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Beside in situ observations, satellite-based products can provide an ideal data source for spatiotemporal monitoring of drought. In this study, the spatiotemporal pattern of drought was investigated for the northwest part of Iran using ground- and satellite-based datasets. First, the Standardized Precipitation Index series were calculated via precipitation data of 29 sites located in the selected area and the CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation satellite. The Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transform (MODWT) was used for obtaining the temporal features of time series, and further decomposition was performed using Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) to have more stationary time series. Then, multiscale zoning was done based on subseries energy values via two clustering methods, namely the self-organizing map and K-means. The results showed that the MODWT-EEMD-K-means method successfully identified homogenous drought areas. On the other hand, correlation between the satellite sensor data (i.e. the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, the Vegetation Condition Index, the Vegetation Healthy Index, and the Temperature Condition Index) was evaluated. The possible links between central stations of clusters and satellite-based indices were assessed via the wavelet coherence method. The results revealed that all applied satellite-based indices had significant statistical correlations with the ground-based drought index within a certain period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought as a severe natural disaster has devastating effects on the environment; therefore, reliable drought prediction is an important issue. In the current study, based on lower upper bound estimation, hybrid models including data preprocessing, permutation entropy, and artificial intelligence (AI) methods were used for point and interval predictions of short- to long-term series of Standardized Precipitation Index in the Northwest of Iran. Ground-based and remote sensing precipitation data were used covering the period of 1983-2017. In the modeling process, first, the data processing capability via variational mode decomposition (VMD), ensemble empirical mode decomposition, and permutation entropy (PE) was investigated in drought point prediction. Then, interval prediction was applied for tolerating increased uncertainty and providing more details for practical operation decisions. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed integrated models could achieve significantly better performance compared to single models. Hybrid PE models increased the modeling accuracy up to 40 and 55%. Finally, the efficiency of developed models was verified for Normalized Difference Vegetation Index prediction. Results demonstrated that the proposed methodology based on remote sensing data and VMD-PE-AI approaches could be successfully used for drought modeling, especially in limited or non-gauged areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydraulic jump is a useful means of dissipating excess energy of a supercritical flow so that objectionable scour downstream is minimized. The present study applies gene expression programming (GEP) to estimate hydraulic jump characteristics in sudden expanding channels. Three types of expanding channels were considered: channels without appurtenances, with a central sill, and with a negative step. 1,000 experimental data were considered as input data to develop models. The results proved the capability of GEP in predicting hydraulic jump characteristics in expanding channels. It was found that the developed models for channel with a central sill performed better than other channels. In the jump length prediction, the model with input parameters Fr1 and (y2-y1)/y1, and in the sequent depth ratio and relative energy dissipation prediction the model with input parameters Fr1 and y1/B led to more accurate outcomes (Fr1, y1, y2, and B are Froude number, sequent depth of upstream and downstream, and expansion ratio, respectively). Sensitivity analysis showed that Fr1 had the key role in modeling. The GEP models were compared with existing empirical equations and it was found that the GEP models yielded better results. It was also observed that channel and appurtenances geometry affected the modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]