Strategies to Estimate Rainfall

Strategies to Estimate Rainfall Accurate rainfall estimation is an important and challenging task and the spatial distribution of the rain gauge is a most important factor in providing reliable areal rainfall. Modern rainfall network established to monitor hydrological features should provide the necessary and real-time information for purposes such as management of water resources, reservoir operation and flood forecast and control (Chen et al., 2008). Direct measurement of rainfall can only be achieved by rain gauges, and rain gauge networks are often installed to provide measurements that characterize the temporal and spatial variations of rainfall (Cheng et al., 2008). However, even if rain gauges are capable of providing real time rainfall information at very fine temporal resolution under the help of automatic rainfall record equipments, it is still difficult to characterize the spatial variation of rainfall without a well-designed rain gauge network in the catchment. A well designed rain gauge network with proper densities and distributions is essential to provide the valid precipitation information reflecting the spatial-temporal features in a catchment. However, most river basins of the world are poorly gauged or ungauged, and most rain gauge networks applied for hydrological purposes are largely inadequate according to the most dilute density requirements of World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO recommends certain densities of rain gauges to be followed for different types of basins such as 500 km2 per gauge is recommended in flat regions of temperate zones, while 25 km2 per gauge is recommended for small mountainous islands with irregular precipitation (WMO, 1994). Moreover, many non-hydrological factors considerably impacted the rain gauge network design, e.g. accessibility, cost and easiness of maintenance, topographical aspects, etc. However, many reviews have noted a marked decline in the amount of hydrometric data being collected in many parts of the world (WMO, 1996; Stokstad, 1999). The decline of hydrometric gauges exists not only in developing countries, but also happens in developed countries, e.g. the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) network had undergone some significant reductions in the mid-1990s (Mason and York, 1997; Pyrce, 2004). This decline in hydrometric gauges means that at a time when global warming may be exacerbating weather extremes and water shortages, scientists are less able to monitor water supplies, predict droughts, and forecast floods than they were 30 years ago (Stokstad, 1999). In recent years, satellite remote sensing seems to have the potential to provide full spatial coverage of pixel rainfall estimates, however, many studies have pointed out that the satellite based rainfall data still could not provide accurate rainfall estimates to match rain gauge measurements and could not meet the requirements of hydrological modelling on daily base (e.g. Hughes, 2006; Dinku et al., 2008; Li et al., 2012, 2014). Furthermore, the satellite based precipitation data have to be calibrated with the rainfall provided by the existing rain gauges to correct the bias, and the bias correction results considerably depend on the rain gauge density and distribution. Meanwhile, the widely application of satellite based precipitation data has a consequence of the deterioration of rain gauge networks in some cases (Ali et al., 2005). Tsintikidis et al. (2002) demonstrated that even when lumped models are used for flood forecasting, a proper gauge network can significantly improve the results. Thus, to build a rain gauge network contains a minimum density of rain gauges from removing redundancy gauges which contain less information is crucial under the background of rain gauge networks deterioration. It can help to understand how the distribution of rain gauges impacts the capability of network and qualify of rainfall information provided by the network. Rain gauge network design is to analyse the number and location of stations necessary for achieving the required accuracy (Bras, 1990) and meet the objective of information provided by the network as efficiently and economically as possible (Hackett, 1966). Varies approaches using optimal selection of rainfall gauges have been applied in designing rain gauge network to yield greater precise of rainfall estimation with minimum cost. Eulogio (1998) presented an optimal network design for the estimation of areal mean rainfall events by using simulated annealing method which demonstrated that the simulated annealing algorithm of random search for optimal location of rain gauges took into account the double criterion of estimation accuracy and economic cost. Patra (2001) applied a statistical theory for rain gauge network design. The study took use the coefficient of variance and the acceptable percentage of error range to estimate the optimal number of rain gauges. St-Hilaire et al. (200 3) evaluated the impact of meteorological network density on the estimation of basin precipitation and runoff in five drainage basins in Mauricie watershed in Quebec, Canada by using Kriging method to estimate the spatial distribution and variance of rainfall. Dong et al. (2005) used variance reduction analysis method to find the appropriate quantity and location of rain gauges in Qingjiang River Basin, China for flow simulation. The study demonstrated that both cross correlation coefficient and modelling performance increase hyperbolically and level off after five rain gauges for the study area. Anctil et al. (2006) applied the method of randomly selection of rain gauges to produce subsets of rain gauge network to optimize the mean daily areal rainfall series in Bas-en-Basset watershed, southern France and using genetic algorithm to orient the rain gauge combinatorial problem toward improved forecasting performance. BÃ ¡rdossy and Das (2008) studied the influence of the spatial resolution of rainfall input on the model calibration and application by varying the distribution of the rain gauge network via External Drift Kriging method (EDK) in southwest of Germany and pointed out that the overall performance of the HBV model worsens radically with an excessive reduction of rain gauges, while there is no significant improvement of the model by increasing the number of rain gauges more than a certain threshold number. Chen et al. (2008) applied Kriging and entropy algorithm to design the rain gauge network which contains the minimum number of rain gauges and optimum spatial distribution in Taiwan, China. The summer flash rainfall exhibits particularly high spatiotemporal variability and produces severe, quick, and sharply peaked flash flooding at the study site (Desilets et al., 2008), and the monitoring of summer flash rainfall represents the most difficult and important challenge for a rain gauge network designed for flood prediction. Volkmann et al. (2010) designed rain gauge networks for flash flood prediction in semiarid catchments with complex terrain to predict flash flood. The results revealed that the multi-criteria strategy provided a robust design by which a sparse but accurate network of rain gauges could be implemented for semiarid basins such as the one studied. Precipitation gauge network structure is not only dependent on the station density; station location also plays an important role in determining whether information is gained properly. Gupta et al. (2002) and Yatheendradas et al. (2008) pointed out that rapidly changing patterns of precipitation over mountains are poorly monitored, and there are gaps in the information important to the modelling of runoff generation which makes it difficult to obtain sufficient leading time and accuracy on hydrological forecasts. Therefore, the design of hydrological measurement networks has received considerable attention in research settings. The issue of optimizing rain gauge network can be formulated as that of finding the locations of a limited number of rain gauges which provide sufficient rainfall information of both the spatial distribution and the areal mean precipitation. Thus, the main objectives of this paper are motivated to: (1) understand and quantify the variability of the precipitation in catchment scale using the Shannon’s entropy and mutual information method; (2) design and evaluate a new entropy theory based multi-criteria strategy for identifying the best locations for installation of rain gauges based on the existing dense rain gauge network; and (3) evaluate the impact of the different rain gauge networks on hydrological simulation by using the lumped and distributed hydrological models.

Killer Whale

What is a killer whale? A killer whale is considered a whale to most people, but its is actually the largest of all dolphins and one of the most superior predators in the world (Killer Whale, National Geographic). The scientific name for a killer whale is Orcinus Orca. The killer whale falls into the kingdom Animalia, the phylum Chordata, the class Mammalia, and the order Cetacea (Killer Whales , NOAA). Killer whales or orcas are one of the most intelligent species world. Orca’s are widely distributed in all parts of the ocean even the tropics (Diagram A).The estimated population of a killer whale is fifty thousand to about one hundred thousand. (7 Things About Killer Whales, Take Part) . Killer whales are solid black and white, they also have a gray patch on their back called a â€Å"cape† or a â€Å"saddle† . The top(dorsal) side of the dolphin is black, including the pectoral flippers. The bottom (ventral) side is mostly white. The oval white spots behind the eyes are called â€Å"eyespots†. The size of a killer whale varies depending on the location of the dolphin. Adult killer whale females are smaller than adult males.A killer whale has a fusiform body shape. A fusiform body shape has less drag, which means that it is an efficient swimmer. The pectoral fin of a killer whale, which is very similar to a human hand (Diagram B), is used to steer and the flukes, or tails, are used to stop. The dorsal fin is used to help stabilize the whale when it swims at high speeds it is also encircled by veins to help manage the body temperature. The killer whale’s eyes are on both sides of the head, its about the same size of the eyes of the cow. The ears are a tiny opening just behind the eyes.Covered by a muscular flap is the blowhole, this is what the killer whale breathes through. (Physical Characteristics, Sea World). The killer whale has four senses taste, touch, hearing and eyesight. Killer whales do have taste buds, they prefer a specific food fishes. A killer whale has a very well developed sense of touch. Orcas have great vision both in and out of water. A marine mammals eyesight is grater than a land mammals. Often in the darker sides of the ocean their eyesight becomes weak and make its difficult to see their prey, in this case they use their sound receptors to navigate.Orcas have very well developed hearing. Recent studies have shown that orcas can hear up to 100kHz. The lower jaw of the killer whale also acts as a sound receptor (Diagram C). Killer whales do not have a sense of smell because the olfactory nerves and olfactory lobes of the brain aren’t present. Since they are air breathing mammals that spend most of their time underwater a sense of smell wouldn’t really come to use. (Senses, SeaWorld) Killer whales reproduce sexually. A female killer whale is sexually mature when it reaches fifteen to sixteen feet. Males are sexually mature when they reach eighteen to twenty feet.Baby kil ler whales are called calves. The gestation process for calves is seventeen months. Calves are born throughout the year but mostly during the summer time. Calves are born every five years. A calf weighs around three hundred to four hundred pounds and is approximately eight feet long. (Reproduction and Gestation, WhalesBC). Orcas are very conservative of their young. (Killer Whales, National Geographic). Killer whale are highly active predators. Orcas eat a wide variety of species, such as squids, sea mammals, and fish. These dolphins are one of the top predators in the ocean.Orcas eat a wide variety of fish, like fishes from the surface, such as salmon, to bottom dwelling species, such as halibut. Some orcas feed on marine mammals like walruses, baleen whale, sea lion, seals, and sometimes sea otters. Its common for killer whales to eat varieties of fish and squids , but very rarely they eat sea mammals. Adult Orcas eat about two to four percent of their body weight in food every da y(Food Preferences and Resources, Sea World). That is approximately about one hundred fifty to three hundred pounds of food a day(Killer Whales, MarineBio. Net).Growing calves eat more they eat as much as ten percent of their body weight. Killer whale hunt in groups or â€Å"pods†. A pod is a bunch of individuals moving together as a group. A pod size is different in all areas of the globe. Male, female and calves are often grouped together in pods. Orcas often work together to surround a group of small prey before attacking. When hunting a bigger species such as a whale , the pod of dolphins would attack from several different angles all at once. Orcas are called killer whales because they tend to eat mostly whatever is in their ath. Orcas have very sharp, cone shaped teeth used to rip and tear prey. (Methods of Collecting Food, Sea World). Killer whales use echolocation sound wave to communicate. Echolocation is the location of objects by reflected sounds. This is used in d olphins and bats. This is what the killer whales rely on to hunt in the dark, communicate, and to navigate. Some sounds a killer whale make are jaw claps , echolocation clicks, low-frequency pops, pulsed calls, and whistles . The orca makes this sound by moving the air between the nasal sacs in the blowhole area.Humans have a lot of impact on killer whales. Humans have always been interested in learning abut the killer whale, but not much research could be found on them. The first image of a killer whale was found on a cave drawing in Norway, its about 9000 years old. There are often false myths about killer whales, and many times this misinformation leads to harm for the whales. Killer whales have been often hunted for their meats, organs, and blubber. Before 1981, six thousand killer whales were taken by Japanese , Norwegian, and Soviet whalers. (Human Impact, Sea World).Killer whales have many adaptations like diving, respiration, thermoregulation, and sleep. Orcas are very fast swimmers in the water. They can swim up to twenty eight miles per hour. They usually swim eight miles per hour. Killer whales maneuver well in the ocean. When near the surface the killer whale stays under water for thirty seconds or less. Killer whales are also known for their diving tactics. They can dive one hundred meters in the ocean. Killer whales also use thermoregulation. Thermoregulation is also the process of regulating body temperature.Orcas are very warm blooded their body temperature is similar humans. The large size of a killer whale keeps the whale warm. Under the orcas skin is a very thick layer of blubber which helps protect the amount of heat loss. Killer whales have a high metabolism, which also creates a lot of body heat. The orcas circulatory system assist in keeping the body temperature in place. The arteries contain warm blood from the core of the body and the veins contain cool blood, heat is often transferred from the arteries to the eins (Diagram D shows how this happens). Killer whales have been observed to rest or â€Å"sleep† for short periods of time sometimes as long as eight hours during the night. Calves have been observed to rest for a lesser period of time. (Adaptations, Sea world) Since Killer whales have no predator they could live fifty to eighty years. The only predators killer whale’s have are human (Killer Whales, NOAA). There are many causes to the death of killer whales, one cause is disease. Ulcers, tumors, skin diseases , heart disease, and respiratory issues.Some killer whale have been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, this is a cancer of lymph tissue found in the lymph nodes, spleen, liver, bone marrow, and other sites. Orcas sometimes suffer from several infections. Parasites are another issue causing harm to the killer whales health. Some parasite are flukes, roundworm, and tapeworms. (Longevity and causes of death, Sea world) The killer whale, or orca, is the fastest of the marine mammals; i ts powerful tail flukes help propel it through the water. It is also the largest of all dolphins.Orcas can get very big, it is possible for then to weigh up to six tons. Some orcas grow twenty three to thirty two feet long. They have approximately forty to fifty cone-shaped teeth, that are up to four inches long. Not much is told about their age but some resources show that some killer whales that live in the wild are about thirty to eighty years old. Killer whales have a widely spread population they are found in all parts of the oceans. Orcas have a counter shaded color pattern, they have a solid black top, and a solid white bottom with an oval shaped white spot which is called an â€Å"eyespot† .The dorsal fin for adult male are triangle shapes and can be up to six feet high. On the other hand a female dorsal fin is slightly curved, and that can grow up to three feet high. Orcas are considered to be one of the top predators in the ocean. Killer whales eat a variety of fish , seals, whales, sea lions, squid, and seabirds. Research shows that killer whales are capable of ripping seals of ice. Whales hunt in a group called â€Å"pods†. There are two types of pods residential and transient. Residential prefer to hunt fish and transient prefer to hunt marine mammals.Orcas use echolocation to find food, this technique is also used by bats. Orcas give birth every three to five years in the wild. Females carry their young for seventeen months. Baby orcas or calves are born up to eight feet long and can weight up to four hundred pounds. Orcas are highly protective of their young. These â€Å"pods† communicate with different noises. Killer whales are very intelligent. There has never been a document case on a killer whale attacking a human. (Twenty interesting facts about killer whales, Angela W. LaFon)

Understanding Financial Reporting

Financial reports allow the organization to communicate information about their performance to the â€Å"outside world†. So, financial reports provide summarized information about an organization†s transactions for external decision makers. (e. g. Investors). Financial reports can be used by employees and trade unions, government, creditors and lenders, customers, shareholders and investment analysts. All these users may need different statements of financial accounts but the most important statements which they need is the balance sheet, profit and loss account, cash flow account and the income statement. The two main regulatory bodies of financial reporting are the â€Å"Law† and the â€Å"Accounting Profession† with the Accounting Standards Board usually known as ASB. In UK, most of the legislation related to the publishing of accounts is embodied in the Companies Act 1985 and 1989 which are concerned with the accounts of the limited liability companies only. The Companies Act 1989 is the main frame which the companies and accountants have to follow. All the financial statement drawn up under the act 1989 must present a true and fair view and its function is to protect all the users of the financial reports and statements. The second and the most important regulatory body is the accounting profession. The standard setters should be aware of the information needed by all users of financial reports and should know the impact and the outcome of a different accounting method on the needs of those users. The standard setters should also be able to resolve the conflicts which exist between the needs of different users. So, they have to find an alternative way which best satisfy user needs and this could be achieved by choosing the improvement of the â€Å"social welfare† instead of welfare of individuals. We know that Accounting Standards Board is the main accounting standard setter. Because the ASB is composed of professional accountants, they may be unfamiliar with the user needs. So , when there is a need for a change in accounting standard the ASB prepare and publish a draft standard called the FRED (Financial Reporting Exposure Draft). After the publishing of these drafts the comments from the public is invited and in the light of these comments the FRED is changed (or unchanged). Now the FREDs are issued as FRS (Financial Reporting Standard). The main disadvantage of this system is the ASB members are unfamiliar with the different user needs and the comments from the general public may not be equally represented. There are four things that standards in financial reporting supply people using it. The first one is â€Å"Comparability†; financial statements must allow people to compare one company with another one and evaluate the management†s performance without spending time and money adjusting them to a common format and common accounting treatments. It is essential that users of financial reports or investment decision makers be supplied with relevant and standard financial reports which have been regulated and hence standardized. The second thing that standards and regulations supply is called â€Å"Credibility†. Because all this standards and regulations exist accountants have to treat every company in the same way. If the accountancy profession permitted companies experiencing similar events to produce financial reports that disclosed markedly different results simply because of a freedom to select different accounting policies they would lose all of their credibility. So, the standards should be composed of rigid rules and should not be broken. The third thing is â€Å"Influence† that means, setting up the standards has encouraged a constructive appraisal of the policies being proposed for individual reporting problems and has been a stimulus for the development of a conceptual framework. The last thing that the standards have to supply is â€Å"discipline†. Companies left to their own devises without the need to obey standards will eventually be disciplined by the financial markets. But in the short run investors in such companies may suffer loss. The Financial Reporting Council is aware of the need to impose discipline because most of the company failures in recent years are because of obscure financial reporting. Why should the Accounting Standards set? As we argued before, an important role of the regulations is to increase the comparability of accounts by limiting the choice of alternative accounting methods and to supply standardized accounts. This standardization can be achieved only by uniform accounting practice. If all accounting methods were standardized, two organizations which began the year with same balance sheets and which made the same transactions during the year, they would report the same balance sheets and the same profit and loss account at the end of the year. In addition to these advantages of regulations in financial reporting, there are also some more useful functions. Regulations can help to reduce the influence of personal biases and political pressures on accounting judgments. They can increase the level of user confidence in, and understanding of, financial reporting by clarifying the basis on which all accounts are prepared and presented. Finally, they can provide a frame of reference for resolving accounting problems which are not mentioned in legislation or accounting standards. As we argued earlier although the regulations in financial reports have very advantages it has many disadvantages too: One if these disadvantages is the â€Å"Adverse Allocative Effects†, this could occur if the ASB did not take into account of the economic consequences of the new standard or regulation they have issued. For example, additional costs could be imposed on preparers of accounts and suboptimal managerial decisions might be taken to avoid any reduction in earning or net assets. â€Å"Consensus-seeking† can be another disadvantage and this means the issuing of standards that are over-influenced by those with easiest access to the standard-setters. Most of the time this could happen with complex subjects.

Smoking Is Dangerous For Everyone - 1535 Words

According to Elizabeth Keyishian, Author of Everything you Need to Know About Smoking writes that â€Å"Smoking is dangerous for everybody, but there are special health risk for women. Lung cancer has replaced breast cancer as the leading killer disease for women.†(Keyishian). Remember the warning label on the cigarette passage states that, â€Å"‘Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight.’†(Keyishian). Smoking may not seem like a big deal yet, but once a girl or woman starts to smoke it will be difficult to quit. When a female becomes a mother, she may still be smoking and unable to stop, causing harm to the baby. Ob-gyn Robert Welch, who is on the committee of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Providence Hospital in Southfield Michigan, has helped thousands of women realize their dreams of a healthy baby. He states that â€Å"‘Smoking cigarettes is probably the number one cause of adve rse outcomes for babies’†(Woolston). He has seen the complications many times with the same outcome every time. Babies are born prematurely, born to small, or die before they can be born at all. Smoking while pregnant not only affects the mother, but the infant as well. The baby’s health will be affected before, during, and after the child is born. â€Å"The nicotine, carbon monoxide, and numerous other poisons†(WebMD) the mother would inhale from a cigarette are†...carried through her bloodstream and goes directly to the baby†(WebMD) which causesShow MoreRelatedThe Dangers Of Tobacco And Tobacco1084 Words   |  5 Pages With more people dying from tobacco related illnesses than any other source, smoking and tobacco use is the single largest source of preventable deaths in the world. There have been many attempts at controlling smoking in America which not only harms the user but also the people around them. None of the attempts have succeeded fully so far. 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