Europe published by the European Environmental Agency and the Council of the European Union, among other international bodies. In the authors' opinion these papers have several scientific and politic shortcomings and mistakes, several of which damage, among other EU Countries, Spain's interests. The majority of them are due to alack of attention with regards to EU needs on spatial soil information. Unless we previously review and correct this deficiency, it will affect the success of future Pan European Monitoring Programs. We shall then present several proposals in order to overcome the above mentioned situation. The Spanish government has still a lot to do if we wish to reach the same position than the more developed EU countries in terms of scientific knowledge of soils, soil. [ES] Varias instituciones europeas han elaborado documentos de contenido científico y técnico con vistas a planificar una estrategia integrada para la protección del suelo a escala continental. Entre ellos, merece especial atención el documento denominado "Hacia una Estrategia Temática para la Protección del Suelo" . En opinión de los autores, tanto éste como otros informes publicados por la Agencia Europea del Medio Ambiente y el Parlamento Europeo, entre otras instituciones comunitarias, adolecen de varias deficiencias científico-técnicas. Asimismo, su enfoque político perjudica los intereses de España y de otros países económicamente más débiles dentro del marco comunitario. La mayor parte de estas deficiencias deben buscarse en la falta de atención que se quiere prestar a la recogida espacial de información, deficiencias que deben ser corregidas si se quiere alcanzar con éxito los objetivos de los futuros Programas Paneuropeos de Vigilancia. España tiene todavía mucho camino que recorrer si quiere ocupar un puesto de vanguardia en Europa en lo concerniente al conocimiento científico de los suelos, a los sistemas de información y a la política nacional de protección del suelo. ; Peer reviewed
7 páginas y 3 tablas estadísticas ; [EN] The exploitation of nuclear central raises serious problems because the risk of radionuclides liberation on the environment. Accidents like those of Chernóbil or, more recently, Vandellòs in our country, upset the public opinion and official organisms. Soil is one of the terminal receivers of radioisotopes contamination, howewer few works by non involved on governmental of energy development plants scientists, existing in this matter. Nevertheless, in the revision carried out by the authors, deep alterations in soil components are made evident, mainly on its biocenosis, that modify its ecological structure and, consequently, the whole working of the edaphic system. [ES] La explotación de centrales nucleares plantea graves problemas, debido al peligro que supone la liberación al ambiente de isótopos radioactivos. Accidentes como el de Chernóbil y, más recientemente, el de la Central de Vandellós en nuestro país, han sensibilizado a la opinión pública y a los organismos oficiales implicados, obligando a replantearse el papel de las centrales nucleares en la política energética de los Estados. El suelo es uno de los receptores terminales de la contaminacíón por radionúclidos y, sin embargo, son escasos los trabajos publicados sobre este tema. No obstante, en la revisión realizada por los autores se pone de manifiesto la profunda alteración de los componentes del suelo - fundamentalmente su biocenosis - que modifican la estructura ecológica y, en consecuencia, el funcionamiento global del sistema edáfico. ; Peer reviewed
10 páginas y 6 figuras ; The first soil maps representing Spain date from the beginning of the century: the Universal Soil Map of Glinka and that prepared by Sibirtzev and Ramman (Mudarra 1989). The first research work carried out on Spanish soil however must be attributed to E. Huguet del Villar, who was already pioneering soil surveys of the Iberian Peninsula in 1927 on the occasion of the first Intemational Soil Science Congress held in Washington (Huguet del Villar 1927). At that time, he collaborated on the world map drawn up by Stremme. Huguet del Villar's work in Spain, curtailed by the Spanish Civil War, culminated with th e publication of a two-language book (Spanish-English) Soils of the Lusitano-Iberian Peninsula in 1937, which included a l:l,500,000 scale soil map. In 1939, after the Spanish Civil War, with Huguet del Villar absent because of his political convictions, a second stage of Spanish soil mapping commenced. ; Peer reviewed
Abstract. Long-term hazard assessment, one of the bastions of risk-mitigation programs, is required for land-use planning and for developing emergency plans. To ensure quality and representative results, long-term volcanic hazard assessment requires several sequential steps to be completed, which include the compilation of geological and volcanological information, the characterisation of past eruptions, spatial and temporal probabilistic studies, and the simulation of different eruptive scenarios. Despite being a densely populated active volcanic region that receives millions of visitors per year, no systematic hazard assessment has ever been conducted on the Canary Islands. In this paper we focus our attention on El Hierro, the youngest of the Canary Islands and the most recently affected by an eruption. We analyse the past eruptive activity to determine the spatial and temporal probability, and likely style of a future eruption on the island, i.e. the where, when and how. By studying the past eruptive behaviour of the island and assuming that future eruptive patterns will be similar, we aim to identify the most likely volcanic scenarios and corresponding hazards, which include lava flows, pyroclastic fallout and pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). Finally, we estimate their probability of occurrence. The end result, through the combination of the most probable scenarios (lava flows, pyroclastic density currents and ashfall), is the first qualitative integrated volcanic hazard map of the island.
