From the Proceedings of the 1975 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 11-12, 1975, Tempe, Arizona / The possibility of using imagery from the earth resources technology satellites (ERTS) to monitor changes in areal snow cover in east-central Arizona is examined. Four methods were used in the interpretation of areal snow cover from the ERTS imagery, the densitometer, dot grid, squares grid and projection-planimeter methods providing results of 69, 71, 72 and 74 percent of areal cover respectively. No one method for interpretation of ERTS imagery should be ruled unusable, but any use made of ERTS imagery is dependent upon turn-around time for obtaining the imagery, as snow cover information which cannot be obtained within 24 hours is limited in practical application.

Run-of-mine ore milling circuits are generally difficult to control owing to the presence of strong external disturbances, poor process models and the unavailability of important process variable measurements. These shortcomings are common for processes in the mineral-processing industry. For processes that fall into this class, the peripheral control tools in the control loop are considered to be as important as the controller itself. This work addresses the implementation of peripheral control tools on a run-of-mine ore milling circuit to help overcome the deteriorated control performance resulting from the aforementioned shortcomings. The effects of strong external disturbances are suppressed through the application of a disturbance observer. A fractional order disturbance observer is also implemented and a novel Bode ideal cutoff disturbance observer is introduced. The issue of poor process models is addressed through the detection of significant mismatch between the actual plant and the available model from process data. A closed-form expression is given for the case where the controller has a transfer function. If the controller does not have a transfer function, a partial correlation analysis is used to detect the transfer function elements in the model transfer function matrix that contain significant mismatch. The mill states and important mill parameters are estimated with the use of particle filters. Simultaneous state and parameter estimation is compared with a novel dual particle filtering scheme. A sensitivity analysis shows the class of systems for which dual estimation would provide superiorestimation accuracy over simultaneous estimation. The implemented peripheral control tools show promise for current milling circuits where proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control is prevalent, and also for advanced control strategies, such as model predictive control, which are expected to become more common in the future. AFRIKAANS : Maalkringe wat onbehandelde erts maal is oor die algemeen moeilik om te beheer as gevolg van die teenwoordigheid van sterk eksterne steurings, onakkurate aanlegmodelle en metings van belangrike prosesveranderlikes wat ontbreek. Hierdie probleme is algemeen vir aanlegte in die mineraalprosesseringsbedryf. Vir aanlegte in hierdie klas word die randbeheerinstrumente as net so belangrik as die beheerder beskou. Hierdie verhandeling beskryf die implementering van randbeheerinstrumente vir ’n maalkring wat onbehandelde erts maal, om die verswakte beheerverrigting teen te werk wat veroorsaak word deur bogenoemde probleme. Die impak van sterk eksterne steurings word teengewerk deur die implementering van ’n steuringsafskatter. ’n Breuk-orde-steuringsafskatter is ook geïmplementeer en ’n nuwe Bode ideale afsnysteuringsafskatter word voorgestel. Die kwessie van onakkurate aanlegmodelle word hanteer deur van die aanlegdata af vas te stel of daar ’n verskil is tussen die aanleg en die beskikbare model van die aanleg. ’n Uitdrukking word gegee vir hierdie verskil vir die geval waar die beheerder met ’n oordragsfunksie voorgestel kan word. Indien die beheerder nie ’n oordragsfunksie het nie, word van ‘n parsiële korrelasie-analise gebruik gemaak om die element, of elemente, in die aanleg se oordragsfunksiematriks te identifiseer wat van die werklike aanleg verskil. Die toestande en belangrike parameters in die meul word beraam deur van partikel-filters gebruikte maak. Gelyktydige toestand- en parameter-beraming word vergelyk met ’n nuwe dubbel-partikelfilter skema. ’n Sensitiwiteitsanalise wys die klas van stelsels waarvoor dubbel-afskatting meer akkurate waardes sal gee as gelyktydige afskatting. Die voorgestelde randbeheerinstrumente is toepaslik vir huidige maalkringe waar PID-beheer algemeen is, asook vir gevorderde beheerstrategieë, soos model-voorspellende beheer, wat na verwagting in die toekoms meer algemeen sal word. Copyright / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

From the Proceedings of the 1974 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 19-20, 1974, Flagstaff, Arizona / Population pressures on the land resources of Arizona have led to the sale and development of areas subject to flooding and because of the inadequacy of land use controls, the area is open to various land speculation schemes and unplanned subdivision growth. A floodplain delineation project was conducted for the planning department of Cochise County, Arizona, in which imagery acquired by earth resources technology satellite (ERT-1) and by high-altitude aircraft was employed. Parameters of the analysis included soils and geomorphology, vegetation, hydrologic calculations, and historical data. Floodplain soils lack developed b horizons, as compared to older, more mature soils not subject to flooding. General soil maps can only be used as guidelines, but a detailed soil survey can add significantly to the accuracy of image interpretations. Erosion-affected soil tones in areas adjacent to active channels proved beneficial in that the heightened contrast served to enhance resolution of vegetation-type boundaries. Hydrologic calculations were done based on valley cross-sections surveyed at two-to-three mile intervals. The historic data input into the system of floodplain delineation is dependent on the location of high-water marks and on obtaining a record of the amount of rainfall which resulted in the high-water mark.