Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Seismic Microzonation Of Great Toronto Area And Influence Of Building Resonances On Measured Soil Responses, Dimitar Genchev Mihaylov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A pilot seismic microzonation of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is used to establish the conditions and limitations of geophysical methods for site response investigations in city conditions. Maps of fundamental soil resonant frequencies, amplifications at these frequencies and interpolated average shear wave velocity of top 30 m of soil profile (VS- 30) used in soil classification were compared to the maps of drift thickness and surficial geology for the GTA. The non-applicability of the interpolated VS-30 map for site classification between measured test points is indicated. It is also shown that the soil response cannot be estimated properly using …

The Analysis Of Extreme Synoptic Winds, David A. Gatey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Time histories of wind speed and direction from 394 surface observation stations were obtained to calculate synoptic 50-year return period wind speeds for 11 countries in Europe. Preliminary investigation indicated wind speed differences along national borders were successfully reduced by application of a simple consistent methodology to wind speed data. This study considers the ideal methodology for calculating synoptic 50-year return period wind speeds.

Wind speed data requires standardisation through quality control measures, exposure correction and adjustment for disjunct sampling. A quality control algorithm was successfully applied to identify shifts of monthly mean wind speeds and data conversion issues. Three …

Uncertainty Estimation Of Extreme Precipitations Under Climate Change: A Non-Parametric Approach, Tarana A. Solaiman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Assessment of climate change impacts on hydrology at watershed scale incorporates (a) downscaling of global scale climatic variables into local scale hydrologic variables and (b) assessment of future hydrologic extremes. Atmosphere-Ocean Global Climate Models (AOGCM) are designed to simulate time series of future climate responses accounting for human induced green house gas emissions. The present study addresses the following limitations of climate change impact research: (i) limited availability of observed historical information; (ii) limited research on the detection of changes in hydrologic extremes; and (iii) coarse spatio-temporal resolution of AOGCMs for use at regional or local scale. Downscaled output from …