Search

The assessment of the seismic behaviour of historic residential buildings and the estimation of their possible losses in the event of an earthquake, is a must for defining strategic mitigation plans to prevent irreplaceable heritage losses. In this study an integrated performance based probabilistic risk assessment methodology is developed. An archival study and a field survey allow to identify architectural and construction characteristics of heritage residential buildings in urban areas and determine realistic structural models. These are analysed by using a limit state approach, coded in the FaMIVE method, considering different construction hypotheses, to produce capacity curves which support the identification of a discrete number of typologies representative of the entire building stock in the area. Their fragility functions are then derived using the modified N2 method. Because of the difficulty in quantifying the expected probable losses in purely economic terms, given the heritage value of these assets, losses are computed in terms of damaged floor surface area and mean damage ratio. These have been obtained through the earthquake loss estimation platform SELENA, considering different possible seismic scenarios. The procedure is applied to masonry residential buildings in Pla del Remei area of Valencia, Spain, built between the end of the 19th Century and the end of the Spanish War (1939). This neighbourhood embodies the cultural values, construction techniques and historic legacy of a new and brief era of modernity, inspired by the new urban theories and architectural styles of Eclecticism and Modernism. Despite Valencia being located in an area of low to moderate seismicity, the results show that the maximum percentage of built damaged area ranges from 5.8 to 11.6% for 475 years return period, increasing to 33.59–51.59% for 975 years return period. The high level of resolution of the study allows mapping and identifying the structures at higher risk and is therefore a valuable tool to support sensitive and targeted retrofitting policies. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Part of this research project was developed by Prof. Guardiola at University College London, during the period from the beginning of March to the end of July 2020, during the highest period of contagion and restrictions of the Covid19 pandemic, within the framework of the Spanish Mobility Grant Program Programa de Estancias de Movilidad de profesores e investigadores en centros extranjeros, incluido el programa “Salvador de Madariaga” 2019 funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Prof. D’Ayala acknowledges the UNESCO Chair in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering at UCL, for partially support her involvement in this research activity.

Conducting field surveys for exposure and seismic vulnerability evaluation is the most costly, resource-intensive task when assessing earthquake risk. During the past decade, risk analysts have been trying to alleviate this using remote sensing for building characterization. However, the use of vulnerability databases created with remote sensing had not been sufficiently validated thus far. In this paper, we have created an exposure and seismic vulnerability database in Port Prince (Haiti) using freely accessible aerial ortho-imagery and LiDAR points. We have validated this database against two reference datasets from different, independent studies. Then, we have computed an earthquake damage scenario to test whether remotely sensed data are actually valid for seismic risk evaluation. We have seen how our vulnerability database yields an accurate damage distribution with a low Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 3.78% when compared to the damage obtained with the reference vulnerability dataset. Further, we have conducted a thorough comparison of the cost that entails creating a vulnerability database using remote sensing with a traditional field survey. Twelve international experts have collaborated in the cost estimation of a typical in-field building inspection. As a result, we have found that using remote sensing techniques allows for saving up to 75% of the cost and 85% of the time. These outcomes seem to prove both, the technical and economic feasibility of remote sensing for seismic vulnerability assessment. Thus, we have proposed a 5-step approach for evaluating building vulnerability that combines both, the analysis of remotely sensed data and a reduced, targeted field survey to optimize time and cost. The final goal is to help cities reach the Sustainable Development Goal nr. 11.B to increase their resilience against disasters. The work was supported by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid [-];European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) [-]

Spatial mapping is one of the most useful methods to display information about the seismic parameters of a certain area. As in b-value time series, there is a certain arbitrariness regarding the function selected as smoothing kernel (which plays the same role as the window size in time series). We propose a new method for the calculation of the smoothing kernel as well as its parameters. Instead of using the spatial cell-event distance we study the distance between events (event-event distance) in order to calculate the smoothing function, as this distance distribution gives information about the event distribution and the seismic sources. We examine three different scenarios: two shallow seismicity settings and one deep seismicity catalog. The first one, Italy, allows calibration and showcasing of the method. The other two catalogs: the Lorca region (Spain) and Vrancea County (Romania) are examples of different function fits and data treatment. For these two scenarios, the prior to earthquake and after earthquake b-value maps depict tectonic stress changes related to the seismic settings (stress relief in Lorca and stress build-up zone shifting in Vrancea). This technique could enable operational earthquake forecasting (OEF) and tectonic source profiling given enough data in the time span considered. This research has been supported by the Horizon 2020 (TURNkey (grant no. 821046)) and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant no. PID2021-123135OB-C21).

The objective of the study is to quantify the effect of climate change on the climatic risks associated with droughts and diminished water resources in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. For this purpose, this work analyses the 70-year historical series (1952–2021) of daily rainfall data from 353 meteorological stations. They are located in a key recharge area of the hydrological system, the Sierra de Albarracín, where three important rivers originate, namely the Tagus, the Júcar and the Turia, as do several tributaries of the Guadiana and Ebro rivers. It analyses trends in: annual and seasonal rainfall volumes with specific studies about their intensity according to certain percentiles; the number of rainy days, dry spell duration (< 1 mm/day) and drought evolution with the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index. The most relevant results are: (1) the second 35 years of the study period (1987–2021) were notably drier than the first part (1952–1986), with smaller volumes and fewer days with recorded precipitation; (2) summer and winter were most affected by pluviometric decrease, with losses of >50% of rainfall volume at some stations; (3) moderate rainfall significantly reduced between the 50th and 95th percentiles, which were more important in the system's water recharge; (4) the stations with a negative precipitation trend predominated; (5) the medium- and long-term analyses (12 and 36 months) highlighted the drought situation in which the headwaters of the analyzed basins are immersed. The trend indicates that the situation will become critical. This study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through Research Project PID2020-118797RB-I00 (MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033) and by the Generalitat Valenciana with Research Project PROMETEO/2021/016 (Conselleria d'Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital).

SUMMARY In this work, the Moho depth and the velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath broad-band seismic stations of the Algerian broad-band seismic network are investigated. Teleseismic P-wave receiver functions jointly inverted with Rayleigh wave dispersion curves obtained from local earthquakes have been used. The seismic stations are located in different geological settings including the Tell Atlas, High Plateaus and the Saharan Atlas. The crustal thickness and the Vp/Vs ratio are first derived by the H–κ stacking method of receiver functions. The inversion results show the variation in Moho depth in the different geological contexts. The shallowest depths of the Moho (∼20–30 km) are estimated along the Algerian continental margin and Tell Atlas. In the High Plateaus region, the Moho depths vary from 30–36 km, whereas the deepest Moho depths are found in the Saharan Atlas (36–44 km). Two-layer crust is observed in the whole study area. In the upper crust, ∼8–14 km thick, the average shear wave velocity is ∼3.0 km s−1. The lower crust of about 12–30 km thick has an average shear wave velocity that ranges between 3.4 and 3.8 km s−1. The lower crust is thicker than the upper crust particularly in the Saharan Atlas. The upper mantle shear wave velocity varies from 4.1 to 4.5 km s−1 maximum and is stable, generally, below ∼60 km depth. Two low-velocity zones are clearly observed particularly in the eastern part of the Tell Atlas and the High Plateaus. The first one about 10 km thick is in the lower part of the lower crust and the other one is in the upper mantle between 40 and 60 km depth. The obtained results are in accordance with the previous results found in the region, particularly those using land gravity and seismic data. As the first estimate of the Moho depth from earthquake data in northern Algeria, using the receiver function method, this study sheds new light on the crustal structure and the Moho depth in this region of the world.

The present work is focused on basic electronics subjects and specifically on the understanding and interpretation of amplifier circuits based on bipolar junction transistors. In this context, students acquire the skills to identify the different configurations, algebraically analyze the circuit and obtain the necessary parameters to characterize the behavior of the amplifier. However, from a practical point of view, students have more difficulties in understanding and interpreting the connection between the theoretical concepts and the real behavior of the circuit. In this sense, the objective of this research work is to develop and provide students with an online simulation tool that allows them to interact with the amplifier circuits studied in the theory class and understand how they behave with different configurations, component values or signals. The incorporation of circuit simulation in theory class has been investigated by the authors themselves during several courses. Compared to other courses, in which these simulations were not introduced, an improvement was observed in the obtained results. Additionally, students positively valued the inclusion of these simulation tools in the theory class and considered that it helps them to better understand the theoretical concepts. From this survey, it was deduced that students would like to have these same simulation tools outside the classroom in order to complement the non-face-to-face study.

The city of Oran experienced several earthquakes. Therefore, the characterization of its subsurface is crucial for a better evaluation of the seismic hazard. Using ambient vibration single-station and array measurements at 193 sites, the HVSR curves showed a variation of the fundamental frequency peak between 0.3 and 7.4 Hz, growing towards the west, with maximum amplitude of ∼6. The shallow structure has been explored by means of F–K analysis. Joint inversion of the HVSR and Rayleigh wave dispersion curves showed 3 layers of soft and stiff sediments of varying thicknesses overlying the bedrock. The shear-wave velocity (Vs) of the sediments varies between 280 and 1300 m/s and that of the bedrock can reach 2500 m/s. Cross sections show a decrease in sediments thickness from east to west where bedrock outcrops. The maximum depth of bedrock is 1050 m northeast of the city. The obtained Vs models support a soil classification ranging from stiff soil to hard rock.

Weather forecasts affect many persons’ lives and are used by the general public on a daily basis. However, they are not perfect, and there is an uncertainty associated with the current weather forecasts; users should be aware of this uncertainty. Previous research analyzes the perceptions, uses, and interpretations of uncertainty of Spanish undergraduate students. This study continues with this research line, but we investigate the degree of confidence and communication preferences of students enrolled in three meteorology-related subjects taught at two universities in Spain. We evaluated to what extent students trust in the current weather forecasts and analyzed how students are aware of the uncertainty associated with the forecasts considering different lead times. In addition, we assessed how students value the forecast of several weather elements as well as the students’ preferences for deterministic versus nondeterministic forecasts under two weather situations, with different degree of complexity in the forecast communication. A Google Form questionnaire was developed to address these issues. The survey was conducted in 2018/19, and 101 participants anonymously filled out the survey. Participants were enrolled in three different subjects taught in the degree in marine sciences at the University of Alicante and the degrees in environmental sciences and physics at the University of Valencia. Results show that students have a well-formed opinion of weather forecasts, both for confidence and in relation to the trend found in the current weather forecasts toward less accurate forecasts for larger lead times. For students’ preferences for deterministic versus nondeterministic forecasts, a significant majority of participants prefer weather forecasts that incorporate some uncertainty; a minority prefer single-valued (deterministic) forecasts. In comparing our results with those found in previous studies in different countries and contexts, similar outcomes are observed in general, but some differences are highlighted as well. This work has been funded by the Assistance Programmes of the University of Alicante “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2018-19. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [4334],” “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2019-20. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [4669],” and “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2020-21. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [5150].”

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Understanding the fluctuations in cave air concentrations and their climatic control is substantial not only to preserve the quality of indoor atmospheres but also to avoid the risk related to the presence of hazardous substances. In this study, we investigated the most influential factors affecting 222Rn and CO2 concentrations, the nature of their dynamics, and their coupling with climatic variations. For this purpose, we combined a set of mathematical methods that included a statistical and wavelet analysis of a 6-year time series in Rull Cave (Spain). Generally, the 222Rn and CO2 dynamic in cave air showed similar patterns. However, the obtained results show that these gases have a different frequency response. Thus, the annual component of 222Rn and CO2 is controlled by the relationship between external and internal temperatures. At low frequencies, both gases are affected by the same variables when the cave atmosphere reaches a minimum concentration. However, when the cave atmosphere is isolated from the outdoors, 222Rn and CO2 behave differently and disturbance caused by the visitors is evidenced in terms of the CO2 concentration; the latter observation was confirmed by the wavelet analysis at high frequencies. In contrast, the 222Rn concentration shows important variations following rainfall, which was weakly identified in the CO2 concentration., This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (projects CGL2016-78318-C2-1-R, CGL2016-78318-C2-2-R, and RTI2018-099052-B-I00) and the University of Alicante (project GRE17-12).

Many previous research studies have shown how local and even regional earthquakes can significantly affect the release of radon in the soil. The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between radon measurements and the daily seismic activity rate and develop a methodology that allows estimating the seismic activity rate using only radon measurements. To carry out this study, the earthquake catalogue of the Vrancea region (Romania) has been used to estimate the daily seismic activity rate during a given time period, in which radon measurements were also recorded, from January 2016 to September 2020. The Vrancea zone represents the most active seismic zone in Europe and is located on the eastern edge of the strongly bent Carpathian arc. In the case of the radon measurements, seasonal behaviours and linear trends due to non-seismic factors have been identified and subsequently removed. The discrete wavelet transform has been used to analyse the radon signal at two different scales: long and short periods. From the analysis carried out on a long-period scale, an approximate linear relationship has been obtained between the radon series and the daily seismic activity rate, which provides insights into the behaviour of the seismic activity in the study region with only the radon information. In addition, the study reveals certain characteristics that could be used as precursors of earthquakes at different scales: weeks in the case of the estimated daily seismic activity rate, and days in the case of the short-period signal obtained by the wavelet analysis. The results obtained for this region allow us to hope that the analysis of the radon time series can become an effective complement to the conventional seismic analysis used in operational earthquake forecasting. This study was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 821046, the Spanish Government through research projects CGL2016-77688-R and RTI2018-099052-B-I00, and Research Group VIGROB-116 (University of Alicante).

The most recent and costliest damaging earthquake in Iceland is the 𝑀w6.3 29-May-2008 Ölfus earthquake to date. In particular, Hveragerði town located in the extreme near-fault region, suffered intense horizontal peak ground accelerations (PGA) of ∼40–90%g and large amplitude and long-period near-fault pulses, recorded on a dense urban strong-motion array in the town. In this study we collated a high-spatial resolution exposure database (building-by-building) complete with actual reported losses and classified the buildings by building materials and construction year according to the code design requirements in place at the time. We took advantage of the array data and evaluated a set of well-known ground motion intensity measures (IM), including PGA, pseudo-acceleration response spectra at short-to-long periods, Arias Intensity and Cumulative Absolute Velocity. We applied empirical Bayesian kriging geostatistical analyses to generate high-resolution shakemaps and provide IM estimates for each building. The shakemaps showed significant and systematic variation of the IMs across the small study area, with the lowest ground motions observed centrally and highest values in the outskirts. Furthermore, correlation analysis was carried out for the damage ratio and the exposure data IMs, but only low-to-moderate correlations were observed. A key reason is the incurred losses were primarily due to damage to non-structural components, to which the code design requirements do not apply. We carried out a seismic loss assessment in Hveragerði for the earthquake scenario of the Ölfus earthquake both on building-by-building, and municipality levels of spatial resolution. We applied both local and global fragility models for associated with detail building typologies identified based on the SERA taxonomy scheme. The results show that the global fragility functions severely underestimate the seismic performance of the building stock, except for one-story reinforced concrete buildings, while overall the masonry buildings were associated with the most predicted and observed losses. On the other hand, the local models predicted losses that conformed well with the observed damages to timber and concrete buildings. The high-spatial resolution predictions of losses gave results that better correlated with the observed losses in most typologies. This study was funded by the TURNkey H2020 European project (Towards more Earthquake-Resilient Urban Societies through a Multi-Sensor-Based Information System enabling Earthquake Forecasting, Early Warning and Rapid Response Actions) [www.earthquake-turnkey.eu] under grant agreement No 821046. This work was facilitated by an Erasmus+ staff mobility grant No. IS-TS2020-87850 for the lead author to the University of Alicante, Spain. This work was also partly supported by a Postdoctoral fellowship (No. 218255-051), grant of excellence (No. 218149-051) from the Icelandic Research Fund of the Icelandic Centre for Research, and the University of Iceland Research Fund.

Desde hace 8 años, el grado de Ingeniería Multimedia imparte el 4º curso utilizando Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) e integrando a todas las asignaturas en él. El programa ha tenido mucho éxito, pero siempre ha acusado un problema, la evaluación. Al tratarse de un trabajo en grupo altamente colaborativo, que integra a todas las asignaturas del curso y que durante los dos semestres trabaja en un único gran proyecto, es muy difícil discernir el trabajo real realizado por cada componente del equipo, produciéndose descompensaciones o incluso malas prácticas. Durante años, se ha tratado de adoptar medidas para paliar esta situación, pero persisten algunas disfunciones. Para solucionarlo, hemos diseñado e implantado una metodología de coevaluación, alineada con la gestión del programa ABP y que persigue dos objetivos: procurar un reparto de nota asociado con el esfuerzo individual realizado, basado en información objetiva y cuantificable, junto con una evaluación formativa y sumativa justa; y desarrollar las habilidades blandas imprescindibles hoy en día en entornos de trabajo colaborativos. En este artículo presentamos la herramienta de coevaluación desarrollada, la valoración realizada sobre la herramienta por las/os participantes en la experiencia y exalumnos de años anteriores, y los resultados obtenidos hasta la fecha. Esta herramienta se alinea perfectamente con la metodología docente. La herramienta hace partícipe al alumnado de su propia evaluación, pero también le hace más consciente de su trabajo frente al grupo. A través de ella, el profesorado puede conocer desde el principio si alguien no está trabajando adecuadamente, y además ese mismo estudiante también lo puede ver, lo que permite activar medidas correctivas y no sufrir las consecuencias al final, cuando se tensiona el grupo y los resultados ya no pueden recuperarse. La herramienta permite generar una evaluación continua real, iteración tras iteración, que el alumnado podrá utilizar como indicador de su progreso y obtener así una evaluación formativa en varias dimensiones a lo largo del todo el curso. Al mismo tiempo, la acumulación de esta evaluación se utilizará para modular la evaluación sumativa final, reconociendo así el trabajo las/os integrantes del grupo que más aportan al proyecto ABP. Al ser el profesorado quien determina el porcentaje de nota que se reparte, sigue asegurándose el control de la nota, y el alumnado, al ver que su trabajo es reconocido, también se siente motivado a continuar trabajando, aunque otras/os componentes del grupo no lo hagan. La herramienta ha sido evaluada por todas/os los participantes en el proceso, observándose que en general es aceptada y percibida de forma favorable. Es destacable que los exalumnos valoren la herramienta aún mejor que los actuales, lo que podía esperarse pues conocen los problemas que acarrea tener a alguien en el grupo que no trabaja al mismo ritmo que los demás. El objetivo de la coevaluación no es penalizar, sino ajustar la nota en base al esfuerzo, y si un/a estudiante quiere trabajar para obtener la máxima nota pueda obtenerla, y si otra/o quiere trabajar para sólo para aprobar no lastre al resto de sus compañeras/os.

The present study evaluates ground-based downward surface shortwave radiation (Rs) over the coastal region of Alicante (Southeastern Spain). Hourly measurements collected over the eleven-year period 2010-2020 are used. Two weather stations located over the region capital, Alicante, have been selected as representative of urban and suburban typologies. Two additional weather stations far from the city have been selected representing rural typologies. Rs is significantly reduced over the urban station during the morning hours within the winter season compared to the observations recorded over the suburban and rural stations, with a global mean difference of -81 and -120 W/m2 at 10 LT, respectively. However, no significant differences are obtained during the midday sun, with a global mean difference of -20 W/m2 between the urban and rural stations. With the aim of explaining these differences, the current paper investigates the relationship between Rs and different air pollutants: NOx, SO2, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) as well as the wind field measured at the urban and suburban stations. The results found in this work point towards a close relationship between Rs and NOx concentrations annual cycles, which are also influenced by the prevailing wind circulations observed over the study area. A global mean NOx concentration of 107 μg/m3 is observed over the urban station at 10 LT during the winter season. In contrast, these high concentrations are significantly reduced over the suburban station, with global mean value of 40 μg/m3 at 10 LT, for this period of the year. This work was supported by the Assistance Programmes of the University of Alicante “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2018-19. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [4334].” and “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2020-21. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [5150].” as well as by Research Group VIGROB-116 (University of Alicante).

This paper combines ultrasonic parameters recorded from P- and S- waves and effective porosity to estimate uniaxial compressive strength, σC, and intrinsic permeability, k - two of the most crucial physical parameters used in stone conservation studies. The ultrasonic parameters have been chosen because they are sensitive to the microstructural properties of stones which influence both σC and k differently. Velocities of compressional or primary, Vp, and shear or secondary, Vs, elastic waves are related to porosity and the mineralogical composition; the waveform attenuation is related to the presence of vuggy macropores and pore and particle size; and the wavelength is related to the pore and particle size. Fifteen types of stones used in the Spanish built heritage were measured including calcarenites, sandstones, dolostones and travertines. Several simple and multiple predictive expressions for σC and k are fitted, which are quantified through the Pearson correlation coefficient, R. Curve fitting improves as the number of petrophysical parameters taken into account in the multiple linear regressions increases. The obtained Pearson's correlations values for σC are slightly higher than for k. The best correlation for σC (R = 0.921) and k (R = 0.903) is found when the predictive equation incorporates all of the elastic wave parameters obtained non-destructively, and the connected porosity. In general, effective porosity is statistically the most significant variable of the fitted regressions. The σC and k estimation from all the ultrasonic parameters, without considering connected porosity, shows a good correlation (R = 0.852 and 0.864, respectively). The addition of Vs to multiple regressions does not significantly improve the goodness of the fit. Consequently, the measurement of Vs is unnecessary as it is difficult and time-consuming. Finally, results also show that vuggy porosity (present in travertines) influences waveform attenuation and σC and k differently, relative to other microstructural properties; limiting the techniques use for stones with this type of porosity. Estimating σC and k using ultrasonic parameters exclusively is advantageous as the estimations can be obtained non-destructively using portable equipment, while also providing an acceptable goodness of fit. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN) [grant numbers RTI2018-099052-B-I00, PID2020-116896RB-C21 and PID2020-116896RB-C22] and Regional Government of Madrid (Spain) [Top Heritage, grant number S2018/NMT-4372]; a pre-doctoral research fellowship (FPU20/05157) awarded to N. Garcia-Martinez by the MCIN; and Ph.D. scholarship awarded to M. de Jongh by Historic Environment Scotland (Charity Number: SC045925).

This paper presents a multi-level methodology for near real-time seismic damage assessment of multi-story buildings, tailored to the available level of knowledge and information from sensors. The proposed methodology relates changes in the vibratory characteristics of a building—evaluated via alternative dynamic identification techniques—to the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98) damage grades. Three distinct levels of knowledge are considered for the building, with damage classification made through (i) empirical formulation based on quantitative ranges reported in the literature, (ii) analytical formulation exploiting the effective stiffness concept, and (iii) numerical modelling including a simplified equivalent single-degree-of-freedom model or a detailed finite element model of the building. The scope of the study is twofold: to construct a framework for integrating structural health monitoring into seismic damage assessment and to evaluate consistencies/discrepancies among different identification techniques and model-based and model-free approaches. The experimental data from a multi-story building subject to sequential shaking are used to demonstrate the proposed methodology and compare the effectiveness of the different approaches to damage assessment. The results show that accurate damage estimates can be achieved not only using model-driven approaches with enhanced information but also model-free alternatives with scarce information. This research was funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme with the grant number 821046, project TURNkey (Towards more Earthquake-resilient Urban Societies through a Multi-sensor-based Information System enabling Earthquake Forecasting, Early Warning and Rapid Response actions), and the APC was funded by BRGM, EUCENTRE, the University of Alicante, and the University of Strathclyde.

A partir de la Ley 2/2020 de la Generalitat Valenciana, el Institut Cartogràfic Valencià adquiere la responsabilidad de la creación y mantenimiento de la red sísmica de la Comunidad Valenciana. Dicha red se creará a partir de la ya existente Red Sísmica de la Universidad de Alicante (RSUA) y ampliará su cobertura espacial hasta cubrir todo el territorio de la Comunidad Valenciana. El objetivo de esta futura red, que se prevé plenamente operativa en el último trimestre de 2022, es servir de portal de información y concienciación del fenómeno sísmico en la comunidad, así como suministrar información científica útil para todos aquellos grupos de investigación interesados en la sismicidad y la tectónica activa en la Comunidad Valenciana. After the enact of Law 2/2020 of the Generalitat Valenciana, the Institut Cartogràfic Valencià acquires responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the seismic network of the Valencian Community. This network will be created from the already existing Seismic Network of the University of Alicante (RSUA) and will expand to cover the entire territory of the Valencian Community. The goal of this future network, which is expected to be fully operational in the last quarter of 2022, is to serve as a portal for information and awareness of the seismic phenomenon in the community, as well as to provide useful scientific information for all those research groups interested in seismicity and the active tectonics in the Valencian Community. Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por el Institut Cartogràfic Valencià, por la Agencia Valenciana de Seguridad y Respuesta a las Emergencias (Generalitat Valenciana), por el Consorcio Provincial para el Servicio de Prevención y Extinción de Incendios y Salvamento de Alicante, por la Excelentísima Diputación Provincial de Castellón y por el Ayuntamiento de Almoradí. Este trabajo también ha sido financiado por los proyectos de investigación RTI2018-100737-B-I00 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) y AICO/2021/196 (Generalitat Valenciana). También por los grupos de investigación VIGROB20-116, VIGROB20-184 y VIGROB053 (Universidad de Alicante).

[EN] The current study focuses on Spanish undergraduate students enrolled in Meteorology-related subjects that would make use of weather forecasts in their future professional careers. The main aim of this study is twofold. Firstly, to evaluate the students’ confidence in the current weather forecasts. Secondly, to analyze the students’ perception and understanding of uncertainty associated with weather-related forecasts. To address these issues, a Google Form questionnaire was developed. A total of 101 students participated in the corresponding survey during the academic year 2018-2019. Results show that students have a well-founded opinion and a fairly solid knowledge of weather forecasts, both regarding confidence and in relation to the trend found in the current weather forecasts towards less accurate predictions for larger lead times. The results found in the current study are in line with previous research conducted in different specific contexts and should be taken into account to implement different learning strategies in the classroom., This work has been funded by the Assistance Programmes of the University of Alicante ‘‘Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2018-19. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [4334].’’, “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2019-20. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [4669]”, and ‘‘Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2020-21. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [5150].’’

The main purpose of SISMOTOOL suite is Planning and Management of Seismic Emergencies face to a future earthquake. This tool is written in ARCGIS software executing a fast and efficient determination of the estimated damage scenarios (pre-process) and a correlation with the observed damage results (post-process). First of all, the tool allows to select the earthquake source parameters through a defined database; moreover, several attenuation laws can be chosen and they can be combined according to the study area features. In addition, the local site effects are characterized from Vs30 values, which have been achieved by: i) topographic slope as a proxy obtained from Digital Elevation Model; ii) considering Vs30 values acquired from active and/or passive empirical methods; iii) a combination of both procedures through empirical local correlation laws. In the second place, the elements exposed to risk are incorporated by an automatic extraction from the cadastral database after inputs has been refined. Thirdly, vulnerability and estimated losses can be determined either empirically (EMS98 scale and Vulnerability Index, Iv) or analytically (Capacity spectrum). Additionally, a vulnerability modifier is implemented to account soil-structure resonance. Finally, SISMOTOOL quantifies the epistemic uncertainties in the input parameters using a logic tree. Last, but not least, SISMOTOOL results have been validated through a representative seismic scenario: the 1910 Adra earthquake (southern Spain) with moment magnitude (Mw) 6.3 and macroseismic intensity VIII (EMS98 scale) proves the reliability of SISMOTOOL program.

The current study evaluates the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) to forecast surface energy fluxes over a region in Eastern Spain. Focusing on the sensitivity of the model to Land Surface Model (LSM) parameterizations, we compare the simulations provided by the original Noah LSM and the Noah LSM with multiple physics options (Noah-MP). Furthermore, we assess the WRF sensitivity to different Noah-MP physics schemes, namely the calculation of canopy stomatal resistance (OPT_CRS), the soil moisture factor for stomatal resistance (OPT_BTR), and the surface layer drag coefficient (OPT_SFC). It has been found that these physics options strongly affect the energy partitioning at the land surface in short-time scale simulations. Aside from in situ observations, we use the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) sensor to assess the Land Surface Temperature (LST) field simulated by WRF. Regarding multiple options in Noah-MP, WRF has been configured using three distinct soil moisture factors to control stomatal resistance (β factor) available in Noah-MP (Noah, CLM, and SSiB-types), two canopy stomatal resistance (Ball–Berry and Jarvis), and two options for surface layer drag coefficients (Monin–Obukhov and Chen97 scheme). Considering the β factor schemes, CLM and SSiB-type β factors simulate very low values of the latent heat flux while increasing the sensible heat flux. This result has been obtained independently of the canopy stomatal resistance scheme used. Additionally, the surface skin temperature simulated by Noah-MP is colder than that obtained by the original Noah LSM. This result is also highlighted when the simulated surface skin temperature is compared to the MSG-SEVIRI LST product. The largest differences between the satellite data and the mesoscale simulations are produced using the Noah-MP configurations run with the Monin–Obukhov parameterization for surface layer drag coefficients. In contrast, the Chen97 scheme shows larger surface skin temperatures than Monin–Obukhov, but at the expense of a decrease in the simulated sensible heat fluxes. In this regard, the ground heat flux and the net radiation play a key role in the simulation results. This research was funded by the Assistance Programmes of the University of Alicante “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2018–2019. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [4334].” and “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2020-21. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [5150].” as well as by Research Group VIGROB-116 (University of Alicante) and by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through the project PID2020-118797RB-I00/AEI.

A review study is presented targeting the question how topographic amplification of strong earthquake ground motions is currently handled in literature and how this effect can be incorporated within earthquake loss estimation (ELE). An improved understanding of the phenomenon would also facilitate its inclusion in future building design code provisions in a more rigorous manner than present levels. Even though it is widely accepted that, in addition to soil conditions, surface topography can have considerable influence on the frequency and amplitude characteristics of earthquake ground motion, this effect has been neglected in all of the existing ELE software tools, and neither do ELE studies in general consider this effect. Therefore, after a detailed review of the existing literature, we have synthesized the results from some of the studies into a period-dependent topographic amplification relationship (including PGA) for sites at the top of a hill, which may be used in ELE studies. The relationship for an amplification factor, Ah, was obtained by fitting a database containing 333 data points, in which Ah ranges from 0.31 to 3.04, and the shape relief (H/L) ranges from 0.25 to 0.8. Out of these, seven data points correspond to topographic amplification of PGA while the remaining data points correspond to amplification of the spectral acceleration at periods ranging between 0.065 and 3.91 s. All the data stems from analytical/numerical studies and we have only considered the possibility of topographic amplification due to SV/SH waves with an incidence angle perpendicular to the base of the hill. The results show a reasonable correlation between the theoretical and the fitted data. We also have compared the amplification factors provided by our period-dependent relationships with the most recent experimental and numerical data for the Narni ridge (Italy) and found close similarities with these results. The proposed relationship can be used not only in ELE studies but also in simplified seismic microzonation studies. The current study was conducted under the Indo-Norwegian collaboration project EQRisk funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy to India (New Delhi) and the Spanish research projects BEST/2012/173, CGL2016-77688-R(AEI/FEDER,UE).

In this work, a wireless data acquisition system for seismic noise array measurements is presented. The developed system is composed of a series of nodes and a central server arranged in a point-to-multipoint topology. The nodes consist of a CC3200 microcontroller, an analog-to-digital converter, and a low-noise conditioning circuit designed specifically to register seismic noise, and which is connected to the seismic sensor. As a server, a Raspberry Pi 4B has been used that will receive the samples from the nodes via Wi-Fi and will save them in files. It also incorporates a Web interface developed with JavaScript node.js technology that allows to configure the number of nodes as well as different options, to start and stop the records, and to view in real time the different signals received from the nodes. The system can be deployed anywhere since each of the nodes use independent batteries as a power supply. In addition, it is possible to operate the system remotely if internet connectivity is available. The prototype has been tested in four different locations in the Alicante province (southeast Spain), demonstrating its suitability for seismic noise array measurements.

The Middle-Chelif basin, in northwestern Algeria, is located in a seismically active region. In its western part lies the El-Asnam fault, a thrust fault responsible for several strong earthquakes. The most important being the El-Asnam earthquake (Ms = 7.3) of 1980. In the present study, ambient vibration data with single-station and array techniques were used to investigate the dynamic properties of the ground and to estimate the Vs30 structure in the main cities of the basin. Soil resonance frequencies vary from 1.2 to 8.3 Hz with a maximum amplitude of 8.7 in. Collapsing behavior has also been demonstrated west of the city of El-Attaf, reflecting a strong potential for liquefaction. A Vs30 variation map and a soil classification for each city were obtained mainly by inversion of the HVSR and Rayleigh wave dispersion curves. Finally, an empirical prediction law of Vs30 for the Middle-Chelif basin was proposed.

En esta red se han desarrollado dos actuaciones distintas aplicadas a dos asignaturas de la titulación del Grado en Ingeniería en Sonido e Imagen en Telecomunicación. A raíz de la adquisición de la licencia campus de Matlab por parte de la Universidad de Alicante, se han desarrollado unos apuntes “interactivos” con Live Script en la asignatura de Tratamiento Digital de Imágenes (TDI) y la adaptación a Matlab Grader de las prácticas de ordenador de la asignatura de Tratamiento Digital de Señal (TDS). Los Live Script son documentos que mezclan texto enriquecido, imágenes y código que puede ser ejecutado a voluntad, mientras que Matlab Grader permite ofrecer una serie de ejercicios autoevaluables y que están disponibles en línea. Se analizará la aceptación y respuesta de los alumnos a estas actuaciones. En concreto, la adaptación a Matlab Grader también pretende la mejora de la formación dual que ha sido escogida para el desarrollo del curso durante este año de pandemia de COVID19.

This article presents a new wireless seismic sensor network system, especially design for building monitoring. The designed prototype allows remote control, and remote and real-time monitoring of the recorded signals by any internet browser. The system is formed by several Nodes (based on the CC3200 microcontroller of Texas Instruments), which are in charge of digitizing the ambient vibrations registered by three-component seismic sensors and transmitting them to a central server. This server records all the received signals, but also allows their real-time visualization in several remote client browsers thanks to the JavaScript’s Node.js technology. The data transmission uses not only Wi-Fi technology, but also the existing network resources that nowadays can be found usually in any official or residential building (lowering deployment costs). A data synchronization scheme was also implemented to correct the time differences between the Nodes, but also the long-term drifts found in the internal clock of the microcontrollers (improving the quality of records). The completed system is a low-cost, open-hardware and open-software design. The prototype was tested in a real building, recording ambient vibrations in several floors and observing the differences due to the building structure. This study was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 821046, the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad through research project CGL2016-77688-R, by the Consellería de Participación, Transparencia, Cooperación y Calidad Democrática de la Generalitat Valenciana, and by Research Group VIGROB-116 (University of Alicante).

En la situación actual el profesorado se ha visto obligado a transformar la enseñanza presencial en semipresencial o en línea. Si antes de la pandemia, el uso de la enseñanza semipresencial (b-learning) o la enseñanza en línea (online) eran opciones que permitían aventurarse en entornos de enseñanza y aprendizaje más flexible y de mayor accesibilidad, durante el confinamiento impuesto por la pandemia y posterior estado de nueva normalidad, ambos modelos de enseñanza no presencial se han convertido en una necesidad acuciante. En este nuevo entorno de enseñanza y aprendizaje, la importancia de diseñar cursos en línea cobra nuevo interés y relevancia. Esta Red se centra en el diseño de un MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), como material de apoyo y aprendizaje en línea para dos asignaturas de máster universitario: Aplicaciones Multidisciplinares de las Telecomunicaciones (46809) en el Máster de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación, y Técnicas de Identificación: Acústica, Imagen y Lingüística Forense (43310) en el Máster en Investigación Criminal y Ciencias Forenses. En concreto, los contenidos elegidos para esta acción educativa son las técnicas de autenticación de grabaciones de audio digital y las técnicas de reconocimiento e identificación de locutores con fines forenses, ambos temas se encuentran inmersos dentro de la disciplina de la Acústica Forense. El MOOC que se cree en el futuro próximo a partir de los resultados de la acción educativa realizada en esta Red, será una herramienta complementaria a la enseñanza presencial o no presencial de las asignaturas que son objeto de esta Red, que estará disponible en modo abierto, y a la que podrá recurrir el alumnado para aprender y revisar contenidos siempre que lo desee. De este modo, nuestra intención es también fomentar el aprendizaje autónomo y responsable dentro de la filosofía que incentiva "aprender a prender" como estrategia de vida.

En este trabajo se recoge la estrategia utilizada para superar las dificultades derivadas del modelo de Docencia Dual (DD) en el ámbito experimental de las asignaturas: Técnicas Experimentales IV del Grado de Física, y Acústica del Grado en Ingeniería en Sonido e Imagen en Telecomunicación. La implantación de la DD y los turnos implica una reducción de las horas presenciales en el laboratorio. Para mitigar este inconveniente se han elaborado una serie de vídeos demostrativos en los cuales se muestra paso a paso todos los procedimientos que el alumnado debería de realizar de forma presencial en el laboratorio. Se ha diseñado y facilitado una encuesta con el objetivo de evaluar la satisfacción por estos materiales. Se ha validado la encuesta a través de SPSS, y los resultados cuantitativamente arrojan en general una muy buena recepción de los materiales audiovisuales elaborados, ya que más del 80% del alumnado encuestado considera que los vídeos han sido de utilidad desde el punto de vista del aprendizaje autónomo/online.

En esta memoria se describe el proyecto de desarrollo de una metodología de Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) en su octava edición (curso 2020/21) para el itinerario de Creación y Entretenimiento digital del cuarto curso del Grado en Ingeniería Multimedia de la Escuela Politécnica Superior. La Red 4979 es el resultado de la consolidación de los realizados en los cursos anteriores, desde el curso 2013/14 hasta la actualidad (identificadores 3013, 3133, 3426, 3663, 4002, 4307 y 4606). En esta octava edición, el proyecto ha tenido como objetivo principal diseñar, implementar y evaluar algunas acciones educativas innovadoras respecto a la evaluación de los proyectos ABP. De esta forma, el objetivo de este proyecto es conseguir una evaluación multimodal, que valore todas las facetas que conforman una metodología como ésta: contenidos y objetivos, presentaciones de los proyectos, funcionamiento del grupo, resultado final del proyecto, … Para conseguir este objetivo tendrán que transcurrir algunos cursos en los que se irá trabajando en la implantación sucesiva de cambios puntuales y en la evaluación de sus resultados. En este trabajo se explica la primera aproximación realizada, y como resultados del proyecto se presentan una guía de buenas prácticas de evaluación y la valoración del alumnado.

Aun cuando la Ingeniería de Telecomunicación es una de las profesiones más demandadas en cuanto a salidas laborales se refiere, el porcentaje de mujeres que realizan estos estudios no supera el 30%. En esta red pretendemos realizar un estudio sobre las mujeres que están estudiando en estos momentos en la Universidad de Alicante la titulación de Grado en Ingeniería en Sonido e Imagen en Telecomunicación o el Máster Universitario en Ingeniería de Telecomunicación, así como egresadas. Se recopilará su percepción sobre la profesión y su aportación al mundo de la ingeniería. Las conclusiones ayudarán a incentivar la participación de mujeres en estudios tecnológicos, en general, y de ingeniería de telecomunicación, en particular.

The reactivation of very large landslides may cause severe damage to society. Its prevention and management requires detailed information on the geometry and structure of these landslides, but the use of standard techniques (boreholes) may be prohibitive from an economic point of view. To overcome these difficulties, geophysical techniques are of special interest because they allow for studying very large areas at a reasonable cost. In this paper, we present a case study wherein the analysis of ambient noise allowed us to produce a model of a large landslide near Granada (southern Spain). The geometry and location of the failure zone, as well as the assessment of the state of involved materials, were estimated by combining two available boreholes and different geophysical techniques (downhole tests and the spectral analysis of ambient noise, horizontal to vertical spectral ratios (HVSR) and the frequency-wavenumber (f-k) methods). The results have allowed us to differentiate between values within the landslide mass with respect to those of stable materials, and to perform for the first time a comprehensive geological model of this unstable mass. Differences were also observed within the landslide mass (earth flow vs. slide zones), which are attributed to differences in the degree of alteration and the disturbance of the internal structure of materials constituting the landslide mass. These results show that techniques based on the measurement of ambient noise are of special interest for studying very large, highly remolded landslide masses., EU (FEDER), by the Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación of the Spanish government (projects CGL2015-65602-R and CGL2016-77688- R), Junta de Andalucía (project GGI3002IDIN), Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía 2014–2020, Research Groups VIGROB-184 and VIGROB-116 (University of Alicante), University of Jaén

Debido a la COVID-19 y las restricciones sanitarias, la Universidad de Alicante implantó la docencia dual. En este trabajo se recoge la estrategia utilizada para superar las dificultades derivadas de este modelo educativo en el ámbito experimental de las asignaturas: Técnicas Experimentales IV del Grado de Física, y Acústica del Grado en Ingeniería en Sonido e Imagen en Telecomunicación. El impacto de la docencia dual principalmente repercute en una disminución en el número de horas que el alumnado puede disfrutar de forma presencial en el laboratorio. Para mitigar este inconveniente se han elaborado una serie de vídeos demostrativos en los cuales se muestra paso a paso el montaje a realizar en el laboratorio, configuración de instrumentos, adquisición de las medidas y en general todos los procedimientos que el alumnado debería de realizar de forma presencial. Para evaluar las ventajas y desventajas de la aplicación de esta iniciativa educativa se ha elaborado una encuesta que se ha facilitado a todo el alumnado. En primer lugar, se ha validado la encuesta a través de los análisis estadísticos pertinentes a través de SPSS, y los resultados cuantitativamente arrojan en general una muy buena recepción de los materiales audiovisuales elaborados, ya que más del 80% del alumnado encuestado considera que los vídeos han sido de utilidad desde el punto de vista del aprendizaje autónomo/online.

En este estudio cuantitativo se evalúa cómo el alumnado de la Universidad de Alicante interpreta el grado de incertidumbre asociado a las predicciones meteorológicas de viento y precipitación. Para ello, se ha diseñado un cuestionario que incluye 8 preguntas que han sido respondidas por un total de 71 alumnos de grado y máster. En primer lugar, se ha comprobado la respuesta del alumnado ante la predicción determinista de la velocidad del viento y la cantidad de precipitación. En segundo lugar, se ha evaluado si el alumnado toma alguna medida ante distintas situaciones de riesgo relacionadas con dichos parámetros, tanto cuando la información es presentada en términos deterministas como cuando se presenta en términos de probabilidad. Los resultados indican que un pequeño porcentaje del alumnado espera pronósticos perfectos, mientras que la mayoría reconoce cierto grado de incertidumbre inherente a los pronósticos meteorológicos. En este sentido, el alumnado espera una desviación de ±5-10 km/h para la velocidad del viento, y de ±30 mm para el caso de la cantidad de precipitación. Así mismo, el alumnado tomaría acciones de precaución ante situaciones de riesgo por fenómenos extremos de viento y precipitación, aunque hay una mayor variedad de respuestas en cuanto a la probabilidad a la cual se tomaría una acción determinada para la predicción probabilística de estos parámetros meteorológicos. El presente trabajo ha sido realizado con la ayuda del Programa Redes-I3CE de Investigación en Docencia Universitaria del Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Alicante (convocatoria 2020-21). Ref.: [5150].

This paper presents a novel approach to convert a conventional house air conditioning installation into a more efficient system that individually controls the temperature of each zone of the house through Wi-Fi technology. Each zone regulates the air flow depending on the detected temperature, providing energy savings and increasing the machine performance. Therefore, the first step was to examine the communication bus of the air conditioner and obtain the different signal codes. Thus, an alternative Controller module has been designed and developed to control and manage the requests on the communication bus (Bus&ndash, Wi-Fi gateway). A specific circuit has been designed to adapt the signal of the serial port of the Controller with the communication bus. For the acquisition of the temperature and humidity data in each zone, a Node module has been developed, which communicates with the Controller through the Wi-Fi interface using the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol with Secure Sockets Layer / Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) certificates. It has been equipped with an LCD touch screen as a human-machine interface. The Controller and the Node modules have been developed with the ultra-low power consumption CC3200 microController of Texas Instruments and the code has been implemented under the TI-RTOS real-time operating system. An additional module based on the Raspberry Pi computer has been designed to create the Wi-Fi network and implement the required network functionalities. The developed system not only ensures that the temperature in each zone is the desired one, but also controls the fan velocity of the indoor unit and the opening area of the vent registers, which considerably improves the efficiency of the system. Compared with the single-zone system, the experiments carried out show energy savings between 75% and 94% when only one of the zones is selected, and 44% when the whole house is air-conditioned, in addition to considerably improving user comfort.

The city of Oued-Fodda is located in north-central Algeria on the margins of the Middle-Cheliff Basin. This region has suffered several destructive earthquakes. The strongest was the 1980 El-Asnam earthquake (Ms7.3), whose causative fault was located about 1 km north of the city of Oued-Fodda. Therefore, a good knowledge of the soil characteristics in this city may allow a better evaluation of the seismic risk and help to minimize damages in the future. With this objective, a detailed microzonation study of Oued-Fodda has been carried out in this study. For that, the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method has been applied on 102 sites along the city, estimating the soil fundamental frequencies and their corresponding amplitudes. Besides, the Rayleigh wave ellipticity inversion has been accomplished in order to estimate the corresponding Vs profiles and provide two cross-sections of the geology under the city. In the central part of the city, high-frequency peaks are observed, between 12.5 and 15 Hz, which correspond to impedance contrasts at shallow depth (&lt, 20 m). In the surrounding plain, two clear peaks are identified in the ranges 1.8&ndash, 3.5 Hz (fundamental frequencies) and 6.5&ndash, 15 Hz (secondary peaks).

A daily rainfall database covering the Júcar and Segura river basin authorities (east Iberian Peninsula, Spain) with high spatial density without gaps (890 series) has been created for the complete period 1955–2016. This has allowed a trend analysis of precipitation and dry/wet spells with a better spatial detail and coverage of key headwaters sectors than previous studies in this area. Results show significant negative trends for precipitation prevailing in Júcar area (an annual average loss of 51 mm), especially towards its north interior headwaters. For this last one the annual loss exceeds 200 mm (20% of precipitation). By contrast, certain pre‐littoral sectors and most of the Segura area are remaining out of these negative trends (some local positive trends). However, the dry spells length and the number of dry days have increased in a generalized way (Júcar and Segura basins) with rainfall concentration in time and space. The decrease of moderate rainfall with greater precipitation effectiveness and weight in the key interior headwaters is the most significant. On the contrary, there has been an increase in extreme torrential rainfall (with poor effectiveness and high risk) at points on the coast and pre‐littoral towards south of the region. These results are linked to a change in the frequency of three basic synoptic types identified in the region as rainfall origin. European Regional Development Fund, Grant/Award Number: CGL2015‐64268‐R (MINECO/FEDER, UE); Generalitat Valenciana, Grant/Award Number: PROMETEOII/2014/086; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Grant/Award Number: CGL2015‐64268‐R (MINECO/FEDER, UE).

In order to better assess the seismic hazard in the northern region of Algeria, the shear-wave velocity structure in the Middle-Chelif Basin is estimated using ambient vibration single-station and array measurements. The Middle-Chelif Basin is located in the central part of the Chelif Basin, the largest of the Neogene sedimentary basins in northern Algeria. This basin hosts the El-Asnam fault, one of the most important active faults in the Mediterranean area. In this seismically active region, most towns and villages are built on large unconsolidated sedimentary covers. Application of the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) technique at 164 sites, and frequency–wavenumber (F–K) analysis at 7 other sites, allowed for the estimation of the ground resonance frequencies, shear-wave velocity profiles, and sedimentary cover thicknesses. The electrical resistivity tomography method was used at some sites to further constrain the thickness of the superficial sedimentary layers. The soil resonance frequencies range from 0.75 Hz to 12 Hz and the maximum frequency peak amplitude is 6.2. The structure of the estimated shear-wave velocities is presented in some places as 2D profiles to help interpret the existing faults. The ambient vibration data allowed us to estimate the maximum depth in the Middle-Chelif Basin, which is 760 m near the city of El-Abadia. This study was funded by the Consellería de Participación, Transparencia, Cooperación y Calidad Democrática de la Generalitat Valenciana, and by Research Group VIGROB-116 (University of Alicante).

South and South-East of Spain are the regions with a higher seismic hazard in Spain Consequently, all the municipalities in Alicante province has to develop seismic emergency planning. Besides, the south of Alicante province and, in particular, the cities of Elche and Alicante are located in a sedimentary deposit, which can reach hundreds of meters, so site effects can be important. Additionally, most of the building stock belongs to periods without seismic normative, increasing, therefore, their vulnerability. Furthermore, following the damage caused by earthquakes in Spain, it has been observed that there are significant differences in the spatial distribution of damage from site to site in buildings with similar seismic behavior, located in a similar site. Hence, many authors have stated that the main factor responsible for the different damage distribution could be the building height. The seismic response of a building depends on its dynamic characteristics (fundamental period, T, damping ratio, ξ, and modal shape) and on the input ground motion. Among the existing methods to determine the T and ξ parameters, the best ones probably are to record weak earthquakes (or near explosions) or induced vibrations inside the building. However, both techniques need a very expensive and time-consuming effort when it is applied to a large number of buildings. A possible alternative is the measurement of ambient vibrations. In this work, ambient vibration measurements were performed at the geometrical center of the plan on the top floor of buildings with different height and year of construction in the municipality of Alicante and Elche (both in the Alicante province), assuming that this point coincides with the mass center of the floor. The preliminary results follow a linear relationship between the number of stories and the fundamental period. Finally, the results have been used to estimate the probability of resonance in several districts of both municipalities. The study has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 821046, the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad through research project CGL2016-77688-R, the Generalitat Valenciana through the research project AICO/2016/098 with the collaboration and funding provided by Elche and Alicante municipalities.

The El Molinar slide is a translational slide that affects Upper Miocene marls near the city of Alcoy (Alicante, SE Spain). In this study, the stability of this landslide is studied focusing on the effect of variations of the water table within slide body and the possible effect of maximum expecte d earthquake in a 475 year return period. The results obtained shown that the water table is the main variable in this proble m. Its change may induce very large variations in safety factor (from 1.53 up to 0.69, corresponding to dry and complete saturation, respectively). The stability under dynamic conditions shows that this slide is not sensitive to waves with frequencies above 2 Hz, but it reduces significantly its safety factor when waves applied are characterized by low frequencies, especially when their characteristic frequency is below 0.6 Hz. O deslizamento do Molinar é um deslocamento translacional que afeta as margas miocénicas perto da cidade de Alcoy (Alicante, SE Espanh a). Neste estudo, a estabilidade deste movimento foi estudada e focou-se no efeito das variações do nível freático no corpo do deslizamento e os possívei s efeitos do sismo com intensidade máxima esperada para um períod o de retorno de 475 anos. Os resultados obtidos mostram que o nível freático é a principal variável neste problema. A sua alteração pode induzir grandes variações no fator de segurança (de 1,53 a 0,69, correspondendo a estado seco e completamente saturado, respectivamente). A estabilidade em condições dinâmicas mostra que este deslizamento não é sensível a ondas com frequências superiores a 2 Hz, mas reduz significativamente o seu fator de segurança quando as ondas aplicadas têm frequências mais baixas, especialment e quando a sua frequência é inferior a 0,6 Hz. This work was partially funded by Spanish MINECO and European funds under project EPILATES (CGL2015.65602-R) and by the University of Alicante (VIGROB-184).

En este trabajo se evalúa cómo el alumnado de la Universidad de Alicante interpreta el grado de certidumbre asociado a la predicciones meteorológicas de temperatura. Para ello, se ha diseñado un cuestionario que incluye 8 preguntas que han sido respondidas por un total de 71 alumnos de grado y máster. En primer lugar, se ha comprobado la respuesta del alumnado ante la predicción de temperatura, tal y como son presentadas habitualmente a través de distintos medios de comunicación. En segundo lugar, se ha evaluado si el alumnado toma alguna medida ante distintas situaciones de riesgo relacionadas con la temperatura, tanto cuando es presentada en términos deterministas como cuando se presenta en términos de probabilidad. De esta forma, se pretende comprobar la fiabilidad que percibe el alumnado en los pronósticos actuales de las temperaturas máximas y mínimas. Los resultados indican que el alumnado espera un grado de incertidumbre de entre 1 y 2 ºC en los pronósticos de estos parámetros atmosféricos cuando son presentados en términos deterministas. Además, los resultados parecen mostrar una mayor confianza en la predicción de temperatura mínima que en la máxima. Así mismo, el alumnado tomaría acciones de precaución ante situaciones de riesgo por temperaturas extremas, si bien hay una mayor variedad de respuestas cuando esta predicción se presenta en términos de probabilidad. El presente trabajo ha sido realizado con la ayuda del Programa Redes-I3CE de Investigación en Docencia Universitaria del Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Alicante (convocatoria 2019-20). Ref.: [4669].

El grupo de Alto Rendimiento Académico (ARA) comenzó su curso en el año académico 2011/12 para reforzar el potencial de los estudiantes más destacados desde el comienzo de sus estudios universitarios. Para mejorar la empleabilidad de estos estudiantes, al menos el 50% de los créditos troncales u obligatorios del título se imparten en inglés. Además, se proporcionan una serie de ayudas para la formación en idiomas, lo que también tiene ventajas para obtener becas Erasmus. El grupo ARA solo ofrece 25 plazas para cada curso académico. Al ser un grupo con un número reducido de estudiantes, se mejora tanto la enseñanza personalizada como el seguimiento y la evolución del alumnado. En esta contribución se presenta la metodología utilizada en la asignatura de Señales y Sistemas del Grado en Sonido e Imagen en Ingeniería de Telecomunicación de la Universidad de Alicante (España). Generalmente, tanto en universidades españolas como extranjeras, esta asignatura suele ser un punto de inflexión en la formación del estudiante en Ingeniería de Telecomunicación. Además, suele ser una asignatura cuya ratio de aprobados está por debajo de la media de la titulación, ya que supone un reto y una dificultad nueva para los estudiantes de primeros cursos. La metodología enfatiza la aplicación práctica de la asignatura, su aplicabilidad directa en sistemas reales y su validación como posible método de enseñanza a partir de los resultados obtenidos.

This quantitative study evaluates how 71 Spanish undergraduate students perceive and interpret the uncertainty inherent to deterministic forecasts. It is based on several questions that asked participants what they expect given a forecast presented under the deterministic paradigm for a specific lead time and a particular weather parameter. In this regard, both normal and extreme weather conditions were studied. Students’ responses to the temperature forecast as it is usually presented in the media expect an uncertainty range of ±1°–2°C. For wind speed, uncertainty shows a deviation of ±5–10 km h−1, and the uncertainty range assigned to the precipitation amount shows a deviation of ±30 mm from the specific value provided in a deterministic format. Participants perceive the minimum night temperatures as the least-biased parameter from the deterministic forecast, while the amount of rain is perceived as the most-biased one. In addition, participants were then asked about their probabilistic threshold for taking appropriate precautionary action under distinct decision-making scenarios of temperature, wind speed, and rain. Results indicate that participants have different probabilistic thresholds for taking protective action and that context and presentation influence forecast use. Participants were also asked about the meaning of the probability-of-precipitation (PoP) forecast. Around 40% of responses reformulated the default options, and around 20% selected the correct answer, following previous studies related to this research topic. As a general result, it has been found that participants infer uncertainty into deterministic forecasts, and they are mostly used to take action in the presence of decision-making scenarios. In contrast, more difficulties were found when interpreting probabilistic forecasts. This work has been funded by the Assistance Programme of University of Alicante “Programa de Redes-I3CE de calidad, innovación e investigación en docencia universitaria. Convocatoria 2019-20. Alicante: Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Alicante. Ref: [4669].”

En esta memoria se describe el proyecto realizado de desarrollo de una metodología de Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) en su séptima edición (curso 2019/20) para el itinerario de Creación y Entretenimiento digital del cuarto curso del Grado en Ingeniería Multimedia de la Escuela Politécnica Superior. Este proyecto es el resultado de la consolidación de los realizados en los cursos anteriores, desde el curso 2013/14 hasta la actualidad (identificadores 3013, 3133, 3426, 3663, 4002 y 4307). En esta séptima edición, el proyecto ha tenido como objetivo principal la organización y seguimiento de las presentaciones que realizan los grupos ABP para exponer el estado del progreso en el desarrollo de sus videojuegos durante el curso. En la planificación inicial se programaron tres presentaciones, de las que dos se han visto bastante afectadas por la declaración del estado de alarma en el país, pasando de realizarse de forma presencial a hacerlo mediante vídeos y videoconferencia. En esta memoria se explica cómo se ha realizado esta adaptación, y como resultados del proyecto se presentan los vídeos de dichas presentaciones y el análisis de la valoración de éstas por parte del alumnado.

Newmark displacement estimation is generally computed using empirical models. These models are estimated from large datasets that mainly comprise moderate-to-high magnitude events (Mw > 6.0). In this work, we study the performance of several of these models to study moderate-to-low magnitude scenarios. For this purpose, data from the Betic Cordillera, S Spain, with magnitudes ranging from Mw 3.5 to 6.3, were used to compare with model predictions. The results show that errors in the estimates depend on the magnitude of events or on the yielding acceleration considered to estimate the displacement. The availability of an appropriate range of data (magnitude and yielding acceleration), when defining the regression model, may overcome the differences due to specific characteristics of the seismotectonic context of the area where data derives from. The results also show that performance of models including several ground motion predictors is better than those based on a single parameter, regardless of the combination these predictors. Furthermore, regression models with polynomial forms present a better performance than other functions based on the logarithm of these predictors. Finally, new specific models for the Betic Cordillera are proposed, especially suitable for low magnitude events (< 5.0) and low critical accelerations (< 0.1 g), based on simplified polynomial forms of models. This work was partially founded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and EU FEDER funds (project EPILATES, CGL2015-65602-R) and by the Research Group VIGROB-184 (University of Alicante). Research was also partially funded by the Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresa y Universidad (Junta de Andalucía), in the frame of the Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía 2014-2020 – call made by the University of Jaén 2018.

En este trabajo se recogen los derivados de la investigación en nuevas estrategias docentes para la docencia en educación superior. En concreto, se detalla la propuesta realizada de utilizar el sistema Arduino para la elaboración de una actividad formativa experimental aplicada a dos titulaciones y asignaturas diferentes. Los grados involucrados son el Grado en Ingeniería en Sonido e Imagen en Telecomunicación (GISIT) y el Grado en Física (GF). La experiencia docente diseñada se centra en la medida de la directividad de fuentes sonoras. El diseño de la actividad formativa persigue realizar una actividad experimental con enfoques diferentes para la asignatura Acústica del GISIT y de la asignatura Técnicas Experimentales IV (TEIV) del GF. La asignatura Acústica es de 2º curso mientras que TEIV es de 4º, por lo que el contexto del alumnado es muy dispar. Además, el objetivo de la actividad formativa en ambos casos también lo es. En el caso de Acústica, la actividad formativa está más enfocada al fenómeno físico de la directividad sonora de fuentes, mientras que para el caso de la actividad formativa para la asignatura TEIV el objetivo se centra más en el sistema de control y de instrumentación basado en Arduino.

Land Surface Models (LSM) have shown some difficulties to properly simulate day-time 2-m air and surface skin temperatures. This kind of models are coupled to atmospheric models in mesoscale modelling, such as the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. This model coupling is used within Numerical Weather Prediction Systems (NWP) in order to forecast key physical processes for agricultural meteorology and forestry as well as in ecological modelling. The current study first evaluates the surface energy fluxes and temperatures simulated by these two state-of-the-art NWP models over two distinct vegetated covers, one corresponding to a poor and sparsely vegetated area and the other one corresponding to the tall and well-vegetated area of a forest. On the other hand, the importance of parameterizing the thermal roughness length within the LSM coupled to the corresponding atmospheric model is also evaluated. The LEAF-3 LSM is used within the RAMS modelling environment while the Noah-MP LSM is applied within WRF. Results indicate that the original version of the models underestimates the temperature during the day, more remarkably in the forested area, whereas modifications in the thermal roughness length successfully simulates the temperature and sensible heat flux forecasts over this area. This study highlights the key role of the surface exchange processes when coupling land and atmosphere models. In this regard, incorporating an extra resistance in the surface-layer parameterization through the thermal roughness length is essential to simulate well both temperatures and sensible heat fluxes, which becomes more relevant over tall and well-vegetated areas, such as a forest. This extra resistance for heat exchange prevents effective molecular diffusion in the layer between the momentum roughness length and the thermal roughness length. Additionally, an appropriate description of the canopy height permits to apply an improved surface-layer formulation over different land and vegetation covers. This work has been funded by the Regional Government of Valencia through the project PROMETEOII/2014/086 and by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the project CGL2015-64268-R (MINECO/FEDER,UE).

The characterization of soil is essential for the evaluation of seismic hazard, because soil properties strongly influence the damage caused by earthquakes. Methods based on seismic noise are the most commonly used in soil characterization. Concretely, methods based on seismic noise array measurements allow for the estimation of Rayleigh wave dispersion curves and, subsequently, shear-wave velocity profiles. The equipment required for the application of this technique is usually very expensive, which could be a significant economic challenge for small research groups. In this work, we have developed a wireless multichannel seismic noise recorder system (Geophonino-W), which is suitable for array measurements. Each station includes a microcontroller board (Arduino), a conditioning circuit, an Xbee module, an SD card, and a GPS module. Several laboratory tests were carried out in order to study the performance of the Geophonino-W: A frequency response test (impulse response and noise), synchronization test, and battery duration test. Comparisons of Geophonino-W with the commercial systems and field measurements were also carried out. The estimated dispersion curves obtained using the proposed system were compared with the ones obtained using other commercial equipment, demonstrating the effectiveness of Geophonino-W for seismic noise array measurements. Geophonino-W is an economic open-source and hardware system that is available to any small research group or university.

We present a procedure for exposure and vulnerability evaluation that integrates LiDAR, orthophotos, and other ancillary datasets. It comprises three phases: (1) city stratification into homogeneous regions; (2) exposure database compilation; and (3) vulnerability allocation using predictive modelling. We have conducted two applications in Lorca (Spain) and Port-au-Price (Haiti) and here we compare them. Each phase of the method is subject to variations due mainly to data availability; however, it does not affect the final accuracy that remains high in both scenarios (over 80%). It is a flexible procedure that is able to adapt to the particular features of two different cities.

The south and south-east of Spain are the regions with a higher seismic hazard in Spain. However, although a regional normative focused on the importance of developing seismic emergency planning in many of the municipalities of the Valencian Community was established in 2011, only Elche and Alicante have started to compute the seismic risk and it is planned that their emergency plans will be finished before the end of 2019. The seismic hazard update in the region has shown that the main earthquake scenarios, which will hit both cities, correspond to the Crevillente and the Bajo Segura faults (also responsible of damaging historical earthquakes). The main goal of the developed emergency planning (PAM) is to provide a fast, effective and coordinate response from the public and private stakeholders when a damaging earthquake happen. Assuring, therefore, the maximum protection to the inhabitants and infrastructures in the urban area. The basic functions of the PAM are: a) To establish clearly the organizational and functional structure for intervention in emergencies due to earthquakes that affect the territory; b) To assure the coordination between the emergency agencies at the national, regional and urban level; c) To map a seismic risk zonation that can be used to plan the intervention and locate non-damage infrastructures to be used in the emergency; d) To Increase the population resilience through emergency procedure and education. The present research has been funded by the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (CGL2016-77688-R AEI/FEDER,UE), the Generalitat Valenciana (AICO/2016/098) and the cooperation and funding of the Elche and Alicante municipalities.

The analysis of seismic noise provides a reliable estimation of the soil properties, which supposes the starting point for the assessment of the seismic hazard. The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio technique calculates the resonant frequency of the soil just by using a single three-component sensor. Array measurements require at least several vertical sensors registering simultaneously and their analysis provides an estimation of the surface waves dispersion curve. Although these methods are relatively cheaper than other geotechnical techniques, the cost of the sensors and the multi-channel data acquisition system means that small research groups cannot afford this kind of equipment. In this work, two prototypes for registering seismic noise have been developed and implemented: a three-channel acquisition system, optimized for working with three-component sensors, and a twelve-channel acquisition system, prepared for working simultaneously with twelve vertical geophones. Both prototypes are characterized by being open-hardware, open-software, easy to implement, and low-cost. The main aim is to provide a data acquisition system that can be reproduced and applied by any research group. Both developed prototypes have been tested and compared with other commercial equipment, showing their suitability to register seismic noise and to estimate the soil characteristics.

El uso de resultados de modelos numéricos como recurso para el estudio de conceptos complejos en asignaturas relacionadas con la Meteorología está ampliamente extendido. En concreto, en lo referente a las predicciones meteorológicas. El propósito del presente estudio es explorar la confianza que tiene el alumnado matriculado en este tipo de áreas del conocimiento en dichas predicciones. Para ello, se ha utilizado un enfoque cuantitativo y método no experimental a través de una encuesta. Se recoge así información relacionada con el medio de comunicación preferente utilizado por el alumnado para obtener este tipo de previsiones, así como información relacionada con la percepción y valoración de los estudiantes de las predicciones meteorológicas así como de la incertidumbre asociada. La muestra se compone de 157 individuos pertenecientes a las universidades de Alicante (n = 73) y Valencia (n = 84). Los resultados indican que el alumnado solo experimenta previsiones incorrectas algunas veces o incluso raramente y muestra una idea clara de la incertidumbre. Estos resultados están de acuerdo con estudios simulares llevados a cabo en otros países.