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The secondary phase decreased the corrosion resistance because of the segregation of Cr and Mo. Therefore, this paper aims to study the precipitation condition and the effect of secondary phase with volume fraction on corrosion behavior.

Secondary phase precipitated approximately from 375°C to 975°C because of saturated Cr and Mo at grain boundary by growth of austenite. Therefore, heat treatment from 800°C to 1,300°C was applied to start the precipitation of the secondary phase.

The secondary phase is precipitated at 1,020°C because of segregation by heterogeneous austenite. The growth of austenite at 1,000°C needs the time to saturate the Cr and Mo at grain boundary. When the volume fraction of austenite is 56 per cent (14 min at 1,000°C), the secondary phase is precipitated with grain boundary of austenite. The secondary phase increased the current density (corrosion rate) and decreased the passivation. That is checked to the critical pitting temperature (CPT) curves. The 1 per cent volume fraction of secondary phase decreased CPT to 60°C from 71°C.

The precipitation of secondary phase not wants anyone. Casted super-duplex stainless steel (SDSS) of big size precipitates the secondary phase. This study worked the precipitation condition and the suppression conditions of secondary phase.

Manufacturers need precipitation condition to make high-performance SDSS.

The corrosion resistance of SDSS is hard the optimization because SDSS is dual-phase stainless steel. The precipitation of the secondary phase must be controlled to optimize of the corrosion resistance of SDSS. Anyone not studied the precipitation condition of secondary phase and the effect of secondary phase with volume fraction on corrosion behavior of SDSS.

The Monsoon Asian region has a much wider rainfall distribution than other regions of the world. The countries in this region are characterized mostly by floods and typhoons, which result from the interplay among the ocean, the atmosphere, and the land. Thus, many factors affect the strength of the rainfall, including sea surface temperatures in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, variations in solar output, land snow cover and soil moisture over the Asian continent, and the position and strength of prevailing winds. The links between these factors and monsoons appear to wax and wane over time, and the observational record is too short to explain this longer-term variability. Precipitation and surface wind maps of Asia during the summer months of June to August show the average spatial patterns of monsoon circulation and moisture.

The purpose of this paper is to identify drought conditions in Jordan in the period 1960‐2006 for two major basins – the Yarmouk and the Zarqa. This study aims to look at the long‐term drought conditions (hydrological droughts) and to investigate the possibility of changes in the monthly precipitation pattern for the period of 1997‐2006, as this period has suffered from the average slightly dry conditions for the two basins.

The Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) is used to assess drought conditions in the Yarmouk and Zarqa basins. The SPI is applied on an annual basis to assess the hydrological long‐term droughts. Average monthly precipitation is used as the input to the SPI procedure.

The SPI is applied on an annual basis (12 months) SPI‐12. Results of the SPI‐12 assessment show that the years 1978, 1995, and 1999 represented extremely dry conditions in both basins. The years 1989 and 1993 represented severely dry conditions in the Zarqa basin and extremely dry conditions in the Yarmouk basin. The statistical procedure for precipitation anomalies identifies precipitation anomalies for the years 2000, 2003, and 2006. However, due to the limited number of anomaly years this study does not conclude that there is a change in the pattern of monthly precipitation of the tested period 1997‐ 2006.

Using the SPI method this work can be extended to compare drought conditions in the remaining major basins in the country.

The paper provides important information about drought conditions in Jordan and ways to assess precipitation anomalies and pattern changes. This can be beneficial to the planning of water resources in Jordan and the associated developments (agricultural, industrial, tourism, and residential).

The moist periods with high precipitation and periods of atmospheric droughts are a potential great hazard to the functioning of ecosystems and different sectors of the national economy in the Lublin region. Therefore, a recognition of time variability of these atmospheric phenomena and the conditions of their occurrence are the main aims of this paper.

The analysis of the precipitation‐free periods was based on the meteorological data from the years 1951‐2009 recorded in the Meteorological Observatory of the Maria Curie‐Skłodowska University in Lublin. Main hydrological data concerning dynamics of groundwater table and surface water table came from the measurement network of the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management.

Very long precipitation‐free periods, lasting over 20 days, appeared only seven times – once a year in 1953, 1956, 1959, 1971, 1983, and twice in 2000. Since the 1980s, the number of precipitation‐free periods has been decreasing parallel to the higher frequency of downpours and increasing annual precipitation totals. In the years 1981‐1994, the following phenomena were observed in the Lublin region: decrease of river mean discharges, groundwater‐table lowering, lowering of lake surfaces, disappearance of springs, and the shortening of the upper reaches of rivers. However, replenishment of water resources and more frequent meteorological extreme events have been recorded in the Lublin region since the second half of the 1990s. Therefore, local flood and inundations have occurred, and flood hazard in larger river valleys has increased.

Examination of time variability of these atmospheric phenomena and conditions of their occurrence should contribute to the development of effective ways and techniques of management of water resources in the regional economy in order to reduce economic losses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reduction of crop yield uncertainty using rainfall index insurances. The insurance payouts are determined by a transparent rainfall index rather than actual crop yield of any producer, thereby circumventing problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. The authors consider insurances on rainfall indexes of various months and derive an optimal insurance portfolio that minimizes the income variance for a crop producer.

Various regression models are considered to relate crop yield to monthly mean temperature and monthly cumulative precipitation. A bootstrapping method is used to simulate weather indexes and corn yield in a future year with the correlation between precipitation and temperature incorporated. Based on the simulated scenarios, the optimal insurance portfolio that minimizes the income variance for a crop producer is obtained. In addition, the impact of correlation between temperature and precipitation, availability of temperature index insurance and geographical basis risk on the effectiveness of rainfall index insurance is examined.

The authors illustrate the approach with the corn yield in Illinois east crop reporting district and weather data of a city in the same district. The analysis shows that corn yield in this district is negatively influenced by excessive precipitation in May and drought in June–August. Rainfall index insurance portfolio can reduce the income variance by up to 51.84 percent. Failing to incorporate the correlation between temperature and precipitation decreases variance reduction by 11.6 percent. The presence of geographical basis risk decreases variance reduction by a striking 24.11 percent. Allowing for the purchase of both rainfall and temperature index insurances increases variance reduction by 13.67 percent.

By including precipitation shortfall into explanatory variables, the extended crop yield model explains more fluctuation in crop yield than existing models. The authors use a bootstrapping method instead of complex parametric models to simulate weather indexes and crop yield for a future year and assess the effectiveness of rainfall index insurance. The optimal insurance portfolio obtained provides insights on the practical development of rainfall insurance for corn producers, from the selection of triggering index to the demand of the insurance.

Climate change will affect tourism at several temporal and spatial levels. This chapter focuses on the quantification of effects and the development of strategies to reduce extremes and frequencies as well as thresholds in tourism areas. Knowledge about possibilities for mitigation and adaptation of current and expected climate conditions requires interdisciplinary approaches and solutions. Several examples are presented, including the effects of trees against climate change and extreme events (heat waves), behavior adaptations, urban and regional planning measures, bioclimatic conditions in the Mediterranean and human–biometeorological conditions under climate change conditions, and user-friendly computer tools for the quantification of urban bioclimate conditions.

Although the importance of climate change is generally acknowledged, its impacts are often not taken into account explicitly when planning development projects. This being due to limited resources, among others, this paper aims to propose a simple and low-cost approach to assess the viability of human activities under climate change.

Many human activities are feasible only within a narrow range of climatic conditions. Comparing such “climate corridors” with future climate projections provides an intuitive yet quantitative means for assessing needs for, and the viability of, adaptation activities under climate change.

The approach was tested within development projects in Pakistan, Peru and Tajikistan. The approach was shown to work well for forestry and agriculture, indicating positive/negative prospects for wheat in two districts in Pakistan, temperature constraints for maize in Peru and widening elevation ranges for walnut trees in Tajikistan.

Climate corridor analyses feed into the preparation of Local Adaptation Plans of Action in Pakistan.

The simplicity and robustness of climate corridor analysis allow for efficient analysis and communication of climate change impacts. It works when data availability is limited, but it can as well accommodate a wide range of complexities. It has proven to be an effective vehicle for mainstreaming climate change into adaptation planning.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the hedging efficiency (HE) of weather index insurances (WII) based on a whole-farm approach. The aim is to identify how different types of WII affect the economic performance risk of real farms in the light of the heterogeneity of farm operations and natural conditions.

Using historic simulation, the HE of various hedging strategies is computed for 20 farms in regions with moderate natural conditions. A priori defined “standardized” WII and hedge ratios as well as ex post “optimized” strategies are analyzed. The latter is identified through a risk programming approach that determines the strike level and hedge ratio that would have minimized the volatility of each farm’s historic total gross margins (TGMs) ex post.

(i) The correlations between the weather indexes and the yields of the farms’ main crop (wheat) do not provide useful insights regarding the whole-farm HE because farms’ performance risk is considerably affected by volatile factors other than wheat yield; (ii) Standardized WII are ill-suited to hedge performance risk for the majority of studied farms; (iii) A considerable positive whole-farm HE could have been obtained on average if farmers had been able to use the “optimized” risk management strategy. Using farm-specific information thus seems to be essential for identifying meaningful hedging strategies.

This study provides added value by analyzing the HE of WII for 20 German crop farms in “moderate” regions. The results show that exemplary tests of WII in extreme conditions provide no decision support for farmers in other regions.

This study aims to present the climate change effect on soil moisture regimes in Mexico in a global 1.5°C warming scenario.

The soil moisture regimes were determined using the Newhall simulation model with the database of mean monthly precipitation and temperature at a scale of 1: 250,000 for the current scenario and with the climate change scenarios associated with a mean global temperature increase of 1.5°C, considering two Representative Concentration Pathways, 4.5 and 8.5 W/m² and three general models of atmospheric circulation, namely, GFDL, HADGEM and MPI. The different vegetation types of the country were related to the soil moisture regimes for current conditions and for climate change.

According to the HADGEM and MPI models, almost the entire country is predicted to undergo a considerable increase in soil moisture deficit, and part of the areas of each moisture regime will shift to the next drier regime. The GFDL model also predicts this trend but at smaller proportions.

The changes in soil moisture at the regional scale that reveal the impacts of climate change and indicate where these changes will occur are important elements of the knowledge concerning the vulnerability of soils to climate change. New cartography is available in Mexico.

Presents the outcome of intensive research into highly dispersed sodium‐aluminium silicate. Optimal conditions of the precipitation process of sodium‐aluminium silicates of high dispersion degrees from the solution of sodium metasilicate were given. In the precipitation process water soluble aluminium salts were used. A physicochemical analysis and microscopic structure of the obtained silicates were performed. The products obtained are characterized by parameters comparable to those of the sodium‐aluminium silicate P‐820 (Degussa).