Study on the vertical deformations induced by terrestrial water storage changes in Huang-Huai-Hai river basin

Terrestrial water storage(TWs)variations are associated with water mass movements,which may cause the deformation displacements of the Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)stations.This study investigates the spatio-temporal Tws variations and addresses the relationship between deformation variations observed in the Huang-Huai-Hai River Basin(HHHRB)and local hydrological features.Results indicate that the vertical velocities at the GNSS stations induced by TWS changes are relatively small,and the impacts of the terrestrial water storage changes are mainly reflected in the changes of seasonal characteristics.Although there is a downward TWS trend from 2011 to 2022 in most HHHRB areas,velocities from the vertical displacements of both Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE)and GRACE Follow-On(GFO)and the GNSS reflect that the HHHRB is undergoing an uplift process,while the magnitude of the GRACE/GFO derived velocities is much smaller than that of the GNSS solutions.Common hydrological deformations estimated from GRACE/GFO and GNSS measurements reveal that the TWS-derived displacements can explain 54.5%of the GNSS seasonal variations,with the phases of terrestrial water storage advancing by about one month relative to GNss common signal phases.Moreover,the decrease of the groundwater storage in the HHHRB has been accelerating since 2008.After reaching its lowest level around mid-2020,it began to rise rapidly,which might be closely related to the implementation of the South-North Water Transfer Central Project.

Modeling spatial and temporal change of soil erosion based on multi-temporal remotely sensed data

In order to monitor the pattern, distribution, and trend of land use/cover change （LUCC） and its impacts on soil erosion, it is highly appropriate to adopt Remote Sensing （RS） data and Geographic Information System （GIS） to analyze, assess, simulate, and predict the spatial and temporal evolution dynamics. In this paper, multi-temporal Landsat TM/ETM＋ re- motely sensed data are used to generate land cover maps by image classification, and the Cellular Automata Markov （CA_Markov） model is employed to simulate the evolution and trend of landscape pattern change. Furthermore, the Re- vised Universal Soil Loss Equation （RUSLE） is used to evaluate the situation of soil erosion in the case study mining area. The trend of soil erosion is analyzed according to total/average amount of soil erosion, and the rainfall （R）, cover man- agement （C）, and support practice （P） factors in RUSLE relevant to soil erosion are determined. The change trends of soil erosion and the relationship between land cover types and soil erosion amount are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the CA_Markov model is suitable to simulate and predict LUCC trends with good efficiency and accuracy, and RUSLE can calculate the total soil erosion effectively. In the study area, there was minimal erosion grade and this is expected to con- tinue to decline in the next few years, according to our prediction results.

Information Theory of Cartography:An Information-theoretic Framework for Cartographic Communication

Map is one of the communication means created by human being.Cartographers have been making efforts on the comparison of maps to natural languages so as to establish a"cartographic language"or"map language".One of such efforts is to adopt the Shannon’s Information Theory originated in digital communication into cartography so as to establish an entropy-based cartographic communication theory.However,success has been very limited although research work had started as early as the mid-1960 s.It is then found that the bottleneck problem was the lack of appropriate measures for the spatial(configurational)information of(graphic and image)maps,as the classic Shannon entropy is only capable of characterizing statistical information but fails to capture the configurational information of(graphic and image)maps.Fortunately,after over 40-year development,some bottleneck problems have been solved.More precisely,generalized Shannon entropies for metric and thematic information of(graphic)maps have been developed and the first feasible solution for computing the Boltzmann entropy of image maps has been invented,which is capable of measuring the spatial information of not only numerical images but also categorical maps.With such progress,it is now feasible to build the"Information Theory of Cartography".In this paper,a framework for such a theory is proposed and some key issues are identified.For these issues,some have already been tackled while others still need efforts.As a result,a research agenda is set for future action.After all these issues are tackled,the theory will become matured so as to become a theoretic basis of cartography.It is expected that the Information Theory of Cartography will play an increasingly important role in the discipline of cartography because more and more researchers have advocated that information is more fundamental than matter and energy.

Environmental Drivers and Spatial Prediction of the Critically Endangered Species Thuja sutchuenensis in Sichuan-Chongqing,China

Identifying the ecological environment suitable for the growth of Thuja sutchuenensis and predicting other potential distribution areas are essential to protect this endangered species. After selecting 24 environmental factors thatcould affect the distribution of T. sutchuenensis, including climate, topography, soil and Normalized DifferenceVegetation Index (NDVI), we adopted the Random Forest-MaxEnt integrated model to analyze our data. Basedon the Random Forest study, the contribution of the mean temperature of the warmest quarter, mean temperatureof the coldest quarter, annual mean temperature and mean temperature of the driest quarter was large. Based onMaxEnt model prediction outputs, the potential distribution map not only identified areas that originallyrecorded T. sutchuenensis, such as Xuanhan County, Kai County and Chengkou County, but also identified highlysuitable distribution areas where T. sutchuenensis may exist, including Wanyuan County, Sichuan Province, andthe junction of Chongqing and Hubei Province. This provides a more explicit geographic range for ex situ conservation and reintroduction of T. sutchuenensis. Our results also indicate that, in addition to climate factors,topography and soil factors are also important environmental factors that affect distribution. This provides a theoretical basis for subsequent laboratory construction to simulate the indoor growth of T. sutchuenensis.

Metal Corrosion Rate Prediction of Small Samples Using an Ensemble Technique

Accurate prediction of the internal corrosion rates of oil and gas pipelines could be an effective way to prevent pipeline leaks.In this study,a proposed framework for predicting corrosion rates under a small sample of metal corrosion data in the laboratory was developed to provide a new perspective on how to solve the problem of pipeline corrosion under the condition of insufficient real samples.This approach employed the bagging algorithm to construct a strong learner by integrating several KNN learners.A total of 99 data were collected and split into training and test set with a 9:1 ratio.The training set was used to obtain the best hyperparameters by 10-fold cross-validation and grid search,and the test set was used to determine the performance of the model.The results showed that theMean Absolute Error(MAE)of this framework is 28.06%of the traditional model and outperforms other ensemblemethods.Therefore,the proposed framework is suitable formetal corrosion prediction under small sample conditions.

Response of Lakes to Climate Change in Xainza Basin Tibetan Plateau Using Multi-Mission Satellite Data from 1976 to 2008

Changes in the lake areas of Xainza basin in the past 33 years （1976 to 2008） were studied using Landsat data from Multispectral Scanners （1973- 1977）, Thematic Mapper （1989-1992, 2007-2009）, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus （1999-2002）. The results indicated that lakes in the study area evidently expanded from 1976 to 2008, with total expansion of 1512.64km2. The mean annual air temperature presented an upward trend with certain fluctuations from 1966 to 2008. The air temperature rise rates in the cold season （o.31~C/loa） were higher than those in the hot season （0.24℃/1oa）, in the Xainza station example. Precipitation exhibited evident seasonal differences. Mean annual precipitation in hot season is 281.48 mm and cold season is 32.66 mm from 1966 to 2008 in study area. Precipitation in the hot season was the major contributor to the increase in annual precipitation. Grey relational analysis （GRA） was used to study the response of lake areas to climatic factors. The mean air temperature and precipitation were selected as comoared series, and the lake areas were regarded as the reference series. The grey relational grade （GRG） between compared series and reference series were calculated through GRA. The results indicated that changes in lake areas were mainly affected by climatic factors in the hot season. Lakes in this region were classified into three grades, namely, Grades I, II, and III according to the recharge source and elevation. The GRGs of each series varied for different grade lakes： the area of Grade III lakes were the most relevant to the hot season factors, the GRGs of precipitation and air temperature were 0.7570 and 0.6606; followed by the Grade II lakes; Grade I lakes were more sensitive to the air temperature.

Mechanical behavior and microstructural mechanism of improved disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone

This study aims to improve the mechanical behavior of disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone, which is used as road embankment filler in southwestern China. Triaxial tests were performed on disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone modified by fly ash, cement, and red clay. Then the stress-strain relationships and shear strength parameters were analyzed. The microstructure and mineral composition of the materials were identified via scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results show that the stress-strain relationships changed from strain-hardening to strain-softening when disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone was modified with cement. By contrast, the addition of fly ash and red clay did not change the type of stress-strain relationships. The order of these three additives is cement, red clay and fly ash according to their influences on the cohesion. Disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone without cement all showed bulging failures, and that modified with cement exhibited shear failures or bulging-shear failures. The soil particles of the improved soil were well bonded by cementitious substances, so the microstructure was denser and more stable, which highly enhanced the mechanical behavior of disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone. The findings could offer references for the use of carbonaceous mudstone in embankment engineering.

A New Carbon and Oxygen Balance Model Based on Ecological Service of Urban Vegetation

The application of human induced oxygen consumption and carbon emission theory in urban region was summed up and on this base a new model of urban carbon and oxygen balance (UCOB) was constructed by calculating the carbon and oxygen fluxes. The purpose was to highlight the role of vegetation in urban ecosystems and evaluate the effects of various human activities on urban annual oxygen consumption and carbon emission. Hopefully,the model would be helpful in theory to keep the regional balance of carbon and oxygen,and provide guidance and support for urban vegetation planning in the future. To test the UCOB model,the Jimei District of Xiamen City,Fujian Province,China,a very typical urban region,was selected as a case study. The results turn out that Jimei′s vegetation service in oxygen emission and carbon sequestration could not meet the demand of the urban population,and more than 31.49 times of vegetation area should be added to meet the whole oxygen consumption in Jimei while 9.60 times of vegetation area are needed to meet the carbon sequestration targets. The results show that the new UCOB model is of a great potential to be applied to quantitative planning of urban vegetation and regional eco-compensation mechanisms.

Extraction and analysis of saline soil deformation in the Qarhan Salt Lake region (in Qinghai, China) by the sentinel SBAS-InSAR technique

The instability of saline soil foundation affects the safety of artificial construction,and may cause ground collapse,building destruction and road damage.It is fundamental to reduce the potential engineering geological disasters by exploring the dynamic evolution of saline soil.Most of the previous researches of saline soil were conducted by simulated experiments and traditional geodetic surveying methods.Restricted to the limited sampling points,the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of saline soil were difficult to find out in a large scale.This paper exploited SBAS-InSAR method to extract the deformation of the Qarhan Salt Lake(in Qinghai,China)section along Qinghai-Tibet railway,based on 119 image data acquired by Sentinel-1A from 2015 to 2020.The results showed that the deformation trends varied frequently in this saline mud flat.Between the adjacent areas with different deformation trends along Qinghai-Tibet railway,discontinuities caused by uplift and subsidence were very obvious.Besides,among the areas with brine exploitation or artificial construction,the maximum subsidence rate reached50 mm/yr,and the maximum cumulative subsidence exceeded 320 mm in the latest 5 years.In the saline mud flat closed to the rivers and lakes,the deformation trend was continuous uplift.Nevertheless,there were obvious seasonal deformation characteristics in those areas far away from the water body.Further analysis found out a sharply subsidence caused by the salt collapsibility appeared in rainy seasons.While an uplift trend induced by the salt swelling or frost heave was remarkable in dry seasons.Subsequently,the relationships were analyzed between the time series deformation and external environmental fac-tors.Furthermore,the deformation mechanism of saline soilin the Qarhan Salt Lake region was inter-preted then.In general,this study provides complete spatiotemporal evolution information of saline soil,and demonstrates the deformation characteristics of saline soil in the Qarhan Salt Lake region suc-cessfully.Related results would contribute to the safety monitoring for large-scale infrastructure con-struction in the saline soil areas.

Performance of rectangular closed diaphragm walls in gently sloping liquefiable deposits subjected to different earthquake ground motions

The performance of rectangular closed diaphragm walls(RCDW)subjected to earthquake ground motions is extremely complicated in gently sloping liquefiable deposits and requires further investigation.A nonlinear finite element(FE)model was developed to investigate the seismic performance of an RCDW in the OpenSees platform.Initially,the feasibility of the FE model to simulate the seismic behavior of the RCDW was validated by comparing the numerical results with the experimental data.The numerical results agree well with the centrifuge test data.Then,the calibrated model was used to study the seismic performance of the RCDW subjected to different ground motions in gently sloping liquefiable deposits.The numerical results indicate that the soil-RCDW system under near-fault ground motions is more likely to be damaged than that under far-fault ground motions.The difference between the maximum and minimum(Dmax-min)the RCDW displacement and the maximum excess pore pressure in the soil core increased as the Arias intensity increased.The seismic response of the soil-RCDW system was strongly affected by the frequency content,durations,energy distribution and initial directions of the ground motions.Moreover,the modified specific energy density(MSED)has a good linear relationship with the Dmax-min of the RCDW displacement.

Crop residue incorporation and nitrogen fertilizer effects on greenhouse gas emissions from a subtropical rice system in Southwest China

Crop residue incorporation has been widely accepted as a way to increase soil carbon(C) sequestration and sustain soil fertility in agroecosystems. However, effect of crop residue incorporation on greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions in rice paddy soils remains uncertain. A field experiment was conducted to quantify emissions of CH_4 and N_2O and soil heterotrophic respiration(RH) from a paddy rice field under five different crop residue treatments(i.e., 150 kg N ha^(-1) of synthetic N fertilizer application only [NF], 150kg N ha^(-1) of synthetic N fertilizer plus 5.3 Mg ha^(-1) wheat residue [NF-WR1], 150 kg N ha^(-1) of synthetic N fertilizer plus 10.6 Mg ha^(-1) wheat residue [NF-WR2], 75 kg N ha^(-1) of synthetic N fertilizer plus 10.6 Mg ha^(-1) wheat residue [50%NF-WR2] and 150 kg N ha^(-1) of synthetic N fertilizer plus 21.2 Mg ha^(-1) wheat residue [NF-WR3]) in southwest China. Our results showed that crop residue incorporation treatments(NF-WR1, NF-WR2, 50%NF-WR2, NF-WR3) significantly increased CH_4 emissions by at least 60%, but N_2O emissions were not enhanced and even suppressed by 25% in the NF-WR3 treatment as compared to the NF treatment. Soil RH emissions were comparable among experimental treatments, while crop residue incorporation treatments significantly increased soil carbon sequestrations relative to the NF treatment. Overall, CH_4 emissions dominated total global warming potentials(GWP) across all experimental treatments. The average yieldscaled GWPs for the NF and NF-WR1 treatments were significantly lower than for the NF-WR2, 50%NFWR2 and NF-WR3 treatments. Given the comparable yield-scaled GWPs between the NF and NF-WR1 treatments, the NF-WR1 treatment could gain net carbon sequestration as compared with the NF treatment with net soil carbon loss. Our findings suggest that the NF-WR1 treatment should be an effective option to sustain rice production while mitigating GHG emissions from the rice field in China.

Forming condition of transient saturated zone and its distribution in residual slope under rainfall conditions

Rainfall, as one of the most significant factors triggering the residual soil slope failure, leads to not only the reduction of soil shear strength, but also the increase of soil weight and the decrease of matric suction as well. All these modifications in soil properties have important influence on the slope stability. The water infiltration and redistribution inside the slope are the preconditions of the slope stability under rainfall conditions. Based on the numerical simulation via finite element method, the water infiltration process under rainfall conditions was studied in the present work. The emphases are the formation, distribution and dissipation of transient saturated zone. As for the calculation parameters, the SWCC and the saturated permeability have been determined by pressure plate test and variable head test respectively. The entire process(formation, development, dissipation) of the transient saturated zone was studied in detail. The variations of volumetric water content, matric suction and hydraulic gradient inside the slope, and the eventually raise of groundwater table were characterized and discussed, too. The results show that the major cause of the formation of transient saturated zone is ascribed to the fact that the exudation velocity of rainwater on the wetting front is less than the infiltration velocity of rainfall; as a result, the water content of the soil increases. On the other hand, the formation and extension of transient saturated zone have a close relationship with rainfall intensity and duration. The results can help the geotechnical engineers for the deeper understanding of the failure of residual slope under rainfall condition. It is also suggested that the proper drainage system in the slope may be the cost-effective slope failure mitigation method.

An iterative algorithm for solving ill-conditioned linear least squares problems

Linear Least Squares（LLS） problems are particularly difficult to solve because they are frequently ill-conditioned, and involve large quantities of data. Ill-conditioned LLS problems are commonly seen in mathematics and geosciences, where regularization algorithms are employed to seek optimal solutions. For many problems, even with the use of regularization algorithms it may be impossible to obtain an accurate solution. Riley and Golub suggested an iterative scheme for solving LLS problems. For the early iteration algorithm, it is difficult to improve the well-conditioned perturbed matrix and accelerate the convergence at the same time. Aiming at this problem, self-adaptive iteration algorithm（SAIA） is proposed in this paper for solving severe ill-conditioned LLS problems. The algorithm is different from other popular algorithms proposed in recent references. It avoids matrix inverse by using Cholesky decomposition, and tunes the perturbation parameter according to the rate of residual error decline in the iterative process. Example shows that the algorithm can greatly reduce iteration times, accelerate the convergence,and also greatly enhance the computation accuracy.

From Digitalized to Intelligentized Surveying and Mapping: Fundamental Issues and Research Agenda

Nowadays Surveying and Mapping(S&M)production and services are facing some serious challenges such as real-timization of data acquisition,automation of information processing,and intellectualization of service applications.The main reason is that current digitalized S&M technologies,which involve complex algorithms and models as the core,are incapable of completely describing and representing the diverse,multi-dimensional and dynamic real world,as well as addressing high-dimensional and nonlinear spatial problems using simple algorithms and models.In order to address these challenges,it is necessary to explore the use of natural intelligence in S&M,and to develop intelligentized S&M technologies,which are knowledge-guided and algorithm-based.This paper first discusses the basic concepts and ideas of intelligentized S&M,and then analyzes and defines its fundamental issues in the analysis and modeling of natural intelligence in S&M,the construction and realization of hybrid intelligent computing paradigm,and the mechanism and path of empowering production.Further research directions are then proposed in the four areas,including knowledge systems,technologies and methodologies,application systems,and instruments and equipments of intelligentized S&M.Finally,some institutional issues related to promoting scientific research and engineering applications in this area are discussed.

The monitoring and analysis of the coastal lowland subsidence in the southern Hangzhou Bay with an advanced time-series InSAR method

Time-series InSAR analysis（e.g., permanent scatterers（PSInSAR）） has been proven as an effective technology in monitoring ground deformation over urban areas. However, it is a big challenge to apply this technology in coastal regions due to the lack of man-made targets. An distributed scatterers interferometric synthetic aperture radar（DSInSAR） is developed to solve the problem of insufficient samples and low reliability in monitoring coastal lowland subsidence, by applying a spatially adaptive filter and an eigendecomposition algorithm to estimating the optimal phase of statistically homogeneous distributed scatterers（DSs）. Twenty-four scenes of COSMO-Sky Med images acquired between 2013 and 2015 are used to retrieve the land subsidence over the Shangyu District on south coast of the Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang Province, China. The spatial pattern of the land subsidence obtained by the PS-InSAR and the DSInSAR coincides with each other, but the density of the DSs is three point five times higher than the permanent scatterers（PSs）. Validated by precise levelling data over the same period, the DSInSAR method achieves an accuracy of ±5.0 mm/a which is superior to the PS-InSAR with±5.5 mm/a. The land subsidence in the Shangyu District is mainly distributed in the urban areas, industrial towns and land reclamation zones, with a maximum subsidence rate -30.2 mm/a. The analysis of geological data, field investigation and historical reclamation data indicates that human activities and natural compaction of reclamation material are major causes of the detected land subsidence. The results demonstrate that the DSInSAR method has a great potential in monitoring the coastal lowland subsidence and can be used to further investigate subsidence-related environmental issues in coastal regions.

An integrated geospatial information service system for disaster management in China

The Chinese Government and citizens face enormous challenges of disaster management as widespread devastation,economic damages,and loss of human lives caused by increasing natural disasters.Disaster management requires a complicated iterative process that includes disaster monitoring,early detection,forecasting,loss assessment,and efficient analysis of disaster reduction.Each task typically involves the use of technologists and multiple geospatial information resources,including sensors,data sources,models,geo-tools,software packages,and computing resources.However,most existing disaster management systems operate in a typical passive data-centric mode,where resources cannot be fully utilized.This impediment is partially being addressed by the increasingly complex application requirements and the growing availability of diverse resources.In this paper,we summarize and analyze the practical problems experienced by the National Disaster Reduction Application System of China.To address the issues of data-centric,centralized,isolated solutions,we propose a novel Focusing Service Mechanism,which is capable of scheduling and allocating for optimum utilization of multiple resources,to dynamically generate collaborative and on-demand disaster information services.We also demonstrate the design and implementation of the Integrated Disaster Information Service System(IDISS).Through the service strategies of Virtualizing,Wrapping,and Integrating,disasterrelated resources are constructed into services in the IDISS.These services are dynamically aggregated into focusing service chains,for diverse disaster management tasks.Actual applications illustrate that the proposed service system can significantly improve the capability of disaster management in China.

Interferometric coherence and seasonal deformation characteristics analysis of saline soil based on Sentinel-1A time series imagery

Affected by the natural environmental and human activity factors,significant seasonal differences appear on the regional scattering characteristic and ground deformation of saline soil.Interferometric decorrelation due to season replacement limits the conventional multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar(MT-InSAR)technique and its application in such areas.To extend the monitoring capability in the salt desert area,we select a vast basin of saline soil around Howz-e-Soltan Salt Lake of Iran as the study area and present an improved MTInSAR for experimental research.Based on 131 C-band Sentinel-1 A images collected between October 2014 to July 2020,1896 refined interferograms in total are selected from all interferogram candidates.Interferometric coherence analysis shows that the coherence in the saline soil area has an apparent seasonal variation,and the soil moisture affected by the precipitation may be the main factor that leads to the seasonal variation.Subsequently,the deformation characteristics of saline soil under different environmental conditions and human activity factors are compared and analyzed in detail.Related deformation mechanisms of different saline soil types are initially revealed by combining interferometric coherence,meteorological data,and engineering geological characteristics of saline soil.Related results would provide reference for the large-scale infrastructure construction engineering in similar saline soil areas.

A combined denoising method of empirical mode decomposition and singular spectrum analysis applied to Jason altimeter waveforms: A case of the Caspian Sea

During the satellite pulse propagation and reception, the altimeter waveform is inevitably affected by noise. To reduce the noise level in Jason altimeter waveforms, we used singular spectrum analysis(SSA),empirical mode decomposition(EMD), and the combination of SSA and EMD to obtain the denoised waveforms. The advantages of the combined method were verified and the accuracy of the mean sea surface height(MSSH) model was improved. Comparing the denoising effect of the three methods, the results show that the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), correlation coefficient and root-mean-square error are effectively improved by the combination of SSA and EMD. The sea surface heights(SSHs) were remeasured with a 50% threshold retracker of denoised waveforms, and the MSSH model of the Caspian Sea with a grid of 1’× 1’was established from the retracked SSHs of Jason-1/2/3. Taking the mean value of the four models as a control, it is found that the model calculated by the combined denoising method has the highest accuracy. This indicates that using the combined denoising method to reduce the noise level is beneficial to improve the accuracy of the MSSH model.

The impact of nitrogen amendment and crop growth on dissolved organic carbon in soil solution

Dissolved organic carbon(DOC) is an important component of the terrestrial carbon cycle.However,the sources and controlling factors of DOC in soils remain uncertain.In this study,the effects of nitrogen(N) amendment and crop growth on DOC in soil solution were examined at a maize-wheat rotated field located in the central Sichuan Basin in southwestern China.Nitrogen treatments in this study included 150 kg N ha-1 season-1,200 kg N ha-1 season-1 and the control without any fertilizer application.During the whole experimental period,we observed significant decreases(p<0.05) in DOC concentrations in the sampled soil solutions associated with increase in N inputs at the bare soil plots,but no change in DOC at the plots with crop growth.The estimated average contributions of plantderived DOC were 16%,24% and 32% of total DOC in the summer maize season and 21%,32% and 38% in the winter wheat season along with the gradient of N fertilizer application rates.The results implied thatthe crop growth could play a key role in the soil DOC production,and the N input enhanced DOC production by increasing crop growth.The relationship between the DOC concentrations and the crop root biomass was statistically significant for both the maize and winter wheat seasons.Our observations indicated that crop growth exerted greater influence on the seasonal variability of DOC concentration in soil solutions at the experimental site,which overwhelmed the effect of soil native organic matter decomposition on DOC concentrations in soil solutions.

Microstructural insight into permeability and water retention property of compacted binary silty clay

The durability of silty clay embankments is partially controlled by the moisture migration, which depends on soil hydraulic properties. This paper presents an experimental study of hydraulic properties of compacted binary silty clay. Specimens with different mixing ratios and dry densities were prepared. Scanning electron microscopy and mercury intrusion porosimetry were used to characterise the microstructure of silty clay. Thereafter, falling-head permeability tests and water retention tests were conducted to study the permeability and water retention property, respectively. The results demonstrate that clay particles are dispersed and show preferred arrangements after compaction when the clay content is 100%. As the clay content decreases, the arrangement of clay particles is gradually disturbed because of the existence of silt particles, causing the formation of large pores around silt particles. When the dry density increases, the pores around silt particles significantly decrease. Moreover, the permeability of silty clay decreases but the water retention capacity increases with increasing clay content and dry density. This is because the silty clay with larger clay content and dry density has fewer large pores, which greatly restrains the flow of water. Both the permeability and water retention property of silty clay can be predicted from pore size distribution parameters.