Societal Drivers of European Water Governance: A Comparison of Urban River Restoration Practices in France and Germany

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Aude Zingraff-Hamed

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The European water governance took a decisive turn with the formulation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD, which demands the restoration of all water bodies that did not achieve sufficient ecological status. Urban rivers are particularly impaired by human activities and their restorations are motivated by multiple ecological and societal drivers, such as requirements of laws and legislation, and citizen needs for a better quality of life. In this study we investigated the relative influence of socio-political and socio-cultural drivers on urban river restorations by comparing projects of different policy contexts and cultural norms to cross-fertilize knowledge. A database of 75 projects in French and German major cities was compiled to apply (a a comparative statistical analysis of main project features, i.e., motivation, goals, measures, morphological status, and project date; and (b a qualitative textual analysis on project descriptions and titles. The results showed that despite a powerful European directive, urban river restoration projects still keep national specificities. The WFD drives with more intensity German, rather than French, urban river restoration. This study showed the limits of macro-level governance and the influence of microlevel governance driven by societal aspects such as nature perception and relationships between humans and rivers.

Toxicity assessment of sediments from three European river basins using a sediment contact test battery

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tuikka, A.I.; Schmitt, C.; Hoess, S.; Bandow, N; von der Ohe, P.; de Zwart, D.; de Deckere, E.; Streck, G.; Mothes, S.; van Hattum, A.G.M.; Kocan, A.; Brix, R.; Brack, W.; Barcelo, D.; Sormunen, A.; Kukkonen, J.V.K.

2011-01-01

The toxicity of four polluted sediments and their corresponding reference sediments from three European river basins were investigated using a battery of six sediment contact tests representing three different trophic levels. The tests included were chronic tests with the oligochaete Lumbriculus

A method for developing a large-scale sediment yield index for European river basins

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Delmas, Magalie; Cerdan, Olivier; Garcin, Manuel [BRGM ARN/ESL, Orleans (France); Mouchel, Jean-Marie [UMR Sisyphe, Univ. P and M Curie, Paris (France)

2009-12-15

Background, aim, and scope: Sediment fluxes within continental areas play a major role in biogeochemical cycles and are often the cause of soil surface degradation as well as water and ecosystem pollution. In a situation where a high proportion of the land surface is experiencing significant global land use and climate changes, it appears important to establish sediment budgets considering the major processes forcing sediment redistribution within drainage areas. In this context, the aim of this study is to test a methodology to estimate a sediment yield index at a large spatial resolution for European river basins. Data and methods: Four indicators representing processes respectively considered as sources (mass movement and hillslope erosion), sinks (deposits), and transfers of sediments (drainage density) are defined using distributed data. Using these indicators we propose a basic conceptual approach to test the possibility of explaining sediment yield observed at the outlet of 29 selected European river basins. We propose an index which adds the two sources and transfers, and subsequently subtracts the sink term. This index is then compared to observed sediment yield data. Results: With this approach, variability between river basins is observed and the evolution of each indicator analyzed. A linear regression shows a correlation coefficient of 0.83 linking observed specific sediment yield (SSY) with the SSY index. Discussion: To improve this approach at this large river basin scale, basin classification is further refined using the relation between the observed SSY and the index obtained from the four indicators. It allows a refinement of the results. Conclusions: This study presents a conceptual approach offering the advantages of using spatially distributed data combined with major sediment redistribution processes to estimate the sediment yield observed at the outlet of river basins. Recommendations and perspectives: Inclusion of better information on

Modeling the evolution of riparian woodlands facing climate change in three European rivers with contrasting flow regimes.

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Rui P Rivaes

Full Text Available Global circulation models forecasts indicate a future temperature and rainfall pattern modification worldwide. Such phenomena will become particularly evident in Europe where climate modifications could be more severe than the average change at the global level. As such, river flow regimes are expected to change, with resultant impacts on aquatic and riparian ecosystems. Riparian woodlands are among the most endangered ecosystems on earth and provide vital services to interconnected ecosystems and human societies. However, they have not been the object of many studies designed to spatially and temporally quantify how these ecosystems will react to climate change-induced flow regimes. Our goal was to assess the effects of climate-changed flow regimes on the existing riparian vegetation of three different European flow regimes. Cases studies were selected in the light of the most common watershed alimentation modes occurring across European regions, with the objective of appraising expected alterations in the riparian elements of fluvial systems due to climate change. Riparian vegetation modeling was performed using the CASiMiR-vegetation model, which bases its computation on the fluvial disturbance of the riparian patch mosaic. Modeling results show that riparian woodlands may undergo not only at least moderate changes for all flow regimes, but also some dramatic adjustments in specific areas of particular vegetation development stages. There are circumstances in which complete annihilation is feasible. Pluvial flow regimes, like the ones in southern European rivers, are those likely to experience more pronounced changes. Furthermore, regardless of the flow regime, younger and more water-dependent individuals are expected to be the most affected by climate change.

Application of two quality indices as monitoring and management tools of rivers. Case study: the Imera Meridionale River, Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bonanno, Giuseppe; Lo Giudice, Rosa

2010-04-01

On the basis of the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60), the water resources of the member states of the European Community should reach good quality standards by 2015. Although such regulations illustrate the basic points for a comprehensive and effective policy of water monitoring and management, no practical tools are provided to face and solve the issues concerning freshwater ecosystems such as rivers. The Italian government has developed a set of regulations as adoption of the European Directive but failed to indicate feasible procedures for river monitoring and management. On a local scale, Sicilian authorities have implemented monitoring networks of watersheds, aiming at describing the general conditions of rivers. However, such monitoring programs have provided a relatively fragmentary picture of the ecological conditions of the rivers. In this study, the integrated use of environmental quality indices is proposed as a methodology able to provide a practical approach to river monitoring and management. As a case study, the Imera Meridionale River, Sicily's largest river, was chosen. The water quality index developed by the U.S. National Sanitation Foundation and the floristic quality index based on the Wilhelm method were applied. The former enabled us to describe the water quality according to a spatial-temporal gradient, whereas the latter focused on the ecological quality of riparian vegetation. This study proposes a holistic view of river ecosystems by considering biotic and abiotic factors in agreement with the current European regulations. How the combined use of such indices can guide sustainable management efforts is also discussed.

Application of Two Quality Indices as Monitoring and Management Tools of Rivers. Case Study: The Imera Meridionale River, Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Bonanno, Giuseppe; Giudice, Rosa Lo

2010-04-01

On the basis of the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60), the water resources of the member states of the European Community should reach good quality standards by 2015. Although such regulations illustrate the basic points for a comprehensive and effective policy of water monitoring and management, no practical tools are provided to face and solve the issues concerning freshwater ecosystems such as rivers. The Italian government has developed a set of regulations as adoption of the European Directive but failed to indicate feasible procedures for river monitoring and management. On a local scale, Sicilian authorities have implemented monitoring networks of watersheds, aiming at describing the general conditions of rivers. However, such monitoring programs have provided a relatively fragmentary picture of the ecological conditions of the rivers. In this study, the integrated use of environmental quality indices is proposed as a methodology able to provide a practical approach to river monitoring and management. As a case study, the Imera Meridionale River, Sicily’s largest river, was chosen. The water quality index developed by the U.S. National Sanitation Foundation and the floristic quality index based on the Wilhelm method were applied. The former enabled us to describe the water quality according to a spatial-temporal gradient, whereas the latter focused on the ecological quality of riparian vegetation. This study proposes a holistic view of river ecosystems by considering biotic and abiotic factors in agreement with the current European regulations. How the combined use of such indices can guide sustainable management efforts is also discussed.

Environmental costs of a river watershed within the European water framework directive: Results from physical hydronomics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martinez, A.; Uche, J.; Valero, A.; Valero-Delgado, A.

2010-01-01

Physical hydronomics (PH) is the specific application of thermodynamics that physically characterizes the governance of water bodies, i.e., the Water Framework Directive (WFD) for European Union citizens. In this paper, calculation procedures for the exergy analysis of river basins are developed within the WFD guidelines and a case study is developed. Therefore, it serves as an example for the feasible application of PH in the environmental cost assessment of water bodies, accordingly to the principle of recovery of the costs related to water services in accordance with the polluter pays principle, one of the milestones of the WFD. The Foix River watershed, a small river located at the Inland Basins of Catalonia (IBC), has been analyzed. Main results, difficulties, and constraints encountered are shown in the paper. Following WFD's quantity and quality objectives previously defined, water costs are calculated and the equivalence between the exergy loss due to water users and the exergy variation along the river are also analyzed.

Application of hydrometeorological coupled European flood forecasting operational real time system in Yellow River Basin

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Yi-qi Yan

2009-12-01

Full Text Available This study evaluated the application of the European flood forecasting operational real time system (EFFORTS to the Yellow River. An automatic data pre-processing program was developed to provide real-time hydrometeorological data. Various GIS layers were collected and developed to meet the demands of the distributed hydrological model in the EFFORTS. The model parameters were calibrated and validated based on more than ten years of historical hydrometeorological data from the study area. The San-Hua Basin (from the Sanmenxia Reservoir to the Huayuankou Hydrological Station, the most geographically important area of the Yellow River, was chosen as the study area. The analysis indicates that the EFFORTS enhances the work efficiency, extends the flood forecasting lead time, and attains an acceptable level of forecasting accuracy in the San-Hua Basin, with a mean deterministic coefficient at Huayuankou Station, the basin outlet, of 0.90 in calibration and 0.96 in validation. The analysis also shows that the simulation accuracy is better for the southern part than for the northern part of the San-Hua Basin. This implies that, along with the characteristics of the basin and the mechanisms of runoff generation of the hydrological model, the hydrometeorological data play an important role in simulation of hydrological behavior.

Model based estimation of sediment erosion in groyne fields along the River Elbe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prohaska, Sandra; Jancke, Thomas; Westrich, Bernhard

2008-01-01

River water quality is still a vital environmental issue, even though ongoing emissions of contaminants are being reduced in several European rivers. The mobility of historically contaminated deposits is key issue in sediment management strategy and remediation planning. Resuspension of contaminated sediments impacts the water quality and thus, it is important for river engineering and ecological rehabilitation. The erodibility of the sediments and associated contaminants is difficult to predict due to complex time depended physical, chemical, and biological processes, as well as due to the lack of information. Therefore, in engineering practice the values for erosion parameters are usually assumed to be constant despite their high spatial and temporal variability, which leads to a large uncertainty of the erosion parameters. The goal of presented study is to compare the deterministic approach assuming constant critical erosion shear stress and an innovative approach which takes the critical erosion shear stress as a random variable. Furthermore, quantification of the effective value of the critical erosion shear stress, its applicability in numerical models, and erosion probability will be estimated. The results presented here are based on field measurements and numerical modelling of the River Elbe groyne fields.

MACROZOOBENTHOS OF MOUNTAIN RIVERS OF THE TRANSCARPATHIAN REGION AS A FORAGE BASE OF BENTHOPHAGOUS FISHES AND SAPROBITY INDICATOR

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S. Kruzhylina

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose. To study qualitative and qualitative indices of macrozoobenthos as one of main components of the forage base of benthophagous fishes in mountain river reaches of the Transcarpathian region and determination of their saprobity level. Methodology. Thhj,9.e study was carried out in summer period of 2009 in mountain river reaches of the Tisa river catchment. Zoobenthos samples were collected by a Surber sampler (25 × 25 cm on the bottoms of different fractions with different water flow rate (riffle, run, pool. Collection, processing and interpretation of the obtained data was carried out according to generally accepted hydrobiological methods developed for mountain river studies. Saprobity was of the studied rivers was calculated by Pantle-Buck formula. The Zelinka-Marvan saprobity index was used for calculations. Findings. Qualitative and quantitative macrozoobenthos indices have been studied. The number of zoobenthos on the investigated river sections ranged from 416 to 7712 ind./m2 with biomasses from 2.96 to 83.84 g/m2. The major portion of the zoobenthic biomass in the majority of rivers was due to caddis fly larvae composing up to 93% of the total biomass. An important role in the total biomass of the zoobenthos also belonged to mayfly (up to 53% and stonefly (up to 55% larvae and in lower degree amphipods (up to 39%, chironomid larvae (up to 14% and aquatic coleopterans (up to 5%. According to the calculated potential fish productivity, the mountain rivers can be apparently separated into three groups: little productive (4.2–12.7 kg/ha, medium productive (13.2–21.6 kg/ha and high productive (25.3–85.3 kg/ha. Mountain river reaches of the Transcarpathian region were found to belong to pure χ-saprobic, and о- і β-mesosaprobic zones, the saprobity index in which ranged from 0.35 (Rika river to 1.7 (Shipot river. Originality. For further calculation and assessment of brown trout (Salmo trutta and European grayling (Thymallus

SEA of river basin management plans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Sanne Vammen; Kørnøv, Lone

2009-01-01

In, 2000 the European Parliament and the European Council passed the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to be implemented in all Member States. The consequence of the directive is that river basin management plans (RBMPs) shall be prepared which are legally subject to a strategic environmental...... assessment (SEA). An important environmental factor for the water sector is climate change, especially the changes it causes to the water environment. However, based on an argument of an inadequate knowledge base regarding climate change impacts, the prospect of Danish authorities including climate change...

Modeling the location of the forest line in northeast European Russia with remotely sensed vegetation and GIS-based climate and terrain data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Virtanen, Tarmo; Mikkola, Kari; Nikula, Ari

2004-01-01

GIS-based data sets were used to analyze the structure of the forest line at the landscape level in the lowlands of the Usa River Basin, in northeast European Russia. Vegetation zones in the area range from taiga in the south to forest-tundra and tundra in the north. We constructed logistic...

Dissemination of satellite-based river discharge and flood data

Science.gov (United States)

Kettner, A. J.; Brakenridge, G. R.; van Praag, E.; de Groeve, T.; Slayback, D. A.; Cohen, S.

2014-12-01

In collaboration with NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center and the European Commission Joint Research Centre, the Dartmouth Flood Observatory (DFO) daily measures and distributes: 1) river discharges, and 2) near real-time flood extents with a global coverage. Satellite-based passive microwave sensors and hydrological modeling are utilized to establish 'remote-sensing based discharge stations', and observed time series cover 1998 to the present. The advantages over in-situ gauged discharges are: a) easy access to remote or due to political reasons isolated locations, b) relatively low maintenance costs to maintain a continuous observational record, and c) the capability to obtain measurements during floods, hazardous conditions that often impair or destroy in-situ stations. Two MODIS instruments aboard the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites provide global flood extent coverage at a spatial resolution of 250m. Cloud cover hampers flood extent detection; therefore we ingest 6 images (the Terra and Aqua images of each day, for three days), in combination with a cloud shadow filter, to provide daily global flood extent updates. The Flood Observatory has always made it a high priority to visualize and share its data and products through its website. Recent collaborative efforts with e.g. GeoSUR have enhanced accessibility of DFO data. A web map service has been implemented to automatically disseminate geo-referenced flood extent products into client-side GIS software. For example, for Latin America and the Caribbean region, the GeoSUR portal now displays current flood extent maps, which can be integrated and visualized with other relevant geographical data. Furthermore, the flood state of satellite-observed river discharge sites are displayed through the portal as well. Additional efforts include implementing Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to incorporate Water Markup Language (WaterML) data exchange mechanisms to further facilitate the distribution of the satellite

Transboundary river basin management in Europe
Legal instruments to comply with European water management obligations in case of transboundary water pollution and floods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea M. Keessen

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Although modern European water policy follows a river basin approach where Member States have to cooperate in order to achieve a ‘good status’ of their water bodies, the obligations arising from the European water directives are to be achieved by each Member State individually. This situation creates problems when water pollution and water quantity problems cross borders. It is still unclear whether Member States can be held responsible for not achieving objectives due to causes (partly originating abroad. This article describes some of the legal instruments that water authorities have at their disposal to comply with the European water management obligations in case of transboundary water pollution and floods and thus shape transboundary river management. The article describes instruments to create, implement and enforce transboundary cooperation, and addresses the possibility of transboundary compensation if cooperation fails. Here, the focus is on a civil lawsuit before a domestic court.

River-Based Experiential Learning: the Bear River Fellows Program

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenberg, D. E.; Shirley, B.; Roark, M. F.

2012-12-01

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Outdoor Recreation, and Parks and Recreation programs at Utah State University (USU) have partnered to offer a new, unique river-based experiential learning opportunity for undergraduates called the Bear River Fellows Program. The program allows incoming freshmen Fellows to experience a river first hand during a 5-day/4-night river trip on the nearby Bear River two weeks before the start of their first Fall semester. As part of the program, Fellows will navigate the Bear River in canoes, camp along the banks, interact with local water and environmental managers, collect channel cross section, stream flow, vegetation cover, and topological complexity data, meet other incoming freshmen, interact with faculty and graduate students, develop boating and leadership skills, problem solve, and participate as full members of the trip team. Subsequently, Fellows will get paid as undergraduate researchers during their Fall and Spring Freshman semesters to analyze, synthesize, and present the field data they collect. The program is a collaborative effort between two USU academic units and the (non-academic) division of Student Services and supports a larger National Science Foundation funded environmental modelling and management project for the lower Bear River, Utah watershed. We have advertised the program via Facebook and emails to incoming USU freshmen, received 35 applications (60% women), and accepted 5 Fellows into the program (3 female and 2 male). The river trip departs August 14, 2012. The poster will overview the Bear River Fellows Program and present qualitative and preliminary outcomes emerging from the trip and Fellows' work through the Fall semester with the field data they collect. We will also undertake more rigorous and longer longitudinal quantitative evaluation of Program outcomes (for example, in problem-solving and leadership) both in Spring 2013 and in subsequent 2013 and 2014 offerings of the

Integrated river basin management of Južna Morava River

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Borisavljević Ana

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In the last decade in particular, Serbia encountered the problems of drinking water supply, which influenced the perception of professional public about the water crisis but also started more intensive work on water resource perseverance as well as the implementation of European Water Directive. One of the main demands of the Directive focuses on integrated river basin management (IRBM, which is a complex and a large task. The need to collect data on water quality and quantity, specific and key issues of water management in Južna Morava river basin, pressures on river ecosystem, flood risks and erosion problems, cross-border issues, socioeconomic processes, agricultural development as well as protected areas, and also to give the measures for solving problems and pressures recognized in the basin, is undisputable. This paper focuses on detailed analysis of specific pressures on river ecosystem and composition of recommendations for integrated management of Južna Morava river basin as cross-border river basin, taking into the account European experiences in IRBM. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 43007: Istraživanje klimatskih promena na životnu sredinu - praćenje uticaja, adaptacija i ublažavanje, podprojekat br. 9: Učestalost bujičnih poplava, degradacija zemljišta i voda kao posledica globalnih promena

Participation in European water policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.A. van Ast (Jacko); S.P. Boot (Sander Paul)

2003-01-01

textabstractThis paper considers the possibilities for interactive policy-making in European water management. In the new European Water Framework Directive, public information and consultation are major elements in the procedure (process) that leads to River Basin Management Plans. In general,

Disentangling multiple pressures on fish assemblages in large rivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Zajicek, Petr; Radinger, Johannes; Wolter, Christian

2018-06-15

European large rivers are exposed to multiple human pressures and maintained as waterways for inland navigation. However, little is known on the dominance and interactions of multiple pressures in large rivers and in particular inland navigation has been ignored in multi-pressure analyzes so far. We determined the response of ten fish population metrics (FPM, related to densities of diagnostic guilds and biodiversity) to 11 prevailing pressures including navigation intensity at 76 sites in eight European large rivers. Thereby, we aimed to derive indicative FPM for the most influential pressures that can serve for fish-based assessments. Pressures' influences, impacts and interactions were determined for each FPM using bootstrapped regression tree models. Increased flow velocity, navigation intensity and the loss of floodplains had the highest influences on guild densities and biodiversity. Interactions between navigation intensity and loss of floodplains and between navigation intensity and increased flow velocity were most frequent, each affecting 80% of the FPM. Further, increased sedimentation, channelization, organic siltation, the presence of artificial embankments and the presence of barriers had strong influences on at least one FPM. Thereby, each FPM was influenced by up to five pressures. However, some diagnostic FPM could be derived: Species richness, Shannon and Simpson Indices, the Fish Region Index and lithophilic and psammophilic guilds specifically indicate rhithralisation of the potamal region of large rivers. Lithophilic, phytophilic and psammophilic guilds indicate disturbance of shoreline habitats through both (i) wave action induced by passing vessels and (ii) hydromorphological degradation of the river channel that comes along with inland navigation. In European large rivers, inland navigation constitutes a highly influential pressure that adds on top of the prevailing hydromorphological degradation. Therefore, river management has to consider

Impact of precipitation and land biophysical variables on the simulated discharge of European and Mediterranean rivers

Science.gov (United States)

Szczypta, C.; Decharme, B.; Carrer, D.; Calvet, J.-C.; Lafont, S.; Somot, S.; Faroux, S.; Martin, E.

2012-09-01

This study investigates the impact on river discharge simulations of errors in the precipitation forcing, together with changes in the representation of vegetation variables and of plant transpiration. The most recent European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis (ERA-Interim) is used to drive the Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere-Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (ISBA-TRIP) continental hydrological system over Europe and the Mediterranean basin over the 1991-2008 period. As ERA-Interim tends to underestimate precipitation, a number of precipitation corrections are proposed. In particular, the monthly Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) precipitation product is used to bias-correct the 3-hourly ERA-Interim estimates. This correction markedly improves the match between the ISBA-TRIP simulations and the river discharge observations from the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC), at 150 gauging stations. The impact on TRIP river discharge simulations of various representations of the evapotranspiration in the ISBA land surface model is investigated as well: ISBA is used together with its upgraded carbon flux version (ISBA-A-gs). The latter is either driven by the satellite-derived climatology of the Leaf Area Index (LAI) used by ISBA, or performs prognostic LAI simulations. The ISBA-A-gs model, with or without dynamically simulated LAI, allows a better representation of river discharge at low water levels. On the other hand, ISBA-A-gs does not perform as well as the original ISBA model at springtime.

Assessing the Ecological Integrity of a Major Transboundary Mediterranean River Based on Environmental Habitat Variables and Benthic Macroinvertebrates (Aoos-Vjose River, Greece-Albania)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chatzinikolaou, Y.; Dakos, V.; Lazaridou-Dimitriadou, M.

2008-01-01

Ecological integrity has become a primary objective in monitoring programs of surface waters according to the European Water Framework Directive. For this reason we propose a scheme for assessing the ecological integrity of a major transboundary river, the Aoos-Vjose (Greece-Albania), by analysing

Impact of untreated wastewater on a major European river evaluated with a combination of in vitro bioassays and chemical analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

König, Maria; Escher, Beate I; Neale, Peta A; Krauss, Martin; Hilscherová, Klára; Novák, Jiří; Teodorović, Ivana; Schulze, Tobias; Seidensticker, Sven; Kamal Hashmi, Muhammad Arslan; Ahlheim, Jörg; Brack, Werner

2017-01-01

Complex mixtures of micropollutants, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals emitted by wastewater effluents to European rivers may compromise the quality of these water resources and may pose a risk to ecosystem health and abstraction of drinking water. In the present study, an integrated analytical and bioanalytical approach was applied to investigate the impact of untreated wastewater effluents from the city of Novi Sad, Serbia, into the River Danube. The study was based on three on-site large volume solid phase extracted water samples collected upstream and downstream of the untreated wastewater discharge. Chemical screening with liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) was applied together with a battery of in vitro cell-based bioassays covering important steps of the cellular toxicity pathway to evaluate effects on the activation of metabolism (arylhydrocarbon receptor AhR, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma PPARγ), specific modes of action (estrogen receptor ERα, androgen receptor AR) and adaptive stress responses (oxidative stress, inflammation). Increased effects, significantly changed contamination patterns and higher chemical concentrations were observed downstream of the wastewater discharge. A mass balance approach showed that enhanced endocrine disruption was in good agreement with concentrations of detected hormones, while only a smaller fraction of the effects on xenobiotic metabolism (<1%) and adaptive stress responses (0-12%) could be explained by the detected chemicals. The chemical and effects patterns observed upstream of the discharge point were fairly re-established at about 7 km downstream, demonstrating the enormous dilution capacity of this large river. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Towards a Transferable UAV-Based Framework for River Hydromorphological Characterization.

Science.gov (United States)

Rivas Casado, Mónica; González, Rocío Ballesteros; Ortega, José Fernando; Leinster, Paul; Wright, Ros

2017-09-26

The multiple protocols that have been developed to characterize river hydromorphology, partly in response to legislative drivers such as the European Union Water Framework Directive (EU WFD), make the comparison of results obtained in different countries challenging. Recent studies have analyzed the comparability of existing methods, with remote sensing based approaches being proposed as a potential means of harmonizing hydromorphological characterization protocols. However, the resolution achieved by remote sensing products may not be sufficient to assess some of the key hydromorphological features that are required to allow an accurate characterization. Methodologies based on high resolution aerial photography taken from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been proposed by several authors as potential approaches to overcome these limitations. Here, we explore the applicability of an existing UAV based framework for hydromorphological characterization to three different fluvial settings representing some of the distinct ecoregions defined by the WFD geographical intercalibration groups (GIGs). The framework is based on the automated recognition of hydromorphological features via tested and validated Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Results show that the framework is transferable to the Central-Baltic and Mediterranean GIGs with accuracies in feature identification above 70%. Accuracies of 50% are achieved when the framework is implemented in the Very Large Rivers GIG. The framework successfully identified vegetation, deep water, shallow water, riffles, side bars and shadows for the majority of the reaches. However, further algorithm development is required to ensure a wider range of features (e.g., chutes, structures and erosion) are accurately identified. This study also highlights the need to develop an objective and fit for purpose hydromorphological characterization framework to be adopted within all EU member states to facilitate comparison of results.

Flood Risk Research and Warning Tools at the European Scale

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roo, A.P.J. de; Thielen, J.; Feyen, L.; Burek, P.; Salamon, P.

2012-01-01

The floods in the rivers Meuse and Rhine in 1993 and 1995 made the European Commission realize that also at Commission level further research on floods – especially in transboundary river catchments - was necessary. This led to the start of a dedicated research project on floods at the European

Swift delineation of flood-prone areas over large European regions

Science.gov (United States)

Tavares da Costa, Ricardo; Castellarin, Attilio; Manfreda, Salvatore; Samela, Caterina; Domeneghetti, Alessio; Mazzoli, Paolo; Luzzi, Valerio; Bagli, Stefano

2017-04-01

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA Report No 1/2016), a significant share of the European population is estimated to be living on or near a floodplain, with Italy having the highest population density in flood-prone areas among the countries analysed. This tendency, tied with event frequency and magnitude (e.g.: the 24/11/2016 floods in Italy) and the fact that river floods may occur at large scales and at a transboundary level, where data is often sparse, presents a challenge in flood-risk management. The availability of consistent flood hazard and risk maps during prevention, preparedness, response and recovery phases are a valuable and important step forward in improving the effectiveness, efficiency and robustness of evidence-based decision making. The present work aims at testing and discussing the usefulness of pattern recognition techniques based on geomorphologic indices (Manfreda et al., J. Hydrol. Eng., 2011, Degiorgis et al., J Hydrol., 2012, Samela et al., J. Hydrol. Eng., 2015) for the simplified mapping of river flood-prone areas at large scales. The techniques are applied to 25m Digital Elevation Models (DEM) of the Danube, Po and Severn river watersheds, obtained from the Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union - EU-DEM layers. Results are compared to the Pan-European flood hazard maps derived by Alfieri et al. (Hydrol. Proc., 2013) using a set of distributed hydrological (LISFLOOD, van der Knijff et al., Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci., 2010, employed within the European Flood Awareness System, www.efas.eu) and hydraulic models (LISFLOOD-FP, Bates and De Roo, J. Hydrol., 2000). Our study presents different calibration and cross-validation exercises of the DEM-based mapping algorithms to assess to which extent, and with which accuracy, they can be reproduced over different regions of Europe. This work is being developed under the System-Risk project (www.system-risk.eu) that received funding from the European Union

A typology of Pleistocene cold-based rivers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vandenberghe, J.

2001-01-01

A classification of periglacial rivers is proposed. It is based on the generally valid laws relating the ratio of stream power to bed load with fluvial processes and morphology. However, river patterns may be modified by the special characteristics of the periglacial environment. Snowmelt,

Knowledge based economy in European Union

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ecaterina Stănculescu

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Nowadays we assist at a fundamental change from the economy based mainly on resources to the one based mostly on knowledge. The concept has been launched in the last decade of the past century. The knowledge became a production agent and a value creation instrument for whatever country and of course for an entire community like European Union which is constantly concerned by its development and competitiveness. This paper presents the principal characteristics of the present EU preoccupations with the expansion of a knowledge based economy through the 2020 European Development Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive economy, and especially for the Framework Programs (Framework Programme 7 and Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.

Decision support system based on DPSIR framework for a low flow Mediterranean river basin

Science.gov (United States)

Bangash, Rubab Fatima; Kumar, Vikas; Schuhmacher, Marta

2013-04-01

The application of decision making practices are effectively enhanced by adopting a procedural approach setting out a general methodological framework within which specific methods, models and tools can be integrated. Integrated Catchment Management is a process that recognizes the river catchment as a basic organizing unit for understanding and managing ecosystem process. Decision support system becomes more complex by considering unavoidable human activities within a catchment that are motivated by multiple and often competing criteria and/or constraints. DPSIR is a causal framework for describing the interactions between society and the environment. This framework has been adopted by the European Environment Agency and the components of this model are: Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses. The proposed decision support system is a two step framework based on DPSIR. Considering first three component of DPSIR, Driving forces, Pressures and States, hydrological and ecosystem services models are developed. The last two components, Impact and Responses, helped to develop Bayesian Network to integrate the models. This decision support system also takes account of social, economic and environmental aspects. A small river of Catalonia (Northeastern Spain), Francoli River with a low flow (~2 m3/s) is selected for integration of catchment assessment models and to improve knowledge transfer from research to the stakeholders with a view to improve decision making process. DHI's MIKE BASIN software is used to evaluate the low-flow Francolí River with respect to the water bodies' characteristics and also to assess the impact of human activities aiming to achieve good water status for all waters to comply with the WFD's River Basin Management Plan. Based on ArcGIS, MIKE BASIN is a versatile decision support tool that provides a simple and powerful framework for managers and stakeholders to address multisectoral allocation and environmental issues in river

European River Cruises On the Rise Among American Tourists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melinda Jászberényi, Ph.D.

2014-10-01

Full Text Available River cruising is one of the most attractive and rapidly developing areas of international tourism. Beyond the beautiful natural environment of the rivers, architectural attractions along the riverside enrich the experience, providing historical and cultural background that deepens tourists’ connections to the city. This article provides an overview of Danube river cruise tourism among American tourist experts. It also showcases Budapest, an increasingly important and internationally recognized port of the Danube and capital of Hungary, as a popular tourist destination.

River bathymetry estimation based on the floodplains topography.

Science.gov (United States)

Bureš, Luděk; Máca, Petr; Roub, Radek; Pech, Pavel; Hejduk, Tomáš; Novák, Pavel

2017-04-01

Topographic model including River bathymetry (bed topography) is required for hydrodynamic simulation, water quality modelling, flood inundation mapping, sediment transport, ecological and geomorphologic assessments. The most common way to create the river bathymetry is to use of the spatial interpolation of discrete points or cross sections data. The quality of the generated bathymetry is dependent on the quality of the measurements, on the used technology and on the size of input dataset. Extensive measurements are often time consuming and expensive. Other option for creating of the river bathymetry is to use the methods of mathematical modelling. In the presented contribution we created the river bathymetry model. Model is based on the analytical curves. The curves are bent into shape of the cross sections. For the best description of the river bathymetry we need to know the values of the model parameters. For finding these parameters we use of the global optimization methods. The global optimization schemes is based on heuristics inspired by the natural processes. We use new type of DE (differential evolution) for finding the solutions of inverse problems, related to the parameters of mathematical model of river bed surfaces. The presented analysis discuss the dependence of model parameters on the selected characteristics. Selected characteristics are: (1) Topographic characteristics (slope and curvature in the left and right floodplains) determined on the base of DTM 5G (digital terrain model). (2) Optimization scheme. (3) Type of used analytical curves. The novel approach is applied on the three parts of Vltava river in Czech Republic. Each part of the river is described on the base of the point field. The point fields was measured with ADCP probe River surveyor M9. This work was supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, programme Alpha (project TA04020042 - New technologies bathymetry of rivers and reservoirs to determine their storage

A new risk assessment approach for the prioritization of 500 classical and emerging organic microcontaminants as potential river basin specific pollutants under the European Water Framework Directive.

Science.gov (United States)

von der Ohe, Peter Carsten; Dulio, Valeria; Slobodnik, Jaroslav; De Deckere, Eric; Kühne, Ralph; Ebert, Ralf-Uwe; Ginebreda, Antoni; De Cooman, Ward; Schüürmann, Gerrit; Brack, Werner

2011-05-01

Given the huge number of chemicals released into the environment and existing time and budget constraints, there is a need to prioritize chemicals for risk assessment and monitoring in the context of the European Union Water Framework Directive (EU WFD). This study is the first to assess the risk of 500 organic substances based on observations in the four European river basins of the Elbe, Scheldt, Danube and Llobregat. A decision tree is introduced that first classifies chemicals into six categories depending on the information available, which allows water managers to focus on the next steps (e.g. derivation of Environmental Quality Standards (EQS), improvement of analytical methods, etc.). The priority within each category is then evaluated based on two indicators, the Frequency of Exceedance and the Extent of Exceedance of Predicted No-Effect Concentrations (PNECs). These two indictors are based on maximum environmental concentrations (MEC), rather than the commonly used statistically based averages (Predicted Effect Concentration, PEC), and compared to the lowest acute-based (PNEC(acute)) or chronic-based thresholds (PNEC(chronic)). For 56% of the compounds, PNECs were available from existing risk assessments, and the majority of these PNECs were derived from chronic toxicity data or simulated ecosystem studies (mesocosm) with rather low assessment factors. The limitations of this concept for risk assessment purposes are discussed. For the remainder, provisional PNECs (P-PNECs) were established from read-across models for acute toxicity to the standard test organisms Daphnia magna, Pimephales promelas and Selenastrum capricornutum. On the one hand, the prioritization revealed that about three-quarter of the 44 substances with MEC/PNEC ratios above ten were pesticides. On the other hand, based on the monitoring data used in this study, no risk with regard to the water phase could be found for eight of the 41 priority substances, indicating a first success of

Combining integrated river modelling and agent based social simulation for river management; The case study of the Grensmaas project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Valkering, P.; Krywkow, Jorg; Rotmans, J.; van der Veen, A.; Douben, N.; van Os, A.G.

2003-01-01

In this paper we present a coupled Integrated River Model – Agent Based Social Simulation model (IRM-ABSS) for river management. The models represent the case of the ongoing river engineering project “Grensmaas”. In the ABSS model stakeholders are represented as computer agents negotiating a river

Modelling the recruitment of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) throughout its European range

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bornarel, Virginie; Lambert, Patrick; Briand, Cédric

2018-01-01

phase remains difficult given its widespread distribution among heterogeneous and separate river catchments. Hence, it is currently considered by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) more feasible to use glass eel recruitment data to assess the status of the overall population......European eel (Anguilla anguilla) recruitment has been declining at least since the early 1980s at the scale of its distribution area. Since the population is panmictic, its stock assessment should be carried out on a range-wide basis. However, assessing the overall stock during the continental....... In this study, we used Glass Eel Recruitment Estimation Model (GEREM) to estimate annual recruitment (i) at the river catchment level, a scale for which data are available, (ii) at an intermediate scale (6 European regions), and (iii) at a larger scale (Europe). This study provides an estimate of the glass eel...

Modeling tools for an Integrated River-Delta-Sea system investigation: the Pan-European Research Infrastructure DANUBIUS-RI philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

Umgiesser, Georg; Bellafiore, Debora; De Pascalis, Francesca; Icke, Joost; Stanica, Adrian

2017-04-01

The DANUBIUS Research Infrastructure (DANUBIUS-RI) is a new initiative to address the challenges and opportunities of research on large river- sea (RS) systems. DANUBIUS-RI is a distributed pan-European RI that will provide a platform for interdisciplinary research. It will deal with RS investigation through facilities and expertise from a large number of European institutions becoming a 'one-stop shop' for knowledge exchange in managing RS systems, ranging from freshwater to marine research. Globally, RS systems are complex and dynamic, with huge environmental, social and economic value. They are poorly understood but under increasing pressure through pollution, hydraulic engineering, water supply, energy, flood control and erosion. RS systems in Europe are among the most impacted globally, after centuries of industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural intensification. Improved understanding is essential to avoid irreversible degradation and for restoration. DANUBIUS-RI will provide, among a number of other facilities concerning observations, analyses, impacts' evaluation, a modeling node that will provide integrated up-to-date tools, at locations of high scientific importance and opportunity, covering the RS systems - from source (upper parts of rivers - mountain lakes) to the transition with coastal seas. Modeling will be one of the major services provided by DANUBIUS-RI, relying on the inputs from the whole RI. RS systems are challenging from a modelling point of view, because of the complex morphology and the wide temporal and spatial range of processes occurring. Scale interaction plays a central role, considering the different hydro-eco-morphological processes on the large (basin) and small (local, coast, rivers, lagoons) scale. Currently, different model applications are made for the different geographical domains, and also for subsets of the processes. For instance there are separate models for rainfall runoff in the catchment, a sewer model for the

Application of The Rainfall-runoff Model Topkapi For The Entire Basin of The Po River As Part of The European Project Effs

Science.gov (United States)

Todini, E.; Bartholmes, J.

The project EFFS (European Flood Forecasting System) aims at developing a flood forecasting system for the major river basins all over Europe. To extend the forecast- ing and thus the warning time in a significant way (up to 10 days) meteorological forecasting data from the ECMWF will be used as input to hydrological models. For this purpose it is fundamental to have a reliable rainfall-runoff model. For the river Po basin we chose the TOPKAPI model (Ciarapica, Todini 1998). TOPKAPI is a physi- cally based rainfall-runoff model that maintains its physical significance passing from hillslope to large basin scale. The aim of the distributed version is to reproduce the spatial variability and to lead to a better understanding of scaling effects on meteo- rological data used as well as of physical phenomena and parameters. By now the TOPKAPI model has been applied successfully to basins of smaller and medium size (up to 8000 km2). The present work also proves that TOPKAPI is a valuable flood forecasting tool for larger basins such as the Po river. An advantage of the TOPKAPI model is its physical basis. It doesn't need a "real" calibration in the common sense of the expression. The calibration work that has to be done is due to the unavoidable averaging and approximation in the input data representing various phenomena. This reduces the calibration work as well as the length of data required. The model was implemented on the Po river at spatial steps of 1km and time steps of 1 hour using available data during the year 1994. After the calibration phase, mesoscale forecasts (from ECMWF) as well as forecasts of LAM models (DWD,DMI) will be used as input to the Po river models and their behaviour will be studied as a function of the prediction quality and of the coarseness of the spatial discretisation.

European wet deposition maps based on measurements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeuwen EP van; Erisman JW; Draaijers GPJ; Potma CJM; Pul WAJ van; LLO

1995-01-01

To date, wet deposition maps on a European scale have been based on long-range transport model results. For most components wet deposition maps based on measurements are only available on national scales. Wet deposition maps of acidifying components and base cations based on measurements are needed

Low reproductive isolation and highly variable levels of gene flow reveal limited progress towards speciation between European river and brook lampreys.

Science.gov (United States)

Rougemont, Q; Gaigher, A; Lasne, E; Côte, J; Coke, M; Besnard, A-L; Launey, S; Evanno, G

2015-12-01

Ecologically based divergent selection is a factor that could drive reproductive isolation even in the presence of gene flow. Population pairs arrayed along a continuum of divergence provide a good opportunity to address this issue. Here, we used a combination of mating trials, experimental crosses and population genetic analyses to investigate the evolution of reproductive isolation between two closely related species of lampreys with distinct life histories. We used microsatellite markers to genotype over 1000 individuals of the migratory parasitic river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) and freshwater-resident nonparasitic brook lamprey (Lampetra planeri) distributed in 10 sympatric and parapatric population pairs in France. Mating trials, parentage analyses and artificial fertilizations demonstrated a low level of reproductive isolation between species even though size-assortative mating may contribute to isolation. Most parapatric population pairs were strongly differentiated due to the joint effects of geographic distance and barriers to migration. In contrast, we found variable levels of gene flow between sympatric populations ranging from panmixia to moderate differentiation, which indicates a gradient of divergence with some population pairs that may correspond to alternative morphs or ecotypes of a single species and others that remain partially isolated. Ecologically based divergent selection may explain these variable levels of divergence among sympatric population pairs, but incomplete genome swamping following secondary contact could have also played a role. Overall, this study illustrates how highly differentiated phenotypes can be maintained despite high levels of gene flow that limit the progress towards speciation. © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Implementation options for DNA-based identification into ecological status assessment under the European Water Framework Directive.

Science.gov (United States)

Hering, Daniel; Borja, Angel; Jones, J Iwan; Pont, Didier; Boets, Pieter; Bouchez, Agnes; Bruce, Kat; Drakare, Stina; Hänfling, Bernd; Kahlert, Maria; Leese, Florian; Meissner, Kristian; Mergen, Patricia; Reyjol, Yorick; Segurado, Pedro; Vogler, Alfried; Kelly, Martyn

2018-07-01

Assessment of ecological status for the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is based on "Biological Quality Elements" (BQEs), namely phytoplankton, benthic flora, benthic invertebrates and fish. Morphological identification of these organisms is a time-consuming and expensive procedure. Here, we assess the options for complementing and, perhaps, replacing morphological identification with procedures using eDNA, metabarcoding or similar approaches. We rate the applicability of DNA-based identification for the individual BQEs and water categories (rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters) against eleven criteria, summarised under the headlines representativeness (for example suitability of current sampling methods for DNA-based identification, errors from DNA-based species detection), sensitivity (for example capability to detect sensitive taxa, unassigned reads), precision of DNA-based identification (knowledge about uncertainty), comparability with conventional approaches (for example sensitivity of metrics to differences in DNA-based identification), cost effectiveness and environmental impact. Overall, suitability of DNA-based identification is particularly high for fish, as eDNA is a well-suited sampling approach which can replace expensive and potentially harmful methods such as gill-netting, trawling or electrofishing. Furthermore, there are attempts to replace absolute by relative abundance in metric calculations. For invertebrates and phytobenthos, the main challenges include the modification of indices and completing barcode libraries. For phytoplankton, the barcode libraries are even more problematic, due to the high taxonomic diversity in plankton samples. If current assessment concepts are kept, DNA-based identification is least appropriate for macrophytes (rivers, lakes) and angiosperms/macroalgae (transitional and coastal waters), which are surveyed rather than sampled. We discuss general implications of implementing DNA-based identification

Designing the RiverCare knowledge base and web-collaborative platform to exchange knowledge in river management

Science.gov (United States)

Cortes Arevalo, Juliette; den Haan, Robert-Jan; van der Voort, Mascha; Hulscher, Suzanne

2016-04-01

Effective communication strategies are necessary between different scientific disciplines, practitioners and non-experts for a shared understanding and better implementation of river management measures. In that context, the RiverCare program aims to get a better understanding of riverine measures that are being implemented towards self-sustaining multifunctional rivers in the Netherlands. During the RiverCare program, user committees are organized between the researchers and practitioners to discuss the aim and value of RiverCare outputs, related assumptions and uncertainties behind scientific results. Beyond the RiverCare program end, knowledge about river interventions, integrated effects, management and self-sustaining applications will be available to experts and non-experts by means of River Care communication tools: A web-collaborative platform and a serious gaming environment. As part of the communication project of RiverCare, we are designing the RiverCare web-collaborative platform and the knowledge-base behind that platform. We aim at promoting collaborative efforts and knowledge exchange in river management. However, knowledge exchange does not magically happen. Consultation and discussion of RiverCare outputs as well as elicitation of perspectives and preferences from different actors about the effects of riverine measures has to be facilitated. During the RiverCare research activities, the platform will support the user committees or collaborative sessions that are regularly held with the organizations directly benefiting from our research, at project level or in study areas. The design process of the collaborative platform follows an user centred approach to identify user requirements, co-create a conceptual design and iterative develop and evaluate prototypes of the platform. The envisioned web-collaborative platform opens with an explanation and visualisation of the RiverCare outputs that are available in the knowledge base. Collaborative sessions

A Computed River Flow-Based Turbine Controller on a Programmable Logic Controller for Run-Off River Hydroelectric Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Razali Jidin

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The main feature of a run-off river hydroelectric system is a small size intake pond that overspills when river flow is more than turbines’ intake. As river flow fluctuates, a large proportion of the potential energy is wasted due to the spillages which can occur when turbines are operated manually. Manual operation is often adopted due to unreliability of water level-based controllers at many remote and unmanned run-off river hydropower plants. In order to overcome these issues, this paper proposes a novel method by developing a controller that derives turbine output set points from computed mass flow rate of rivers that feed the hydroelectric system. The computed flow is derived by summation of pond volume difference with numerical integration of both turbine discharge flows and spillages. This approach of estimating river flow allows the use of existing sensors rather than requiring the installation of new ones. All computations, including the numerical integration, have been realized as ladder logics on a programmable logic controller. The implemented controller manages the dynamic changes in the flow rate of the river better than the old point-level based controller, with the aid of a newly installed water level sensor. The computed mass flow rate of the river also allows the controller to straightforwardly determine the number of turbines to be in service with considerations of turbine efficiencies and auxiliary power conservation.

Fluvial Geomorphology and River Restoration: Uneasy Allies (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Kondolf, G. M.

2009-12-01

A growing body of literature demonstrates that river restoration based on understanding of geomorphic and ecological process is more likely to be sustainable than form-based approaches. In the early days of river ‘restoration’ in North America, most projects involved bank stabilization, habitat structure placement, or construction of rocked meandering channels, at odds with restoration of the dynamic processes we now see as fundamental to effective, sustainable restoration. Recent years have seen a growing body of restoration programs emphasizing restoration of connectivity and geomorphic process. This evolution has been reflected in publications, from the form-based approach advocated in the early 1990s by an NRC panel (which did not include a geomorphologist) to more recent works by interdisciplinary panels emphasizing process restoration. Large-scale river restoration came later to Europe, motivated by the EU Water Framework Directive (2000) requirements that member states implement measures to improve ecological status of degraded rivers. Interestingly, European approaches to restoration have often reflected a more nuanced understanding of process, including deliberate recreation of unstable braided channels, removal of bank protection, and reconnecting floodplains. In part this may reflect a reaction to the more thorough post-war channelization of rivers in western Europe. In part it may also reflect a greater influence of academic and research laboratories upon practitioners than in the US, where a strong anti-intellectual strain, cultural preference for easy fixes, and reluctance to conduct objective post-project assessments have contributed to the adoption of form-based approaches by many public agencies.

Degradation of the Mitchell River fluvial megafan by alluvial gully erosion increased by post-European land use change, Queensland, Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Shellberg, J. G.; Spencer, J.; Brooks, A. P.; Pietsch, T. J.

2016-08-01

Along low gradient rivers in northern Australia, there is widespread gully erosion into unconfined alluvial deposits of active and inactive floodplains. On the Mitchell River fluvial megafan in northern Queensland, river incision and fan-head trenching into Pleistocene and Holocene megafan units with sodic soils created the potential energy for a secondary cycle of erosion. In this study, rates of alluvial gully erosion into incipiently-unstable channel banks and/or pre-existing floodplain features were quantified to assess the influence of land use change following European settlement. Alluvial gully scarp retreat rates were quantified at 18 sites across the megafan using recent GPS surveys and historic air photos, demonstrating rapid increases in gully area of 1.2 to 10 times their 1949 values. Extrapolation of gully area growth trends backward in time suggested that the current widespread phase of gullying initiated between 1880 and 1950, which is post-European settlement. This is supported by young optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates of gully inset-floodplain deposits, LiDAR terrain analysis, historic explorer accounts of earlier gully types, and archival records of cattle numbers and land management. It is deduced that intense cattle grazing and associated disturbance concentrated in the riparian zones during the dry season promoted gully erosion in the wet season along steep banks, adjacent floodplain hollows and precursor gullies. This is a result of reduced native grass cover, increased physical disturbance of soils, and the concentration of water runoff along cattle tracks, in addition to fire regime modifications, episodic drought, and the establishment of exotic weed and grass species. Geomorphic processes operating over geologic time across the fluvial megafan predisposed the landscape to being pushed by land used change across an intrinsically close geomorphic threshold towards instability. The evolution of these alluvial gullies is discussed

Hunting camp. River Murray

OpenAIRE

? Bayliss, Charles, 1850-1897, photographer

2003-01-01

200 x 149 mm. A good photograph showing a group of aborigines (in European clothes) with two hunting dogs, holding spears and standing in front of rough wooden cabins; with the river in the background. Photograph unknown, possible Charles Bayliss.

Factors influencing bank geomorphology and erosion of the Haw River, a high order river in North Carolina, since European settlement.

Science.gov (United States)

Macfall, Janet; Robinette, Paul; Welch, David

2014-01-01

The Haw River, a high order river in the southeastern United States, is characterized by severe bank erosion and geomorphic change from historical conditions of clear waters and connected floodplains. In 2014 it was named one of the 10 most threatened rivers in the United States by American Rivers. Like many developed areas, the region has a history of disturbance including extensive upland soil loss from agriculture, dams, and upstream urbanization. The primary objective of this study was to identify the mechanisms controlling channel form and erosion of the Haw River. Field measurements including bank height, bankfull height, bank angle, root depth and density, riparian land cover and slope, surface protection, river width, and bank retreat were collected at 87 sites along 43.5 km of river. A Bank Erosion Hazard Index (BEHI) was calculated for each study site. Mean bank height was 11.8 m, mean width was 84.3 m, and bank retreat for 2005/2007-2011/2013 was 2.3 m. The greatest bank heights, BEHI values, and bank retreat were adjacent to riparian areas with low slope (<2). This is in contrast to previous studies which identify high slope as a risk factor for erosion. Most of the soils in low slope riparian areas were alluvial, suggesting sediment deposition from upland row crop agriculture and/or flooding. Bank retreat was not correlated to bank heights or BEHI values. Historical dams (1.2-3 m height) were not a significant factor. Erosion of the Haw River in the study section of the river (25% of the river length) contributed 205,320 m3 of sediment and 3759 kg of P annually. Concentration of suspended solids in the river increased with discharge. In conclusion, the Haw River is an unstable system, with river bank erosion and geomodification potential influenced by riparian slope and varied flows.

Human impacts on river water quality- comparative research in the catchment areas of the Tone River and the Mur River-

Science.gov (United States)

Kogure, K.

2013-12-01

Human activities in river basin affect river water quality as water discharges into river with pollutant after we use it. By detecting pollutants source, pathway, and influential factor of human activities, it will be possible to consider proper river basin management. In this study, material flow analysis was done first and then nutrient emission modeling by MONERIS was conducted. So as to clarify land use contribution and climate condition, comparison of Japanese and European river basin area has been made. The model MONERIS (MOdelling Nutrient Emissions in RIver Systems; Behrendt et al., 2000) was applied to estimate the nutrient emissions in the Danube river basin by point sources and various diffuse pathways. Work for the Mur River Basin in Austria was already carried out by the Institute of Water Quality, Resources and Waste Management at the Vienna University of Technology. This study treats data collection, modelling for the Tone River in Japan, and comparative analysis for these two river basins. The estimation of the nutrient emissions was carried out for 11 different sub catchment areas covering the Tone River Basin for the time period 2000 to 2006. TN emissions into the Tone river basin were 51 kt/y. 67% was via ground water and dominant for all sub catchments. Urban area was also important emission pathway. Human effect is observed in urban structure and agricultural activity. Water supply and sewer system make urban water cycle with pipeline structure. Excess evapotranspiration in arable land is also influential in water cycle. As share of arable land is 37% and there provides agricultural products, it is thought that N emission from agricultural activity is main pollution source. Assumption case of 10% N surplus was simulated and the result was 99% identical to the actual. Even though N surplus reduction does not show drastic impact on N emission, it is of importance to reduce excess of fertilization and to encourage effective agricultural activity

Age and growth of European barbel Barbus barbus (Cyprinidae in the small, mesotrophic River Lee and relative to other populations in England

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vilizzi L.

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Suspected of being in decline, the European barbel Barbus barbus population of the River Lee, a heavily-modified river in South East England, has been the subject of investigations to identify factors associated with perceived population decreases. Population surveys between 1995 and 1999 captured a total of 912 individuals, and standard length (SL frequency analyses between years suggested that the population decline was not related to juvenile recruitment but rather to a recruitment bottleneck in fish 300–340 mm SL. This bottleneck probably results from insufficient available habitat suitable to this size class. Of the sampled fish, scales were removed from 764 and were used in a scale ageing exercise among three researchers. Analyses of their independent age estimates revealed variable interpretations, which arose from uncertainties relating to the difficulty of analysing scale patterns from relatively large, slow-growing fish. Nevertheless, error was within published acceptable margins, and age estimates revealed B. barbus in the river to age 10 years, lower than in many UK rivers. The SL-at-age growth curve was characterised by very fast growth in the initial years of life. Thus, the causal factors in the decline of this B. barbus population appear to have been in the adult life-stage habitat and were likely related to the loss of longitudinal connectivity, mainly due to the presence of water retention structures. River and aquatic ecosystem remediation strategies should therefore focus on enhancing longitudinal connectivity in conjunction with the ongoing improvement of water quality and ecosystem integrity.

River water pollution condition in upper part of Brantas River and Bengawan Solo River

Science.gov (United States)

Roosmini, D.; Septiono, M. A.; Putri, N. E.; Shabrina, H. M.; Salami, I. R. S.; Ariesyady, H. D.

2018-01-01

Wastewater and solid waste from both domestic and industry have been known to give burden on river water quality. Most of river water quality problem in Indonesia has start in the upper part of river due to anthropogenic activities, due to inappropriate land use management including the poor wastewater infrastructure. Base on Upper Citarum River Water pollution problem, it is interesting to study the other main river in Java Island. Bengawan Solo River and Brantas River were chosen as the sample in this study. Parameters assessed in this study are as follows: TSS, TDS, pH, DO, and hexavalent chromium. The status of river water quality are assess using STORET method. Based on (five) parameters, STORET value showed that in Brantas River, Pagerluyung monitoring point had the worst quality relatively compared to other monitoring point in Brantas River with exceeding copper, lead and tin compared to the stream standard in East Java Provincial Regulation No. 2 in 2008. Brantas River was categorized as lightly polluted river based on monitoring period 2011-2015 in 5 monitoring points, namely Pendem, Sengguruh, Kademangan, Meritjan and Kertosono.

Evolution Of International Governmental Organisations Concerning Danube River

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristian Jura

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The international rivers are water courses that separate or cross the territories of several states and which are navigable up to discharging in the sea. The Congress of Vienna (1815 sets forth certain principles of the regime of navigation on European international rivers and the notion of international rivers. The Conference of Berlin (1885 institutes the freedom of navigation on the rivers Congo and Niger. During the Conference of Barcelona (1921 a convention and a by-law were elaborated concerning the regime of navigable ways of international interest.

Do invasive alien plants really threaten river bank vegetation? A case study based on plant communities typical for Chenopodium ficifolium—An indicator of large river valleys

Science.gov (United States)

Nowak, Arkadiusz; Rola, Kaja

2018-01-01

Riparian zones are very rich in species but subjected to strong anthropogenic changes and extremely prone to alien plant invasions, which are considered to be a serious threat to biodiversity. Our aim was to determine the spatial distribution of Chenopodium ficifolium, a species demonstrating strong confinement to large river valleys in Central Europe and an indicator of annual pioneer nitrophilous vegetation developing on river banks, which are considered to be of importance to the European Community. Additionally, the habitat preferences of the species were analysed. Differences in the richness and abundance of species diagnostic for riverside habitats, as well as the contribution of resident and invasive alien species in vegetation plots along three rivers differing in terms of size and anthropogenic impact were also examined. Finally, the effect of invaders on the phytocoenoses typical for C. ficifolium was assessed. The frequency of C. ficifolium clearly decreased with an increasing distance from the river. Among natural habitats, the species mostly preferred the banks of large rivers. The vegetation plots developing on the banks of the three studied rivers differed in total species richness, the number and cover of resident, diagnostic and invasive alien species, as well as in species composition. Our research indicates that abiotic and anthropogenic factors are the most significant drivers of species richness and plant cover of riverbank vegetation, and invasive alien plants affect this type of vegetation to a small extent. PMID:29543919

Do invasive alien plants really threaten river bank vegetation? A case study based on plant communities typical for Chenopodium ficifolium-An indicator of large river valleys.

Science.gov (United States)

Nobis, Agnieszka; Nowak, Arkadiusz; Rola, Kaja

2018-01-01

Riparian zones are very rich in species but subjected to strong anthropogenic changes and extremely prone to alien plant invasions, which are considered to be a serious threat to biodiversity. Our aim was to determine the spatial distribution of Chenopodium ficifolium, a species demonstrating strong confinement to large river valleys in Central Europe and an indicator of annual pioneer nitrophilous vegetation developing on river banks, which are considered to be of importance to the European Community. Additionally, the habitat preferences of the species were analysed. Differences in the richness and abundance of species diagnostic for riverside habitats, as well as the contribution of resident and invasive alien species in vegetation plots along three rivers differing in terms of size and anthropogenic impact were also examined. Finally, the effect of invaders on the phytocoenoses typical for C. ficifolium was assessed. The frequency of C. ficifolium clearly decreased with an increasing distance from the river. Among natural habitats, the species mostly preferred the banks of large rivers. The vegetation plots developing on the banks of the three studied rivers differed in total species richness, the number and cover of resident, diagnostic and invasive alien species, as well as in species composition. Our research indicates that abiotic and anthropogenic factors are the most significant drivers of species richness and plant cover of riverbank vegetation, and invasive alien plants affect this type of vegetation to a small extent.

Rivers and ports in transport history of Cameroon, 1916-1961 | Nkwi ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Rivers and ports in transport history of Cameroon, 1916-1961. ... rivers and ports for their physical mobility, transportation of bulky goods, mails migration and above all European consumer ... EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

Risk-based decision making and risk management of European Union regional programs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michalopoulos Evangelos

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a generalized method for management decision making incorporating risk assessment techniques. The risk based decision making methodology is applied to European Union expenditure programs used to implement its regional policy, such as the community support framework, community initiatives, special initiatives and other European policies. An example is presented for the development of an audit (inspection program in the region of West Macedonia, Greece, during the implementation of the 3rd Community Structural Support Framework Operational Program. The generic nature of the method permits its use in the management of similar European regional programs in Greece and other European countries. It is also applicable to many other industries interested in applying risk-based management decisions to physical or process based systems. .

Small larvae in large rivers: observations on downstream movement of European grayling Thymallus thymallus during early life stages.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Leeuwen, C H A; Dokk, T; Haugen, T O; Kiffney, P M; Museth, J

2017-06-01

Behaviour of early life stages of the salmonid European grayling Thymallus thymallus was investigated by assessing the timing of larval downstream movement from spawning areas, the depth at which larvae moved and the distribution of juvenile fish during summer in two large connected river systems in Norway. Trapping of larvae moving downstream and electrofishing surveys revealed that T. thymallus larvae emerging from the spawning gravel moved downstream predominantly during the night, despite light levels sufficient for orientation in the high-latitude study area. Larvae moved in the water mostly at the bottom layer close to the substratum, while drifting debris was caught in all layers of the water column. Few young-of-the-year still resided close to the spawning areas in autumn, suggesting large-scale movement (several km). Together, these observations show that there may be a deliberate, active component to downstream movement of T. thymallus during early life stages. This research signifies the importance of longitudinal connectivity for T. thymallus in Nordic large river systems. Human alterations of flow regimes and the construction of reservoirs for hydropower may not only affect the movement of adult fish, but may already interfere with active movement behaviour of fish during early life stages. © 2017 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

Model-Aided Altimeter-Based Water Level Forecasting System in Mekong River

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, C. H.; Lee, H.; Hossain, F.; Okeowo, M. A.; Basnayake, S. B.; Jayasinghe, S.; Saah, D. S.; Anderson, E.; Hwang, E.

2017-12-01

Mekong River, one of the massive river systems in the world, has drainage area of about 795,000 km2 covering six countries. People living in its drainage area highly rely on resources given by the river in terms of agriculture, fishery, and hydropower. Monitoring and forecasting the water level in a timely manner, is urgently needed over the Mekong River. Recently, using TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) altimetry water level measurements in India, Biancamaria et al. [2011] has demonstrated the capability of an altimeter-based flood forecasting system in Bangladesh, with RMSE from 0.6 - 0.8 m for lead times up to 5 days on 10-day basis due to T/P's repeat period. Hossain et al. [2013] further established a daily water level forecasting system in Bangladesh using observations from Jason-2 in India and HEC-RAS hydraulic model, with RMSE from 0.5 - 1.5 m and an underestimating mean bias of 0.25 - 1.25 m. However, such daily forecasting system relies on a collection of Jason-2 virtual stations (VSs) to ensure frequent sampling and data availability. Since the Mekong River is a meridional river with few number of VSs, the direct application of this system to the Mekong River becomes challenging. To address this problem, we propose a model-aided altimeter-based forecasting system. The discharge output by Variable Infiltration Capacity hydrologic model is used to reconstruct a daily water level product at upstream Jason-2 VSs based on the discharge-to-level rating curve. The reconstructed daily water level is then used to perform regression analysis with downstream in-situ water level to build regression models, which are used to forecast a daily water level. In the middle reach of the Mekong River from Nakhon Phanom to Kratie, a 3-day lead time forecasting can reach RMSE about 0.7 - 1.3 m with correlation coefficient around 0.95. For the lower reach of the Mekong River, the water flow becomes more complicated due to the reversal flow between the Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong River

Ecosystem based river basin management planning in critical water catchment in Mongolia

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Tugjamba, Navchaa; Sereeter, Erdenetuul; Gonchigjav, Sarantuya

2014-05-01

Developing the ecosystem based adaptation strategies to maintain water security in critical water catchments in Mongolia would be very significant. It will be base by reducing the vulnerability. "Ecosystem Based adaptation" is quite a new term in Mongolia and the ecosystem approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. To strengthen equitable economic development, food security, climate resilience and protection of the environment, the implementation of sustainable river basin management in critical water catchments is challenging in Mongolia. The Ulz river basin is considered one of the critical water catchments due to the temperature has increased by in average 1.30Ñ over the period 1976 to 2011. It is more intense than the global warming rate (0.740C/100 years) and a bit higher than the warming rate over whole Mongolia as well. From long-term observations and measurements it is clear that Ulz River has low water in a period of 1970-1980 and since the end of 1980s and middle of 1990s there were dominated years of the flood. However, under the influence of the global warming, climate changes of Mongolia and continuation of drought years with low water since the end of 1990s until today river water was sharply fallen and dried up. For the last ten years rivers are dried up and annual mean run-off is less by 3-5 times from long term mean value. The Ulz is the transboundary river basin and taking its origin from Ikh and Baga Burd springs on territory of Norovlin soum of Khentii province that flows through Khentii and Dornod provinces to the northeast, crossing the state border it flows in Baruun Tari located in Tari Lake concavity in Russia. Based on the integrative baseline study on the 'The Ulz River Basin Environmental and Socioeconomic condition', ecosystem based river basin management was planned. 'Water demand Calculator 3' (WDC) software was used to

Process-based principles for restoring river ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Timothy J. Beechie; David A. Sear; Julian D. Olden; George R. Pess; John M. Buffington; Hamish Moir; Philip Roni; Michael M. Pollock

2010-01-01

Process-based restoration aims to reestablish normative rates and magnitudes of physical, chemical, and biological processes that sustain river and floodplain ecosystems. Ecosystem conditions at any site are governed by hierarchical regional, watershed, and reach-scale processes controlling hydrologic and sediment regimes; floodplain and aquatic habitat...

"Climate change impact on water resources - a challenge for IWRM". BRAHMATWINN - Twinning European and South Asian River Basins to enhance capacity and implement adaptive management approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Bartosch, A.; Pechstädt, J.; Müller Schmied, H.; Flügel, W.-A.

2009-04-01

BRAHMATWINN addresses climate change impact of the hydrology of two macro-scale river basins having headwaters in alpine mountain massifs. The project will elaborate on the consequential vulnerability of present IWRM and river basin management that have been persistent in these basins during the past decades and will develop tested approaches and technologies for adaptive IWRM and resilience. The overall objective of BRAHMATWINN is to enhance and improve capacity to carry out a harmonized integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach as addressed by the European Water Initiative (EWI) in headwater river systems of alpine mountain massifs in respect to impacts from likely climate change, and to transfer professional IWRM expertise, approaches and tools based on case studies carried out in twinning European and Asian river basins, the Upper Danube River Basin (UDRB) and the Upper Brahmaputra River Basin (UBRB). Sustainable IWRM in river basins of such kind face common problems: (i) floods e.g. during spring melt or heavy storms and droughts during summer; (ii) competing water demands for agriculture, hydropower, rural, urban and industrial development, and the environment; (iii) pollution from point as well as diffuse sources; and (iv) socio-economic and legal issues related to water allocation. Besides those common topics both basins also differ in other issues requiring the adaptation of the IWRM tools; these are for example climate conditions, the density of monitoring network, political framework and trans-boundary conflicts. An IWRM has to consider all water-related issues like the securing of water supply for the population in sufficient quantity and quality, the protection of the ecological function of water bodies and it has to consider the probability of natural hazards like floods and droughts. Furthermore the resource water should be threatened in a way that the needs of future generations can be satisfied. Sustainable development is one of the

Untangling the effects of multiple human stressors and their impacts on fish assemblages in European running waters.

Science.gov (United States)

Schinegger, Rafaela; Palt, Martin; Segurado, Pedro; Schmutz, Stefan

2016-12-15

This work addresses human stressors and their impacts on fish assemblages at pan-European scale by analysing single and multiple stressors and their interactions. Based on an extensive dataset with 3105 fish sampling sites, patterns of stressors, their combination and nature of interactions, i.e. synergistic, antagonistic and additive were investigated. Geographical distribution and patterns of seven human stressor variables, belonging to four stressor groups (hydrological-, morphological-, water quality- and connectivity stressors), were examined, considering both single and multiple stressor combinations. To quantify the stressors' ecological impact, a set of 22 fish metrics for various fish assemblage types (headwaters, medium gradient rivers, lowland rivers and Mediterranean streams) was analysed by comparing their observed and expected response to different stressors, both acting individually and in combination. Overall, investigated fish sampling sites are affected by 15 different stressor combinations, including 4 stressors acting individually and 11 combinations of two or more stressors; up to 4 stressor groups per fish sampling site occur. Stressor-response analysis shows divergent results among different stressor categories, even though a general trend of decreasing ecological integrity with increasing stressor quantity can be observed. Fish metrics based on density of species 'intolerant to water quality degradation' and 'intolerant to oxygen depletion" responded best to single and multiple stressors and their interactions. Interactions of stressors were additive (40%), synergistic (30%) or antagonistic (30%), emphasizing the importance to consider interactions in multi-stressor analyses. While antagonistic effects are only observed in headwaters and medium-gradient rivers, synergistic effects increase from headwaters over medium gradient rivers and Mediterranean streams to large lowland rivers. The knowledge gained in this work provides a basis for

A European initiative to define research needs and foster the adoption of Managed Aquifer Recharge into river basin management

Science.gov (United States)

Kneppers, Angeline; Grützmacher, Gesche; Kazner, Christian; Zojer, Hans

2010-05-01

The European Technology Platform for Water (WssTP) was initiated by the European Commission to federate a highly fragmented sector with the aim to foster competitive innovations and promote sustainable solutions. To achieve this, pilot programmes endorsing a bottom-up approach were launched in 2007 with a variety of stakeholders having representative water issues to solve. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) was adopted as a balancing process for the safe and sustainable development, allocation and monitoring of water resource use in the context of current and future social, economic and environmental objectives. As a result key drivers were selected and a methodology was followed to identify and validate the needs with stakeholders and experts, and demonstrate solutions as an integrated part of the river basin management plans. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) was identified as a key component of integrated water resources management, especially in water scarce regions and an area relevant for further research. The paper shall summarize the process followed by the WssTP, initiating a Task Force with 36 representatives from European research institutes and industry partners with participation of a few international experts. During a workshop conducted in Graz in June 2009 these experts developed the basis for a report that has now been submitted to the European Commission for consideration in future research calls. Implementing IWRM and MAR is made difficult by the number of different water bodies, but also by the large number of stakeholders, policies, legislations and conflicting interests. The results of the MAR Task Force initiative set the basis for further discussions with the international MAR community on the relevance of the identified research needs but also on the importance and process to associate the institutional and managerial entities for capacity building and the adoption of MAR into the overall management strategies.

Automated Identification of River Hydromorphological Features Using UAV High Resolution Aerial Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monica Rivas Casado

2015-11-01

Full Text Available European legislation is driving the development of methods for river ecosystem protection in light of concerns over water quality and ecology. Key to their success is the accurate and rapid characterisation of physical features (i.e., hydromorphology along the river. Image pattern recognition techniques have been successfully used for this purpose. The reliability of the methodology depends on both the quality of the aerial imagery and the pattern recognition technique used. Recent studies have proved the potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs to increase the quality of the imagery by capturing high resolution photography. Similarly, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN have been shown to be a high precision tool for automated recognition of environmental patterns. This paper presents a UAV based framework for the identification of hydromorphological features from high resolution RGB aerial imagery using a novel classification technique based on ANNs. The framework is developed for a 1.4 km river reach along the river Dee in Wales, United Kingdom. For this purpose, a Falcon 8 octocopter was used to gather 2.5 cm resolution imagery. The results show that the accuracy of the framework is above 81%, performing particularly well at recognising vegetation. These results leverage the use of UAVs for environmental policy implementation and demonstrate the potential of ANNs and RGB imagery for high precision river monitoring and river management.

BIOINDICATION USING VEGETATION OF THREE REGULATED RIVERS UNDER AGRO-INDUSTRIAL PRESSURE IN WESTERN FRANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. BERNEZ

2004-05-01

Full Text Available The longitudinal changes of richness and composition of aquatic plants have been studied from headwaters to the fifth stream order in three near-by rivers or Western Brittany (France, the Orne, Sélune and Rance. All rivers were regulated years ago with dams located on the lower third of the studies river stretches. A shifting evolution of the macrophyte richness was revealed in a previous study along the river continuum, related 10 habitat heterogeneity. influences of regulated sectors and geological changes. Nutrient enrichment and organic pollution influences were the main secondary gradients. On this basis we improved a methodology to complete a biotic index used in Europe for water trophy assessment, following the European water frame work directive the IBMR based on aquatic plant survey: a validation with classical statistical tests and a comparison to a canonical analysis were performed. Finally this approach permitted to make a proposition of adaptation of the index to the Local particularities of each three high anthropised rivers

BIOINDICATION USING VEGETATION OF THREE REGULATED RIVERS UNDER AGRO-INDUSTRIAL PRESSURE IN WESTERN FRANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. LE COEUR

2004-01-01

Full Text Available The longitudinal changes of richness and composition of aquatic plants have been studied from headwaters to the fifth stream order in three near-by rivers or Western Brittany (France, the Orne, Sélune and Rance. All rivers were regulated years ago with dams located on the lower third of the studies river stretches. A shifting evolution of the macrophyte richness was revealed in a previous study along the river continuum, related 10 habitat heterogeneity. influences of regulated sectors and geological changes. Nutrient enrichment and organic pollution influences were the main secondary gradients. On this basis we improved a methodology to complete a biotic index used in Europe for water trophy assessment, following the European water frame work directive the IBMR based on aquatic plant survey: a validation with classical statistical tests and a comparison to a canonical analysis were performed. Finally this approach permitted to make a proposition of adaptation of the index to the Local particularities of each three high anthropised rivers

Combined ecological risks of nitrogen and phosphorus in European freshwaters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azevedo, Ligia B.; Zelm, Rosalie van; Leuven, Rob S.E.W.; Hendriks, A. Jan; Huijbregts, Mark A.J.

2015-01-01

Eutrophication is a key water quality issue triggered by increasing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) levels and potentially posing risks to freshwater biota. We predicted the probability that an invertebrate species within a community assemblage becomes absent due to nutrient stress as the ecological risk (ER) for European lakes and streams subjected to N and P pollution from 1985 to 2011. The ER was calculated as a function of species-specific tolerances to NO 3 − and total P concentrations and water quality monitoring data. Lake and stream ER averaged 50% in the last monitored year (i.e. 2011) and we observed a decrease by 22% and 38% in lake and stream ER (respectively) of river basins since 1985. Additionally, the ER from N stress surpassed that of P in both freshwater systems. The ER can be applied to identify river basins most subjected to eutrophication risks and the main drivers of impacts. - Highlights: • Ecological risk was estimated as response additions of N and P. • The risk posed by N stress is higher than that by P in European freshwaters. • Ecological risks have remained unchanged in most European river basins. - Quantifying the ecological risk of invertebrate losses due to N and P pollution

INFLUENCE OF RIVER BED ELEVATION SURVEY CONFIGURATIONS AND INTERPOLATION METHODS ON THE ACCURACY OF LIDAR DTM-BASED RIVER FLOW SIMULATIONS

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J. R. Santillan

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we investigated how survey configuration and the type of interpolation method can affect the accuracy of river flow simulations that utilize LIDAR DTM integrated with interpolated river bed as its main source of topographic information. Aside from determining the accuracy of the individually-generated river bed topographies, we also assessed the overall accuracy of the river flow simulations in terms of maximum flood depth and extent. Four survey configurations consisting of river bed elevation data points arranged as cross-section (XS, zig-zag (ZZ, river banks-centerline (RBCL, and river banks-centerline-zig-zag (RBCLZZ, and two interpolation methods (Inverse Distance-Weighted and Ordinary Kriging were considered. Major results show that the choice of survey configuration, rather than the interpolation method, has significant effect on the accuracy of interpolated river bed surfaces, and subsequently on the accuracy of river flow simulations. The RMSEs of the interpolated surfaces and the model results vary from one configuration to another, and depends on how each configuration evenly collects river bed elevation data points. The large RMSEs for the RBCL configuration and the low RMSEs for the XS configuration confirm that as the data points become evenly spaced and cover more portions of the river, the resulting interpolated surface and the river flow simulation where it was used also become more accurate. The XS configuration with Ordinary Kriging (OK as interpolation method provided the best river bed interpolation and river flow simulation results. The RBCL configuration, regardless of the interpolation algorithm used, resulted to least accurate river bed surfaces and simulation results. Based on the accuracy analysis, the use of XS configuration to collect river bed data points and applying the OK method to interpolate the river bed topography are the best methods to use to produce satisfactory river flow simulation outputs

The European water framework directive: A challenge for nearshore, coastal and continental shelf research

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Borja, Ángel

2005-09-01

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a framework for the protection of groundwater, inland surface waters, estuarine waters, and coastal waters. The WFD constitutes a new view of the water resources management in Europe because, for the first time, water management is: (i) based mainly upon biological and ecological elements, with ecosystems being at the centre of the management decisions; (ii) applied to European water bodies, as a whole; and (iii) based upon the whole river basin, including also the adjacent coastal area. Although the marine water bodies affected by the WFD relate to only 19.8% of the whole of the European continental shelf, its application constitutes a challenge and an opportunity in nearshore, coastal and continental shelf research. This contribution highlights some of the main tasks and the research to be undertaken in the coming years, proposing investigations into: typologies; physico-chemical processes; indicator species; reference conditions; integration of the quality assessment; methodologies in determining ecological status, etc.

Geo-referenced modelling of metal concentrations in river basins at the catchment scale

Science.gov (United States)

Hüffmeyer, N.; Berlekamp, J.; Klasmeier, J.

2009-04-01

1. Introduction The European Water Framework Directive demands the good ecological and chemical state of surface waters [1]. This implies the reduction of unwanted metal concentrations in surface waters. To define reasonable environmental target values and to develop promising mitigation strategies a detailed exposure assessment is required. This includes the identification of emission sources and the evaluation of their effect on local and regional surface water concentrations. Point source emissions via municipal or industrial wastewater that collect metal loads from a wide variety of applications and products are important anthropogenic pathways into receiving waters. Natural background and historical influences from ore-mining activities may be another important factor. Non-point emissions occur via surface runoff and erosion from drained land area. Besides deposition metals can be deposited by fertilizer application or the use of metal products such as wires or metal fences. Surface water concentrations vary according to the emission strength of sources located nearby and upstream of the considered location. A direct link between specific emission sources and pathways on the one hand and observed concentrations can hardly be established by monitoring alone. Geo-referenced models such as GREAT-ER (Geo-referenced Regional Exposure Assessment Tool for European Rivers) deliver spatially resolved concentrations in a whole river basin and allow for evaluating the causal relationship between specific emissions and resulting concentrations. This study summarizes the results of investigations for the metals zinc and copper in three German catchments. 2. The model GREAT-ER The geo-referenced model GREAT-ER has originally been developed to simulate and assess chemical burden of European river systems from multiple emission sources [2]. Emission loads from private households and rainwater runoff are individually estimated based on average consumption figures, runoff rates

Skjern River Restoration Counterfactual

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clemmensen, Thomas Juel

2014-01-01

In 2003 the Skjern River Restoration Project in Denmark was awarded the prestigious Europa Nostra Prize for ‘conserving the European cultural heritage’ (Danish Nature Agency 2005). In this case, however, it seems that the conservation of one cultural heritage came at the expense of another cultural...... this massive reconstruction work, which involved moving more than 2,7 million cubic meters of earth, cause a lot of ‘dissonance’ among the local population, the resulting ‘nature’ and its dynamic processes are also constantly compromising the preferred image of the restored landscape (Clemmensen 2014......). The presentation offers insight into an on-going research and development project - Skjern River Restoration Counterfactual, which question existing trends and logics within nature restoration. The project explores how the Skjern River Delta could have been ‘restored’ with a greater sensibility for its cultural...

Game theory and risk-based leveed river system planning with noncooperation

Science.gov (United States)

Hui, Rui; Lund, Jay R.; Madani, Kaveh

2016-01-01

Optimal risk-based levee designs are usually developed for economic efficiency. However, in river systems with multiple levees, the planning and maintenance of different levees are controlled by different agencies or groups. For example, along many rivers, levees on opposite riverbanks constitute a simple leveed river system with each levee designed and controlled separately. Collaborative planning of the two levees can be economically optimal for the whole system. Independent and self-interested landholders on opposite riversides often are willing to separately determine their individual optimal levee plans, resulting in a less efficient leveed river system from an overall society-wide perspective (the tragedy of commons). We apply game theory to simple leveed river system planning where landholders on each riverside independently determine their optimal risk-based levee plans. Outcomes from noncooperative games are analyzed and compared with the overall economically optimal outcome, which minimizes net flood cost system-wide. The system-wide economically optimal solution generally transfers residual flood risk to the lower-valued side of the river, but is often impractical without compensating for flood risk transfer to improve outcomes for all individuals involved. Such compensation can be determined and implemented with landholders' agreements on collaboration to develop an economically optimal plan. By examining iterative multiple-shot noncooperative games with reversible and irreversible decisions, the costs of myopia for the future in making levee planning decisions show the significance of considering the externalities and evolution path of dynamic water resource problems to improve decision-making.

A germ for young European scientists: Drawing-based modelling.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Joolingen, Wouter

2017-01-01

An important movement in European science education is that learning should be inquiry-based and represents realistic scientific practice. The inquiry-based nature of science education is essential to interest more young people for a career in science and technology. Creating models is broadly seen

Project SHARE Sustainable Hydropower in Alpine Rivers Ecosystems

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Mammoliti Mochet, Andrea

2010-05-01

SHARE - Sustainable Hydropower in Alpine Rivers Ecosystems is a running project early approved and co funded by the European regional development fund in the context of the European Territorial Cooperation Alpine Space programme 2007 - 2013: the project is formally ongoing from August 2009 and it will end July 2012. Hydropower is the most important renewable resource for electricity production in alpine areas: it has advantages for the global CO2 balance but creates serious environmental impacts. RES-e Directives require renewable electricity enhance but, at the same time, the Water Framework Directive obliges member States to reach or maintain a water bodies "good" ecological status, intrinsically limiting the hydropower exploitation. Administrators daily face an increasing demand of water abstraction but lack reliable tools to rigorously evaluate their effects on mountain rivers and the social and economical outputs on longer time scale. The project intends to develop, test and promote a decision support system to merge on an unprejudiced base, river ecosystems and hydropower requirements. This approach will be led using existing scientific tools, adjustable to transnational, national and local normative and carried on by permanent panel of administrators and stakeholders. Scientific knowledge related to HP & river management will be "translated" by the communication tools and spent as a concrete added value to build a decision support system. In particular, the Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) will be applied to assess different management alternatives where a single-criterion approach (such as cost-benefit analysis) falls short, especially where environmental, technical, economic and social criteria can't be quantified by monetary values. All the existing monitoring databases will be used and harmonized with new information collected during the Pilot case studies. At the same time, all information collected will be available to end users and actors of related

Investigating historical changes in morphodynamic processes associated with channelization of a large Alpine river: the Etsch/Adige River, NE Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Zen, Simone; Scorpio, Vittoria; Mastronunzio, Marco; Proto, Matteo; Zolezzi, Guido; Bertoldi, Walter; Comiti, Francesco; Surian, Nicola; Prà, Elena Dai

2016-04-01

River channel management within the last centuries has largely modified fluvial processes and morphodynamic evolution of most large European rivers. Several river systems experienced extensive channelization early in the 19th century, thus strongly challenging our present ability to detect their morphodynamic functioning with contemporary photogrammetry or cartographical sources. This consequently leaves open questions about their potential future response, especially to management strategies that "give more room" to the river, aiming at partially rehabilitating their natural functioning. The Adige River (Etsch in German), the second longest Italian river, is an exemplary case where channelization occurred more than 150 years ago, and is the focus of the present work. This work aims (i) to explore changes in fundamental morphodynamic processes associated with massive channelization of the Adige River and (ii) to quantify the alteration in river bars characteristics, by using morphodynamic models of bars and meandering. To fulfil our aims we combine the analysis of historical data with morphodynamic mathematical modelling. Historical sources (recovered in a number of European archives), such as hydrotopographical maps, airborne photogrammetry and hydrological datasets were collected to investigate channel morphology before and after the channelization. Information extracted from this analysis was combined with morphodynamic linear models of free migrating and forced steady bars, to investigate river bars and bend stability properties under different hydromorphological scenarios. Moreover, a morphodynamic model for meandering channel was applied to investigate the influence of river channel planform on the evolution of the fluvial bars. Results from the application of morphodynamic models allowed to predict the type, position and geometry of bars characterizing the channelized configuration of the river, and to explain the presently observed relative paucity of bars

Output improvement of Sg. Piah run-off river hydro-electric station with a new computed river flow-based control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jidin, Razali; Othman, Bahari

2013-01-01

The lower Sg. Piah hydro-electric station is a river run-off hydro scheme with generators capable of generating 55MW of electricity. It is located 30km away from Sg. Siput, a small town in the state of Perak, Malaysia. The station has two turbines (Pelton) to harness energy from water that flow through a 7km tunnel from a small intake dam. The trait of a run-off river hydro station is small-reservoir that cannot store water for a long duration; therefore potential energy carried by the spillage will be wasted if the dam level is not appropriately regulated. To improve the station annual energy output, a new controller based on the computed river flow has been installed. The controller regulates the dam level with an algorithm based on the river flow derived indirectly from the intake-dam water level and other plant parameters. The controller has been able to maintain the dam at optimum water level and regulate the turbines to maximize the total generation output.

Output improvement of Sg. Piah run-off river hydro-electric station with a new computed river flow-based control system

Science.gov (United States)

Jidin, Razali; Othman, Bahari

2013-06-01

The lower Sg. Piah hydro-electric station is a river run-off hydro scheme with generators capable of generating 55MW of electricity. It is located 30km away from Sg. Siput, a small town in the state of Perak, Malaysia. The station has two turbines (Pelton) to harness energy from water that flow through a 7km tunnel from a small intake dam. The trait of a run-off river hydro station is small-reservoir that cannot store water for a long duration; therefore potential energy carried by the spillage will be wasted if the dam level is not appropriately regulated. To improve the station annual energy output, a new controller based on the computed river flow has been installed. The controller regulates the dam level with an algorithm based on the river flow derived indirectly from the intake-dam water level and other plant parameters. The controller has been able to maintain the dam at optimum water level and regulate the turbines to maximize the total generation output.

Least Disturbed Condition for European Mediterranean rivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Feio, M J; Aguiar, F C; Almeida, S F P; Ferreira, J; Ferreira, M T; Elias, C; Serra, S R Q; Buffagni, A; Cambra, J; Chauvin, C; Delmas, F; Dörflinger, G; Erba, S; Flor, N; Ferréol, M; Germ, M; Mancini, L; Manolaki, P; Marcheggiani, S; Minciardi, M R; Munné, A; Papastergiadou, E; Prat, N; Puccinelli, C; Rosebery, J; Sabater, S; Ciadamidaro, S; Tornés, E; Tziortzis, I; Urbanič, G; Vieira, C

2014-04-01

The present report describes a three-step approach that was used to characterize and define thresholds for the Least Disturbed Condition in Mediterranean streams of four different types, regarding organic pollution and nutrients, hydrological and morphological alterations, and land use. For this purpose, a common database composed of national reference sites (929 records) from seven countries, sampled for invertebrates, diatoms and macrophytes was used. The analyses of reference sites showed that small (catchment rivers were the most affected by stressors: 25-43% of the samples showed at least slight alterations regarding channelization, connectivity, upstream dam influence, hydropeaking and degradation of riparian vegetation. Temporary streams were the least affected by hydromorphological changes, but they were nevertheless affected by alterations in riparian vegetation. There were no major differences between all permanent stream types regarding water quality, but temporary streams showed lower values for oxygenation (DO) and wider ranges for other variables, such as nitrates. A lower threshold value for DO (60%) was determined for this stream type and can be attributed to the streams' natural characteristics. For all other river types, common limits were found for the remaining variables (ammonium, nitrate, phosphate, total P, % of artificial areas, % of intensive and extensive agriculture, % of semi-natural areas in the catchment). These values were then used to select the list of reference sites. The biological communities were characterized, revealing the existence of nine groups of Mediterranean invertebrate communities, six for diatoms and five for macrophytes: each group was characterized by specific indicator taxa that highlighted the differences between groups. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

River Export of Plastic from Land to Sea: A Global Modeling Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Siegfried, Max; Gabbert, Silke; Koelmans, Albert A.; Kroeze, Carolien; Löhr, Ansje; Verburg, Charlotte

2016-04-01

Plastic is increasingly considered a serious cause of water pollution. It is a threat to aquatic ecosystems, including rivers, coastal waters and oceans. Rivers transport considerable amounts of plastic from land to sea. The quantity and its main sources, however, are not well known. Assessing the amount of macro- and microplastic transport from river to sea is, therefore, important for understanding the dimension and the patterns of plastic pollution of aquatic ecosystems. In addition, it is crucial for assessing short- and long-term impacts caused by plastic pollution. Here we present a global modelling approach to quantify river export of plastic from land to sea. Our approach accounts for different types of plastic, including both macro- and micro-plastics. Moreover, we distinguish point sources and diffuse sources of plastic in rivers. Our modelling approach is inspired by global nutrient models, which include more than 6000 river basins. In this paper, we will present our modelling approach, as well as first model results for micro-plastic pollution in European rivers. Important sources of micro-plastics include personal care products, laundry, household dust and car tyre wear. We combine information on these sources with information on sewage management, and plastic retention during river transport for the largest European rivers. Our modelling approach may help to better understand and prevent water pollution by plastic , and at the same time serves as 'proof of concept' for future application on global scale.

Future heat-waves, droughts and floods in 571 European cities

Science.gov (United States)

Guerreiro, Selma B.; Dawson, Richard J.; Kilsby, Chris; Lewis, Elizabeth; Ford, Alistair

2018-03-01

Cities are particularly vulnerable to climate risks due to their agglomeration of people, buildings and infrastructure. Differences in methodology, hazards considered, and climate models used limit the utility and comparability of climate studies on individual cities. Here we assess, for the first time, future changes in flood, heat-waves (HW), and drought impacts for all 571 European cities in the Urban Audit database using a consistent approach. To capture the full range of uncertainties in natural variability and climate models, we use all climate model runs from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) for the RCP8.5 emissions scenario to calculate Low, Medium and High Impact scenarios, which correspond to the 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles of each hazard for each city. We find that HW days increase across all cities, but especially in southern Europe, whilst the greatest HW temperature increases are expected in central European cities. For the low impact scenario, drought conditions intensify in southern European cities while river flooding worsens in northern European cities. However, the high impact scenario projects that most European cities will see increases in both drought and river flood risks. Over 100 cities are particularly vulnerable to two or more climate impacts. Moreover, the magnitude of impacts exceeds those previously reported highlighting the substantial challenge cities face to manage future climate risks.

Evolution of the european data base

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bonnefous, S.; Despres, A.

1991-01-01

Works connected with the data base on the European grid are carried on following several ways: 1. Enrichment of the data base, with the inclusion of new data (milk products, agricultural products). Progress along this line is depending on the progress made within EUROSTAT. 2. Elaboration of the data base on a finer grid (10 km * 10 km), for the meshes that are estimated more critical (because they include important potential sources of pollution), or for very non-homogeneous meshes (costal areas). 3. Development and/or acquisition of softwares allowing an exploitation and an easy consultation of the data base. At the present state, installation of the data base with 10 000 km 2 meshes on the PARADOX system is in progress. (PARADOX is a software for data base maintenance). A graphical representation software (cartography) completes the system, allowing the visualization of the data. The paper presents the current state of development of this work

Analysis of Cruise Tourism on Croatian Rivers

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Astrid Zekić

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Cruise trips have been rising in popularity since the 1970sand are currently a trend in the tourism market. This is particularly true of river cruises, which record a constant growth in the number of ship calls. The general upward trend in the number of river cruise passengers and dockings is also present in Croatia. Prerequisites for the development of cruising on Croatian rivers include, in addition to other geographical features, also the length of navigable water ways, but a systematic approach to this issue is needed for further development. The authors investigate the level of development of infrastructure on Croatian rivers and analyse the passenger and ship traffic on them. Special attention is given to the importance of cruises for tourism on European rivers and worldwide. In accordance with the Croatian Tourism Development Strategy until 2020, the authors explore geographical and other conditions necessary for the development of river cruise tourism. The aim of the paper is to point to the importance of building infrastructure for accommodation of vessels sailing on Croatian rivers, and in particular to the need to improve tourism offer in river destinations.

The passive river restoration approach as an efficient tool to improve the hydromorphological diversity of rivers - Case study from two river restoration projects in the German lower mountain range

Science.gov (United States)

Groll, M.

2017-09-01

Intensive use of European rivers during the last hundreds of years has led to profound changes in the physicochemical properties, river morphology, and aquatic faunistic communities. Rectifying these changes and improving the ecological state of all surface water bodies is the central aim of the European Water Frame Directive (WFD), and river restoration measures are the main tool to achieve this goal for many rivers. As the cost-effectiveness of all measures is crucial to the WFD implementation, the approach of the passive river restoration has become very popular over the last decades. But while costs of this approach are minimal, not much is known about the long-term effectiveness of passive river restorations. The research presented here provides essential and in-depth data about the effects of two such restoration measures on the riverbed morphology of a large river of the lower mountain region in Germany (type 9.2). More than 3200 data sets were acquired using the TRiSHa method (Typology of Riverbed Structures and Habitats). The results show a high spatial and temporal diversity and dynamic for all analyzed hydromorphologic parameters - ranging from riverbed sediments, organic structures like dead wood or macrophytes, to the distribution of 32 microhabitat types. The structures and their dynamic depend on the character of the study area (free-flowing or impounded), the location of the study sites within the research area (main channel or restored side channel), and on the occurrence of major flood events (the mapping and sampling were conducted annually from 2006 to 2008 with a 50-year flood event occurring in early 2007). These results show the potential of the passive restoration approach for creating morphologically diverse riverbeds, as habitat diversity and the spatial heterogeneity of the riverbed substrates increased significantly (e.g., more than 40% of all habitat types were only detected in the newly restored side channels). But the results also

Mackenzie River Delta morphological change based on Landsat time series

Science.gov (United States)

Vesakoski, Jenni-Mari; Alho, Petteri; Gustafsson, David; Arheimer, Berit; Isberg, Kristina

2015-04-01

Arctic rivers are sensitive and yet quite unexplored river systems to which the climate change will impact on. Research has not focused in detail on the fluvial geomorphology of the Arctic rivers mainly due to the remoteness and wideness of the watersheds, problems with data availability and difficult accessibility. Nowadays wide collaborative spatial databases in hydrology as well as extensive remote sensing datasets over the Arctic are available and they enable improved investigation of the Arctic watersheds. Thereby, it is also important to develop and improve methods that enable detecting the fluvio-morphological processes based on the available data. Furthermore, it is essential to reconstruct and improve the understanding of the past fluvial processes in order to better understand prevailing and future fluvial processes. In this study we sum up the fluvial geomorphological change in the Mackenzie River Delta during the last ~30 years. The Mackenzie River Delta (~13 000 km2) is situated in the North Western Territories, Canada where the Mackenzie River enters to the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean near the city of Inuvik. Mackenzie River Delta is lake-rich, productive ecosystem and ecologically sensitive environment. Research objective is achieved through two sub-objectives: 1) Interpretation of the deltaic river channel planform change by applying Landsat time series. 2) Definition of the variables that have impacted the most on detected changes by applying statistics and long hydrological time series derived from Arctic-HYPE model (HYdrologic Predictions for Environment) developed by Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. According to our satellite interpretation, field observations and statistical analyses, notable spatio-temporal changes have occurred in the morphology of the river channel and delta during the past 30 years. For example, the channels have been developing in braiding and sinuosity. In addition, various linkages between the studied

Possible ways of corporate tax base harmonization in the European Union

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Danuše Nerudová

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The possible ways of corporate tax base harmonization in the European Union are presented in the paper. Present situation when there are 27 different taxation systems used in the EU increases compliance costs of taxation to the companies and therefore decreases their competitiveness. It was proved, that there is negative correlation between the size of the company and the size of the compliance costs of taxation. Based on that, the European Commission has decided for twin-track strategy – to introduce home state taxation in the short term and common consolidated corporate tax base in the long term. In respect to the fact, that the pilot project in the frame of home state taxation system has not started yet, the attention has been turned to the common consolidated corporate tax base. The paper discusses the possible attitudes and methods of consolidated tax base allocation. Based on mentioned arguments the formulary apportionment with factors which generate the taxable income of the group (assets, payroll, turnover, etc. seems to be the best solution. Factors and their weight should become the subject of further discussion in the European Union. The aim of the paper is to present the possible harmonization models and further to discuss the methods which could be used for allocation of the consolidated tax base under CCCTB.

Optimal cross-sectional sampling for river modelling with bridges: An information theory-based method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ridolfi, E.; Napolitano, F., E-mail: francesco.napolitano@uniroma1.it [Sapienza Università di Roma, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale (Italy); Alfonso, L. [Hydroinformatics Chair Group, UNESCO-IHE, Delft (Netherlands); Di Baldassarre, G. [Department of Earth Sciences, Program for Air, Water and Landscape Sciences, Uppsala University (Sweden)

2016-06-08

The description of river topography has a crucial role in accurate one-dimensional (1D) hydraulic modelling. Specifically, cross-sectional data define the riverbed elevation, the flood-prone area, and thus, the hydraulic behavior of the river. Here, the problem of the optimal cross-sectional spacing is solved through an information theory-based concept. The optimal subset of locations is the one with the maximum information content and the minimum amount of redundancy. The original contribution is the introduction of a methodology to sample river cross sections in the presence of bridges. The approach is tested on the Grosseto River (IT) and is compared to existing guidelines. The results show that the information theory-based approach can support traditional methods to estimate rivers’ cross-sectional spacing.

Optimal cross-sectional sampling for river modelling with bridges: An information theory-based method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ridolfi, E.; Napolitano, F.; Alfonso, L.; Di Baldassarre, G.

2016-01-01

The description of river topography has a crucial role in accurate one-dimensional (1D) hydraulic modelling. Specifically, cross-sectional data define the riverbed elevation, the flood-prone area, and thus, the hydraulic behavior of the river. Here, the problem of the optimal cross-sectional spacing is solved through an information theory-based concept. The optimal subset of locations is the one with the maximum information content and the minimum amount of redundancy. The original contribution is the introduction of a methodology to sample river cross sections in the presence of bridges. The approach is tested on the Grosseto River (IT) and is compared to existing guidelines. The results show that the information theory-based approach can support traditional methods to estimate rivers’ cross-sectional spacing.

A system-theory-based model for monthly river runoff forecasting: model calibration and optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wu Jianhua

2014-03-01

Full Text Available River runoff is not only a crucial part of the global water cycle, but it is also an important source for hydropower and an essential element of water balance. This study presents a system-theory-based model for river runoff forecasting taking the Hailiutu River as a case study. The forecasting model, designed for the Hailiutu watershed, was calibrated and verified by long-term precipitation observation data and groundwater exploitation data from the study area. Additionally, frequency analysis, taken as an optimization technique, was applied to improve prediction accuracy. Following model optimization, the overall relative prediction errors are below 10%. The system-theory-based prediction model is applicable to river runoff forecasting, and following optimization by frequency analysis, the prediction error is acceptable.

UAV based hydromorphological mapping of a river reach to improve hydrodynamic numerical models

Science.gov (United States)

Lükő, Gabriella; Baranya, Sándor; Rüther, Nils

2017-04-01

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used in the field of engineering surveys. In river engineering, or in general, water resources engineering, UAV based measurements have a huge potential. For instance, indirect measurements of the flow discharge using e.g. large-scale particle image velocimetry (LSPIV), particle tracking velocimetry (PTV), space-time image velocimetry (STIV) or radars became a real alternative for direct flow measurements. Besides flow detection, topographic surveys are also essential for river flow studies as the channel and floodplain geometry is the primary steering feature of the flow. UAVs can play an important role in this field, too. The widely used laser based topographic survey method (LIDAR) can be deployed on UAVs, moreover, the application of the Structure from Motion (SfM) method, which is based on images taken by UAVs, might be an even more cost-efficient alternative to reveal the geometry of distinct objects in the river or on the floodplain. The goal of this study is to demonstrate the utilization of photogrammetry and videogrammetry from airborne footage to provide geometry and flow data for a hydrodynamic numerical simulation of a 2 km long river reach in Albania. First, the geometry of the river is revealed from photogrammetry using the SfM method. Second, a more detailed view of the channel bed at low water level is taken. Using the fine resolution images, a Matlab based code, BASEGrain, developed by the ETH in Zürich, will be applied to determine the grain size characteristics of the river bed. This information will be essential to define the hydraulic roughness in the numerical model. Third, flow mapping is performed using UAV measurements and LSPIV method to quantitatively asses the flow field at the free surface and to estimate the discharge in the river. All data collection and analysis will be carried out using a simple, low-cost UAV, moreover, for all the data processing, open source, freely available

Identifiability of altimetry-based rating curve parameters in function of river morphological parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Paris, Adrien; André Garambois, Pierre; Calmant, Stéphane; Paiva, Rodrigo; Walter, Collischonn; Santos da Silva, Joecila; Medeiros Moreira, Daniel; Bonnet, Marie-Paule; Seyler, Frédérique; Monnier, Jérôme

2016-04-01

Estimating river discharge for ungauged river reaches from satellite measurements is not straightforward given the nonlinearity of flow behavior with respect to measurable and non measurable hydraulic parameters. As a matter of facts, current satellite datasets do not give access to key parameters such as river bed topography and roughness. A unique set of almost one thousand altimetry-based rating curves was built by fit of ENVISAT and Jason-2 water stages with discharges obtained from the MGB-IPH rainfall-runoff model in the Amazon basin. These rated discharges were successfully validated towards simulated discharges (Ens = 0.70) and in-situ discharges (Ens = 0.71) and are not mission-dependent. The rating curve writes Q = a(Z-Z0)b*sqrt(S), with Z the water surface elevation and S its slope gained from satellite altimetry, a and b power law coefficient and exponent and Z0 the river bed elevation such as Q(Z0) = 0. For several river reaches in the Amazon basin where ADCP measurements are available, the Z0 values are fairly well validated with a relative error lower than 10%. The present contribution aims at relating the identifiability and the physical meaning of a, b and Z0given various hydraulic and geomorphologic conditions. Synthetic river bathymetries sampling a wide range of rivers and inflow discharges are used to perform twin experiments. A shallow water model is run for generating synthetic satellite observations, and then rating curve parameters are determined for each river section thanks to a MCMC algorithm. Thanks to twin experiments, it is shown that rating curve formulation with water surface slope, i.e. closer from Manning equation form, improves parameter identifiability. The compensation between parameters is limited, especially for reaches with little water surface variability. Rating curve parameters are analyzed for riffle and pools for small to large rivers, different river slopes and cross section shapes. It is shown that the river bed

Interoperability challenges in river discharge modelling: A cross domain application scenario

Science.gov (United States)

Santoro, Mattia; Andres, Volker; Jirka, Simon; Koike, Toshio; Looser, Ulrich; Nativi, Stefano; Pappenberger, Florian; Schlummer, Manuela; Strauch, Adrian; Utech, Michael; Zsoter, Ervin

2018-06-01

River discharge is a critical water cycle variable, as it integrates all the processes (e.g. runoff and evapotranspiration) occurring within a river basin and provides a hydrological output variable that can be readily measured. Its prediction is of invaluable help for many water-related tasks including water resources assessment and management, flood protection, and disaster mitigation. Observations of river discharge are important to calibrate and validate hydrological or coupled land, atmosphere and ocean models. This requires using datasets from different scientific domains (Water, Weather, etc.). Typically, such datasets are provided using different technological solutions. This complicates the integration of new hydrological data sources into application systems. Therefore, a considerable effort is often spent on data access issues instead of the actual scientific question. This paper describes the work performed to address multidisciplinary interoperability challenges related to river discharge modeling and validation. This includes definition and standardization of domain specific interoperability standards for hydrological data sharing and their support in global frameworks such as the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The research was developed in the context of the EU FP7-funded project GEOWOW (GEOSS Interoperability for Weather, Ocean and Water), which implemented a "River Discharge" application scenario. This scenario demonstrates the combination of river discharge observations data from the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) database and model outputs produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) predicting river discharge based on weather forecast information in the context of the GEOSS.

Benchmarking wide swath altimetry-based river discharge estimation algorithms for the Ganges river system

Science.gov (United States)

Bonnema, Matthew G.; Sikder, Safat; Hossain, Faisal; Durand, Michael; Gleason, Colin J.; Bjerklie, David M.

2016-04-01

The objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of three algorithms that estimate discharge from remotely sensed observables (river width, water surface height, and water surface slope) in anticipation of the forthcoming NASA/CNES Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. SWOT promises to provide these measurements simultaneously, and the river discharge algorithms included here are designed to work with these data. Two algorithms were built around Manning's equation, the Metropolis Manning (MetroMan) method, and the Mean Flow and Geomorphology (MFG) method, and one approach uses hydraulic geometry to estimate discharge, the at-many-stations hydraulic geometry (AMHG) method. A well-calibrated and ground-truthed hydrodynamic model of the Ganges river system (HEC-RAS) was used as reference for three rivers from the Ganges River Delta: the main stem of Ganges, the Arial-Khan, and the Mohananda Rivers. The high seasonal variability of these rivers due to the Monsoon presented a unique opportunity to thoroughly assess the discharge algorithms in light of typical monsoon regime rivers. It was found that the MFG method provides the most accurate discharge estimations in most cases, with an average relative root-mean-squared error (RRMSE) across all three reaches of 35.5%. It is followed closely by the Metropolis Manning algorithm, with an average RRMSE of 51.5%. However, the MFG method's reliance on knowledge of prior river discharge limits its application on ungauged rivers. In terms of input data requirement at ungauged regions with no prior records, the Metropolis Manning algorithm provides a more practical alternative over a region that is lacking in historical observations as the algorithm requires less ancillary data. The AMHG algorithm, while requiring the least prior river data, provided the least accurate discharge measurements with an average wet and dry season RRMSE of 79.8% and 119.1%, respectively, across all rivers studied. This poor

The European Union strategy for the Danube – Preliminaries, mechanisms, positions, priorities and effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emilian M. DOBRESCU

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The European Union Strategy for the Danube is an internal EU strategy where all river-side countries are invited to take part, complying with the three principles applied also in the case of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.The three pillars proposed by the European Commission and which the Strategy centers round are: connectivity (transport, energy, telecommunication, environmental protection and water management, as well as the socio-economic development (culture, education, tourism, rural development. The European Commission proposed to launch and organize a public debate in all river-side countries, conferences, seminars and round tables. The outcome of these debates will lie in the European Commission working out and bringing up, together with the river states, a paper on the theme of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, and also a Plan of Action. This will comprise the detailed analysis of the present state and will propose a list of strategic projects. The implementation of the Plan of Action will be monitored by the European Commission and will be periodically up-dated, according to the economic conditions and the social trends in the region. Classification-JEL:N5; N7; Q4; R4Keywords:strategy, connectivity, environmental protection, water management, socio-economic development, sustainable developmentJournal:Romanian Journal of EconomicsPages:169-190Volume:32Issue:1(41Year:2011(XXIMonth: JuneFile-URL: http://www.revecon.ro/articles/2011-1/2011-1-10.pdfFile-Format: Application/pdfHandle: RePEc:ine:journl:v:1:y:2011:i:41:p:169-190

Scale-dependent effects of land cover on water physico-chemistry and diatom-based metrics in a major river system, the Adour-Garonne basin (South Western France)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tudesque, Loïc; Tisseuil, Clément; Lek, Sovan

2014-01-01

The scale dependence of ecological phenomena remains a central issue in ecology. Particularly in aquatic ecology, the consideration of the accurate spatial scale in assessing the effects of landscape factors on stream condition is critical. In this context, our study aimed at assessing the relationships between multi-spatial scale land cover patterns and a variety of water quality and diatom metrics measured at the stream reach level. This investigation was conducted in a major European river system, the Adour-Garonne river basin, characterized by a wide range of ecological conditions. Redundancy analysis (RDA) and variance partitioning techniques were used to disentangle the different relationships between land cover, water-chemistry and diatom metrics. Our results revealed a top-down “cascade effect” indirectly linking diatom metrics to land cover patterns through water physico-chemistry, which occurred at the largest spatial scales. In general, the strength of the relationships between land cover, physico-chemistry, and diatoms was shown to increase with the spatial scale, from the local to the basin scale, emphasizing the importance of continuous processes of accumulation throughout the river gradient. Unexpectedly, we established that the influence of land cover on the diatom metric was of primary importance both at the basin and local scale, as a result of discontinuous but not necessarily antagonist processes. The most detailed spatial grain of the Corine land cover classification appeared as the most relevant spatial grain to relate land cover to water chemistry and diatoms. Our findings provide suitable information to improve the implementation of effective diatom-based monitoring programs, especially within the scope of the European Water Framework Directive. - Highlights: •The spatial scale dependence of the “cascade effect” in a river system has been demonstrated. •The strength of the relationships between land cover and diatoms through

The Dutch N-cascade in the European perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erisman, J.W.; Domburg, N.; Vries, de W.; Kros, H.; Haan, de B.; Sanders, K.

2005-01-01

The Netherlands is "well known" for its nitrogen problems; it has one of the highest reactive nitrogen (Nr) emission densities in the world. It is a small country at the delta of several large European rivers. Ever since the industrial revolution, there has been a growing excess of nutrients and

Mercury and selenium in European catfish (Silurus glanis) from Northern Italian Rivers: can molar ratio be a predictive factor for mercury toxicity in a top predator?

Science.gov (United States)

Squadrone, S; Benedetto, A; Brizio, P; Prearo, M; Abete, M C

2015-01-01

The study of mercury and selenium bioaccumulation in fish is crucially important for evaluating the extent of contamination in freshwater environments, and the possible health risk posed for humans when the antagonistic interactions of these two elements are considered. Several factors affect the risk of mercury intake from fish consumption, including mercury levels, human consumption patterns, and sensitive populations (e.g., pregnant women, foetuses, young children and unknown genetic factors). The protective effects of selenium on mercury toxicity have been extensively publicised in recent years, particularly targeting fish consumers. In this study, mercury (Hg) and selenium (Se) concentrations were determined in the muscle of European catfish (Silurus glanis) collected from North Italian Rivers. Differences in mercury and selenium levels, as a function of size, gender and location were investigated. Hg was strongly related to length, gender and location, while Se levels are not dependent on fish size or location. The mean Se/Hg molar ratio was strongly affected by location, and significantly related to length and age. Selenium was in molar excess of mercury in all sites, with a rank order of mean Se/Hg molar ratio of the Parma River (2.55)>Po River (1.71)>Tanaro River (1.66)>Bormida River (1.36). However, in 37% of analyzed samples, Hg exceeded the maximum level set by 1881/2006/EC and 629/2008/EC in fish muscle. The molar ratio of Se/Hg was 0.5mg/kg), and therefore the mean molar ratio cannot be considered as a safety criterion in top predator fish. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PAH Metabolites in Bile of European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) from Morocco.

Science.gov (United States)

Wariaghli, Fatima; Kammann, Ulrike; Hanel, Reinhold; Yahyaoui, Ahmed

2015-12-01

Environmental pollution of fish with organic contaminants is a topic of rising attention in Morocco. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are prominent organic contaminants which are rapidly metabolized in fish. Their metabolites are accumulated in the bile fluid and can be used to assess PAH exposure. The two PAH metabolites 1-hydroxypyrene and 1-hydroxyphenanthrene were quantified in European eels (Anguilla anguilla) from two Moroccan river systems by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Mean values ranged from 52 to 210 ng/mL 1-hydroxypyrene and from 61 to 73 ng/mL 1-hydroxyphenanthrene. The overall concentrations of PAH metabolites in eel from Morocco appeared moderate compared to eel from European rivers and coastal sites. The present study provides first information on concentrations of PAH metabolites in fish from Morocco.

A parsimonious dynamic model for river water quality assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Mannina, Giorgio; Viviani, Gaspare

2010-01-01

Water quality modelling is of crucial importance for the assessment of physical, chemical, and biological changes in water bodies. Mathematical approaches to water modelling have become more prevalent over recent years. Different model types ranging from detailed physical models to simplified conceptual models are available. Actually, a possible middle ground between detailed and simplified models may be parsimonious models that represent the simplest approach that fits the application. The appropriate modelling approach depends on the research goal as well as on data available for correct model application. When there is inadequate data, it is mandatory to focus on a simple river water quality model rather than detailed ones. The study presents a parsimonious river water quality model to evaluate the propagation of pollutants in natural rivers. The model is made up of two sub-models: a quantity one and a quality one. The model employs a river schematisation that considers different stretches according to the geometric characteristics and to the gradient of the river bed. Each stretch is represented with a conceptual model of a series of linear channels and reservoirs. The channels determine the delay in the pollution wave and the reservoirs cause its dispersion. To assess the river water quality, the model employs four state variables: DO, BOD, NH(4), and NO. The model was applied to the Savena River (Italy), which is the focus of a European-financed project in which quantity and quality data were gathered. A sensitivity analysis of the model output to the model input or parameters was done based on the Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation methodology. The results demonstrate the suitability of such a model as a tool for river water quality management.

Genetic integrity of European grayling (Thymallus thymallus L. 1758 within the Vienne River drainage basin after five decades of stockings

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Henri Persat

2015-11-01

Full Text Available European grayling of the upper Vienne River drainage basin represent the westernmost populations inside the natural distribution of the species. Since the 19th century, their extension across this sub-basin has been dramatically reduced by the harnessing of the river network for dams, initially serving mills but then hydroelectric power generation. Since the 1960s, local fishing authorities have attempted to compensate for these declines with stocking programs, but the efficiency of these efforts have never been accurately monitored. We aim to evaluate the genetic imprints of these stocking programs and thus provide an indirect measure of the long-term survival of stocked fish. Three target populations were analyzed at both mtDNA (Control Region and nDNA levels (12 µSats, and compared to populations representative of surrounding drainage basins or fish farm facilities. Among 37 "wild" fish sequenced, only three control region haplotypes were identified, all belonging to the highly divergent Loire basin lineage. Two were specific to the Upper Vienne area, and one was observed in some individuals of the most downstream location, but previously described from the upper Allier sub-drainage. Microsatellite analysis of 87 "wild" fish also demonstrated a rather low diversity within each population (but typical for the Loire drainage with all Upper Vienne individuals belonging to a single diagnosable unit. This genetic cluster was clearly distinct from all other samples including hatchery strains, which strongly supports its native origin. The only piece of evidence of a possible stocking contribution was the occurrence of the Allier haplotype, but it cannot be excluded that this haplotype was also native to this reach of river. The total lack of genetic impact of five decades of stocking deeply questions the efficacy of this management approach, at least in a regional context.

TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF MALYY NARYN RIVER WATERSHED BASED ON DIFFERENT DATA

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M. Li

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This paper researched the influence on the topographical characteristics of watersheds by setting different catchment area thresholds based on different data sets, namely ZY3 DSM, SRTM DEM and ASTER GDEM. Slope, hypsometric integral, river network density and river network discrepancy are analyzed and compared. The results are as follows: a Three data sets all can express the same rough terrain characteristics and the same degree of watershed topography development; b ZY3 DSM can reflect terrain information over the Malyy Naryn River watershed in most detail and it has the best expression effect on the terrain among the three data sets of ZY3 DSM, SRTM DEM and ASTER GDEM, followed by SRTM DEM, and the effect of ASTER GDEM is the worst; c The similarity of river networks extracted by ZY3 DSM and SRTM DEM is the highest, and the similarity between ZY3 DSM and ASTER GDEM is the lowest one.

Hood River Passive House

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hales, David [BA-PIRC, Spokane, WA (United States)

2014-01-01

The Hood River Passive Project was developed by Root Design Build of Hood River Oregon using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to meet all of the requirements for certification under the European Passive House standards. The Passive House design approach has been gaining momentum among residential designers for custom homes and BEopt modeling indicates that these designs may actually exceed the goal of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building America program to "reduce home energy use by 30%-50% (compared to 2009 energy codes for new homes). This report documents the short term test results of the Shift House and compares the results of PHPP and BEopt modeling of the project. The design includes high R-Value assemblies, extremely tight construction, high performance doors and windows, solar thermal DHW, heat recovery ventilation, moveable external shutters and a high performance ductless mini-split heat pump. Cost analysis indicates that many of the measures implemented in this project did not meet the BA standard for cost neutrality. The ductless mini-split heat pump, lighting and advanced air leakage control were the most cost effective measures. The future challenge will be to value engineer the performance levels indicated here in modeling using production based practices at a significantly lower cost.

Water consumption and allocation strategies along the river oases of Tarim River based on large-scale hydrological modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Yang; Disse, Markus; Yu, Ruide

2016-04-01

With the mainstream of 1,321km and located in an arid area in northwest China, the Tarim River is China's longest inland river. The Tarim basin on the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert is an extremely arid region. In this region, agricultural water consumption and allocation management are crucial to address the conflicts among irrigation water users from upstream to downstream. Since 2011, the German Ministry of Science and Education BMBF established the Sino-German SuMaRiO project, for the sustainable management of river oases along the Tarim River. The project aims to contribute to a sustainable land management which explicitly takes into account ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. SuMaRiO will identify realizable management strategies, considering social, economic and ecological criteria. This will have positive effects for nearly 10 million inhabitants of different ethnic groups. The modelling of water consumption and allocation strategies is a core block in the SuMaRiO cluster. A large-scale hydrological model (MIKE HYDRO Basin) was established for the purpose of sustainable agricultural water management in the main stem Tarim River. MIKE HYDRO Basin is an integrated, multipurpose, map-based decision support tool for river basin analysis, planning and management. It provides detailed simulation results concerning water resources and land use in the catchment areas of the river. Calibration data and future predictions based on large amount of data was acquired. The results of model calibration indicated a close correlation between simulated and observed values. Scenarios with the change on irrigation strategies and land use distributions were investigated. Irrigation scenarios revealed that the available irrigation water has significant and varying effects on the yields of different crops. Irrigation water saving could reach up to 40% in the water-saving irrigation scenario. Land use scenarios illustrated that an increase of farmland area in the

Model based hydropower gate operation for mitigation of CSO impacts by means of river base flow increase.

Science.gov (United States)

Achleitner, S; De Toffol, S; Engelhard, C; Rauch, W

2005-01-01

In river stretches being subjected to flow regulation, usually for the purpose of energy production (e.g. Hydropower) or flood protection (river barrage), a special measure can be taken against the effect of combined sewer overflows (CSOs). The basic idea is the temporal increase of the river base flow (during storm weather) as an in-stream measure for mitigation of CSO spilling. The focus is the mitigation of the negative effect of acute pollution of substances. The measure developed can be seen as an application of the classic real time control (RTC) concept onto the river system. Upstream gate operation is to be based on real time monitoring and forecasting of precipitation. The main objective is the development of a model based predictive control system for the gate operation, by modelling of the overall wastewater system (incl. the receiving water). The main emphasis is put on the operational strategy and the appropriate short-term forecast of spilling events. The potential of the measure is tested for the application of the operational strategy and its ecological and economic feasibility. The implementation of such an in-stream measure into the hydropower's operational scheme is unique. Advantages are (a) the additional in-stream dilution of acute pollutants entering the receiving water and (b) the resulting minimization of the required CSO storage volume.

RiverCare: towards self-sustaining multifunctional rivers

Science.gov (United States)

Augustijn, Denie; Schielen, Ralph; Hulscher, Suzanne

2014-05-01

Rivers are inherently dynamic water systems involving complex interactions among hydrodynamics, morphology and ecology. In many deltas around the world lowland rivers are intensively managed to meet objectives like safety, navigation, hydropower and water supply. With the increasing pressure of growing population and climate change it will become even more challenging to reach or maintain these objectives and probably also more demanding from a management point of view. In the meantime there is a growing awareness that rivers are natural systems and that, rather than further regulation works, the dynamic natural processes should be better utilized (or restored) to reach the multifunctional objectives. Currently many integrated river management projects are initiated all over the world, in large rivers as well as streams. Examples of large scale projects in the Netherlands are 'Room for the River' (Rhine), the 'Maaswerken' (Meuse), the Deltaprogramme and projects originating from the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). These projects include innovative measures executed never before on this scale and include for example longitudinal training dams, side channels, removal of bank protection, remeandering of streams, dredging/nourishment and floodplain rehabilitation. Although estimates have been made on the effects of these measures for many of the individual projects, the overall effects on the various management objectives remains uncertain, especially if all projects are considered in connection. For all stakeholders with vested interests in the river system it is important to know how that system evolves at intermediate and longer time scales (10 to 100 years) and what the consequences will be for the various river functions. If the total, integrated response of the system can be predicted, the system may be managed in a more effective way, making optimum use of natural processes. In this way, maintenance costs may be reduced, the system remains more natural

Water Quality Evaluation of the Yellow River Basin Based on Gray Clustering Method

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, X. Q.; Zou, Z. H.

2018-03-01

Evaluating the water quality of 12 monitoring sections in the Yellow River Basin comprehensively by grey clustering method based on the water quality monitoring data from the Ministry of environmental protection of China in May 2016 and the environmental quality standard of surface water. The results can reflect the water quality of the Yellow River Basin objectively. Furthermore, the evaluation results are basically the same when compared with the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. The results also show that the overall water quality of the Yellow River Basin is good and coincident with the actual situation of the Yellow River basin. Overall, gray clustering method for water quality evaluation is reasonable and feasible and it is also convenient to calculate.

Spectrally based bathymetric mapping of a dynamic, sand‐bedded channel: Niobrara River, Nebraska, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Dilbone, Elizabeth; Legleiter, Carl; Alexander, Jason S.; McElroy, Brandon

2018-01-01

Methods for spectrally based mapping of river bathymetry have been developed and tested in clear‐flowing, gravel‐bed channels, with limited application to turbid, sand‐bed rivers. This study used hyperspectral images and field surveys from the dynamic, sandy Niobrara River to evaluate three depth retrieval methods. The first regression‐based approach, optimal band ratio analysis (OBRA), paired in situ depth measurements with image pixel values to estimate depth. The second approach used ground‐based field spectra to calibrate an OBRA relationship. The third technique, image‐to‐depth quantile transformation (IDQT), estimated depth by linking the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of depth to the CDF of an image‐derived variable. OBRA yielded the lowest depth retrieval mean error (0.005 m) and highest observed versus predicted R2 (0.817). Although misalignment between field and image data did not compromise the performance of OBRA in this study, poor georeferencing could limit regression‐based approaches such as OBRA in dynamic, sand‐bedded rivers. Field spectroscopy‐based depth maps exhibited a mean error with a slight shallow bias (0.068 m) but provided reliable estimates for most of the study reach. IDQT had a strong deep bias but provided informative relative depth maps. Overprediction of depth by IDQT highlights the need for an unbiased sampling strategy to define the depth CDF. Although each of the techniques we tested demonstrated potential to provide accurate depth estimates in sand‐bed rivers, each method also was subject to certain constraints and limitations.

Functional redundancy and sensitivity of fish assemblages in European rivers, lakes and estuarine ecosystems.

Science.gov (United States)

Teichert, Nils; Lepage, Mario; Sagouis, Alban; Borja, Angel; Chust, Guillem; Ferreira, Maria Teresa; Pasquaud, Stéphanie; Schinegger, Rafaela; Segurado, Pedro; Argillier, Christine

2017-12-14

The impact of species loss on ecosystems functioning depends on the amount of trait similarity between species, i.e. functional redundancy, but it is also influenced by the order in which species are lost. Here we investigated redundancy and sensitivity patterns across fish assemblages in lakes, rivers and estuaries. Several scenarios of species extinction were simulated to determine whether the loss of vulnerable species (with high propensity of extinction when facing threats) causes a greater functional alteration than random extinction. Our results indicate that the functional redundancy tended to increase with species richness in lakes and rivers, but not in estuaries. We demonstrated that i) in the three systems, some combinations of functional traits are supported by non-redundant species, ii) rare species in rivers and estuaries support singular functions not shared by dominant species, iii) the loss of vulnerable species can induce greater functional alteration in rivers than in lakes and estuaries. Overall, the functional structure of fish assemblages in rivers is weakly buffered against species extinction because vulnerable species support singular functions. More specifically, a hotspot of functional sensitivity was highlighted in the Iberian Peninsula, which emphasizes the usefulness of quantitative criteria to determine conservation priorities.

Development of a GIS-Based Decision Support System for Diagnosis of River System Health and Restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jihong Xia

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The development of a decision support system (DSS to inform policy making has been progressing rapidly. This paper presents a generic framework and the development steps of a decision tool prototype of geographic information systems (GIS-based decision support system of river health diagnosis (RHD-DSS. This system integrates data, calculation models, and human knowledge of river health status assessment, causal factors diagnosis, and restoration decision making to assist decision makers during river restoration and management in Zhejiang Province, China. Our RHD-DSS is composed of four main elements: the graphical user interface (GUI, the database, the model base, and the knowledge base. It has five functional components: the input module, the database management, the diagnostic indicators management, the assessment and diagnosis, and the visual result module. The system design is illustrated with particular emphasis on the development of the database, model schemas, diagnosis and analytical processing techniques, and map management design. Finally, the application of the prototype RHD-DSS is presented and implemented for Xinjiangtang River of Haining County in Zhejiang Province, China. This case study is used to demonstrate the advantages gained by the application of this system. We conclude that there is great potential for using the RHD-DSS to systematically manage river basins in order to effectively mitigate environmental issues. The proposed approach will provide river managers and designers with improved insight into river degradation conditions, thereby strengthening the assessment process and the administration of human activities in river management.

Where and why hyporheic exchange is important: Inferences from a parsimonious, physically-based river network model

Science.gov (United States)

Gomez-Velez, J. D.; Harvey, J. W.

2014-12-01

Hyporheic exchange has been hypothesized to have basin-scale consequences; however, predictions throughout river networks are limited by available geomorphic and hydrogeologic data as well as models that can analyze and aggregate hyporheic exchange flows across large spatial scales. We developed a parsimonious but physically-based model of hyporheic flow for application in large river basins: Networks with EXchange and Subsurface Storage (NEXSS). At the core of NEXSS is a characterization of the channel geometry, geomorphic features, and related hydraulic drivers based on scaling equations from the literature and readily accessible information such as river discharge, bankfull width, median grain size, sinuosity, channel slope, and regional groundwater gradients. Multi-scale hyporheic flow is computed based on combining simple but powerful analytical and numerical expressions that have been previously published. We applied NEXSS across a broad range of geomorphic diversity in river reaches and synthetic river networks. NEXSS demonstrates that vertical exchange beneath submerged bedforms dominates hyporheic fluxes and turnover rates along the river corridor. Moreover, the hyporheic zone's potential for biogeochemical transformations is comparable across stream orders, but the abundance of lower-order channels results in a considerably higher cumulative effect for low-order streams. Thus, vertical exchange beneath submerged bedforms has more potential for biogeochemical transformations than lateral exchange beneath banks, although lateral exchange through meanders may be important in large rivers. These results have implications for predicting outcomes of river and basin management practices.

The role of the river Rhine in the formation of spatial structure of the economy of European countries (1st century BC — 19th century AD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grazhdankin Alexander

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This article considers the main historical stages of formation of spatial economic structure of the European countries, parts of whose territories lie within the Rhine basin. The analysis covers a protracted chronological interval from the Roman colonization until the beginning of the 20th century. The author emphasizes the role of the River Rhine in the course of territorial structure formation. This study aims to retrace the historical sequence of the formation of territorial structure of economies of the Rhine basin countries. The research and practical significance of the work lies in the identification of the periods of increased activity in the formation of spatial structural communications of the states mentioned. The author applies the historical-descriptive approach and cartographical-geographical modelling to identify the main stages of this process. The author arrives at the following conclusions. The beginning of the formation of spatial structure of economies of the Rhine basin countries dates back to the Roman period of the history of European states rather than the industrial revolution. Similarly, it is possible to assume that primitive integration processes started to develop in the region in the same period. Throughout history, the River Rhine has served as the central axis for economic structure development. The practical significance of the article lies in identifying the early — previously insufficiently studied — stages of formation of territorial economic structure in the historical and geographical context.

Relationship of fish indices with sampling effort and land use change in a large Mediterranean river.

Science.gov (United States)

Almeida, David; Alcaraz-Hernández, Juan Diego; Merciai, Roberto; Benejam, Lluís; García-Berthou, Emili

2017-12-15

Fish are invaluable ecological indicators in freshwater ecosystems but have been less used for ecological assessments in large Mediterranean rivers. We evaluated the effects of sampling effort (transect length) on fish metrics, such as species richness and two fish indices (the new European Fish Index EFI+ and a regional index, IBICAT2b), in the mainstem of a large Mediterranean river. For this purpose, we sampled by boat electrofishing five sites each with 10 consecutive transects corresponding to a total length of 20 times the river width (European standard required by the Water Framework Directive) and we also analysed the effect of sampling area on previous surveys. Species accumulation curves and richness extrapolation estimates in general suggested that species richness was reasonably estimated with transect lengths of 10 times the river width or less. The EFI+ index was significantly affected by sampling area, both for our samplings and previous data. Surprisingly, EFI+ values in general decreased with increasing sampling area, despite the higher observed richness, likely because the expected values of metrics were higher. By contrast, the regional fish index was not dependent on sampling area, likely because it does not use a predictive model. Both fish indices, but particularly the EFI+, decreased with less forest cover percentage, even within the smaller disturbance gradient in the river type studied (mainstem of a large Mediterranean river, where environmental pressures are more general). Although the two fish-based indices are very different in terms of their development, methodology, and metrics used, they were significantly correlated and provided a similar assessment of ecological status. Our results reinforce the importance of standardization of sampling methods for bioassessment and suggest that predictive models that use sampling area as a predictor might be more affected by differences in sampling effort than simpler biotic indices. Copyright �

Developing a Science-based River Basin Management Plan for the Kharaa River Basin, Mongolia

Science.gov (United States)

Karthe, Daniel

2013-04-01

management. In the past, shared and unclear responsibilities, a spatial mismatch between administrative and river basin boundaries, the lack of relevant information, financial resources and implementation capacity resulted in an uncoordinated and partially uncontrolled exploitation of water resources (Livingstone et al. 2009; Horlemann et al. 2012). The recent decision of the Mongolian government to develop river basin management plans and to provide for their implementation through river basin councils and administrations, and the comparatively good data availability resulting from the R&D project, resulted in the decision to jointly develop a science-based river basin management plan for the KRB as a model region for other river basins of the country. References: Hartwig, M.; Theuring, P.; Rode, M. & Borchardt, D. (2012): Suspended sediments in the Kharaa River catchment (Mongolia) and its impact on hyporheic zone functions. Environmental Earth Sciences 65(5):1535-1546. Hofmann, J.; Venohr, M.; Behrendt, H. & Opitz, D. (2010): Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia: Nutrient and heavy metal emissions and their relevance for the Kharaa River Basin, Mongolia. Water Science and Technology 62(2):353-363. Horlemann, L. & Dombrowsky, I. (2012): Institutionalising IWRM in developing and transition countries: the case of Mongolia. Environmental Earth Sciences 65(5):1547-1559. Karthe, D.; Borchardt, D. & Hufert, F. (2012a): Implementing IWRM: Experiences from a Central Asian Model Region. In: Pandya, A.B. (Ed.) (2012): India Water Week 2012. Water, Energy and Food Security: Call for Solutions, Part A3, pp. 1-15. Delhi: Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India. Karthe, D.; Sigel, K.; Scharaw, B. et al. (2012b): Towards an integrated concept for monitoring and improvements in water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in urban Mongolia. Water & Risk 20:1-5. Karthe, D.; Malsy, M.; Kopp, B. & Minderlein, S. (2013): Assessing Water Availibility and its Drivers in

Water quality of Cisadane River based on watershed segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Effendi, Hefni; Ayu Permatasari, Prita; Muslimah, Sri; Mursalin

2018-05-01

The growth of population and industrialization combined with land development along river cause water pollution and environmental deterioration. Cisadane River is one of the river in Indonesia where urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural are extremely main sources of pollution. Cisadane River is an interesting case for investigating the effect of land use to water quality and comparing water quality in every river segment. The main objectives with this study were to examine if there is a correlation between land use and water quality in Cisadane River and there is a difference in water quality between the upstream section of Cisadane River compared with its downstream section. This study compared water quality with land use condition in each segment of river. Land use classification showed that river segment that has more undeveloped area has better water quality compared to river segment with developed area. in general, BOD and COD values have increased from upstream to downstream. However, BOD and COD values do not show a steady increase in each segment Water quality is closely related to the surrounding land use.Therefore, it can not be concluded that the water quality downstream is worse than in the upstream area.

The tritium balance of the Ems river basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krause, W.J.

1989-01-01

For the Ems river basin, as a fine example of a Central European lowland basin, an inventory of the tritium distribution is presented for the hydrologic years 1951 to 1983. On the basis of a balance model, the tritium contents in surface waters and groundwater of the Ems river basin are calculated, using known and extrapolated tritium input data and comparing them with the corresponding values measured since 1974. A survey of tritium flows occurring in this basin is presented, taking meteorologic and hydrologic facts into account. (orig.)

River channel and bar patterns explained and predicted by an empirical and a physics-based method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kleinhans, M.G.; Berg, J.H. van den

2011-01-01

Our objective is to understand general causes of different river channel patterns. In this paper we compare an empirical stream power-based classification and a physics-based bar pattern predictor. We present a careful selection of data from the literature that contains rivers with discharge and

Water availability forecasting for Naryn River using ground-based and satellite snow cover data

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O. Y. Kalashnikova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The main source of river nourishment in arid regions of Central Asia is the melting of seasonal snow accu‑ mulated in mountains during the cold period. In this study, we analyzed data on seasonal snow cover by ground‑based observations from Kyrgyzhydromet network, as well as from MODIS satellite imagery for the period of 2000–2015. This information was used to compile the forecast methods of water availability of snow‑ice and ice‑snow fed rivers for the vegetation period. The Naryn river basin was chosen as a study area which is the main tributary of Syrdarya River and belongs to the Aral Sea basin. The representative mete‑ orological stations with ground‑based observations of snow cover were identified and regression analysis between mean discharge for the vegetation period and number of snow covered days, maximum snow depth based on in‑situ data as well as snow cover area based on MODIS images was conducted. Based on this infor‑ mation, equations are derived for seasonal water availability forecasting using multiple linear regression anal‑ ysis. Proposed equations have high correlation coefficients (R = 0.89÷0.92 and  and fore‑ casting accuracy. The methodology was implemented in Kyrgyzhydromet and is used for forecasting of water availability in Naryn basin and water inflow into Toktogul Reservoir.

Danube Soya – Improving European GM-free soya supply for food and feed

OpenAIRE

Krön Matthias; Bittner Ursula

2015-01-01

The Danube Soya Association is an international, voluntary, non-profit, non-governmental association promoting sustainable and GMO**-free soya production along the Danube River Basin – from Switzerland to the Black Sea. Founded in 2012 the association counts today more than 200 members from the whole value chain and civil society in 16 European countries. The members share the vision of a protein transition towards more European...

Hydrologic classification of rivers based on cluster analysis of dimensionless hydrologic signatures: Applications for environmental instream flows

Science.gov (United States)

Praskievicz, S. J.; Luo, C.

2017-12-01

Classification of rivers is useful for a variety of purposes, such as generating and testing hypotheses about watershed controls on hydrology, predicting hydrologic variables for ungaged rivers, and setting goals for river management. In this research, we present a bottom-up (based on machine learning) river classification designed to investigate the underlying physical processes governing rivers' hydrologic regimes. The classification was developed for the entire state of Alabama, based on 248 United States Geological Survey (USGS) stream gages that met criteria for length and completeness of records. Five dimensionless hydrologic signatures were derived for each gage: slope of the flow duration curve (indicator of flow variability), baseflow index (ratio of baseflow to average streamflow), rising limb density (number of rising limbs per unit time), runoff ratio (ratio of long-term average streamflow to long-term average precipitation), and streamflow elasticity (sensitivity of streamflow to precipitation). We used a Bayesian clustering algorithm to classify the gages, based on the five hydrologic signatures, into distinct hydrologic regimes. We then used classification and regression trees (CART) to predict each gaged river's membership in different hydrologic regimes based on climatic and watershed variables. Using existing geospatial data, we applied the CART analysis to classify ungaged streams in Alabama, with the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) catchment (average area 3 km2) as the unit of classification. The results of the classification can be used for meeting management and conservation objectives in Alabama, such as developing statewide standards for environmental instream flows. Such hydrologic classification approaches are promising for contributing to process-based understanding of river systems.

Savannah River Site generic data base development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanchard, A.

2000-01-01

This report describes the results of a project to improve the generic component failure database for the Savannah River Site (SRS). Additionally, guidelines were developed further for more advanced applications of database values. A representative list of components and failure modes for SRS risk models was generated by reviewing existing safety analyses and component failure data bases and from suggestions from SRS safety analysts. Then sources of data or failure rate estimates were identified and reviewed for applicability. A major source of information was the Nuclear Computerized Library for Assessing Reactor Reliability, or NUCLARR. This source includes an extensive collection of failure data and failure rate estimates for commercial nuclear power plants. A recent Idaho National Engineering Laboratory report on failure data from the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant was also reviewed. From these and other recent sources, failure data and failure rate estimates were collected for the components and failure modes of interest. For each component failure mode, this information was aggregated to obtain a recommended generic failure rate distribution (mean and error factor based on a lognormal distribution). Results are presented in a table in this report. A major difference between generic database and previous efforts is that this effort estimates failure rates based on actual data (failure events) rather than on existing failure rate estimates. This effort was successful in that over 75% of the results are now based on actual data. Also included is a section on guidelines for more advanced applications of failure rate data. This report describes the results of a project to improve the generic component failure database for the Savannah River site (SRS). Additionally, guidelines were developed further for more advanced applications of database values

Seasonal variation of sediment toxicity in the Rivers Dommel and Elbe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hsu, P.; Matthaei, A.; Heise, S.; Ahlf, W.

2007-01-01

Contaminated sediment in the river basin has become a source of pollution with increasing importance to the aquatic ecosystem downstream. To monitor the temporal changes of the sediment bound contaminants in the River Elbe and the River Dommel monthly toxicity tests were applied to layered sediment and river water samples over the course of 10 months. There is an indication that contaminated sediments upstream adversely affected sediments downstream, but this process did not cause a continuous increase of sediment toxicity. A clear decrease of toxic effects in water and upper layer sediment was observed at the River Elbe station in spring related to high water discharge and algal blooms. The less obvious variation of sediment toxicity in the River Dommel could be explained by stable hydrological conditions. Future monitoring programmes should promote a more frequent and intensive sampling regime during these particular events for ecotoxicological evaluation. - Significant impacts of hydrological and biological factors on the ecotoxicological quality in two European rivers (Elbe and Dommel)

Shoreline Changes on the Wave-Influenced Senegal River Delta, West Africa: The Roles of Natural Processes and Human Interventions

OpenAIRE

Sadio , Mamadou; Anthony , Edward ,; Diaw , Amadou ,; DUSSOUILLEZ , Philippe; FLEURY , Jules; Kane , Alioune; Almar , Rafael; Kestenare , Élodie

2017-01-01

International audience; The Senegal River delta in West Africa, one of the finest examples of " wave-influenced " deltas, is bounded by a spit periodically breached by waves, each breach then acting as a shifting mouth of the Senegal River. Using European Re-Analysis (ERA) hindcast wave data from 1984 to 2015 generated by the Wave Atmospheric Model (WAM) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), we calculated longshore sediment transport rates along the spit. We also ...

Numerical modelling of river morphodynamics: Latest developments and remaining challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Siviglia, Annunziato; Crosato, Alessandra

2016-07-01

Numerical morphodynamic models provide scientific frameworks for advancing our understanding of river systems. The research on involved topics is an important and socially relevant undertaking regarding our environment. Nowadays numerical models are used for different purposes, from answering questions about basic morphodynamic research to managing complex river engineering problems. Due to increasing computer power and the development of advanced numerical techniques, morphodynamic models are now more and more used to predict the bed patterns evolution to a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. The development and the success of application of such models are based upon a wide range of disciplines from applied mathematics for the numerical solution of the equations to geomorphology for the physical interpretation of the results. In this light we organized this special issue (SI) soliciting multidisciplinary contributions which encompass any aspect needed for the development and applications of such models. Most of the papers in the SI stem from contributions to session HS9.5/GM7.11 on numerical modelling and experiments in river morphodynamics at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly held in Vienna, April 27th to May 2nd 2014.

Process-based distributed modeling approach for analysis of sediment dynamics in a river basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. A. Kabir

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Modeling of sediment dynamics for developing best management practices of reducing soil erosion and of sediment control has become essential for sustainable management of watersheds. Precise estimation of sediment dynamics is very important since soils are a major component of enormous environmental processes and sediment transport controls lake and river pollution extensively. Different hydrological processes govern sediment dynamics in a river basin, which are highly variable in spatial and temporal scales. This paper presents a process-based distributed modeling approach for analysis of sediment dynamics at river basin scale by integrating sediment processes (soil erosion, sediment transport and deposition with an existing process-based distributed hydrological model. In this modeling approach, the watershed is divided into an array of homogeneous grids to capture the catchment spatial heterogeneity. Hillslope and river sediment dynamic processes have been modeled separately and linked to each other consistently. Water flow and sediment transport at different land grids and river nodes are modeled using one dimensional kinematic wave approximation of Saint-Venant equations. The mechanics of sediment dynamics are integrated into the model using representative physical equations after a comprehensive review. The model has been tested on river basins in two different hydro climatic areas, the Abukuma River Basin, Japan and Latrobe River Basin, Australia. Sediment transport and deposition are modeled using Govers transport capacity equation. All spatial datasets, such as, Digital Elevation Model (DEM, land use and soil classification data, etc., have been prepared using raster "Geographic Information System (GIS" tools. The results of relevant statistical checks (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency and R–squared value indicate that the model simulates basin hydrology and its associated sediment dynamics reasonably well. This paper presents the

Gas exchange in the Pee Dee River based on 222Rn evasion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moore, W.S.; Elsinger, R.J.

1983-01-01

Excess 222 Rn concentrations decrease downstream in the fresh water section of the Pee Dee River. Ground water is the primary source of the excess 222 Rn to the River. Using the radon concentration gradients determined during four sampling periods, gas exchange rates based on the stagnant film model are calculated. Stagnant film thicknesses range from 19 μm to 48 μm and mass transfer coefficients range from 2.1 m/d to 4.1 m/d

Safety evaluation model of urban cross-river tunnel based on driving simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Yingqi; Lu, Linjun; Lu, Jian John

2017-09-01

Currently, Shanghai urban cross-river tunnels have three principal characteristics: increased traffic, a high accident rate and rapidly developing construction. Because of their complex geographic and hydrological characteristics, the alignment conditions in urban cross-river tunnels are more complicated than in highway tunnels, so a safety evaluation of urban cross-river tunnels is necessary to suggest follow-up construction and changes in operational management. A driving risk index (DRI) for urban cross-river tunnels was proposed in this study. An index system was also constructed, combining eight factors derived from the output of a driving simulator regarding three aspects of risk due to following, lateral accidents and driver workload. Analytic hierarchy process methods and expert marking and normalization processing were applied to construct a mathematical model for the DRI. The driving simulator was used to simulate 12 Shanghai urban cross-river tunnels and a relationship was obtained between the DRI for the tunnels and the corresponding accident rate (AR) via a regression analysis. The regression analysis results showed that the relationship between the DRI and the AR mapped to an exponential function with a high degree of fit. In the absence of detailed accident data, a safety evaluation model based on factors derived from a driving simulation can effectively assess the driving risk in urban cross-river tunnels constructed or in design.

SENTINEL-1/2 DATA FOR SHIP TRAFFIC MONITORING ON THE DANUBE RIVER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Dana Negula

2016-06-01

Full Text Available After a long period of drought, the water level of the Danube River has significantly dropped especially on the Romanian sector, in July-August 2015. Danube reached the lowest water level recorded in the last 12 years, causing the blockage of the ships in the sector located close to Zimnicea Harbour. The rising sand banks in the navigable channel congested the commercial traffic for a few days with more than 100 ships involved. The monitoring of the decreasing water level and the traffic jam was performed based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 free data provided by the European Space Agency and the European Commission within the Copernicus Programme. Specific processing methods (calibration, speckle filtering, geocoding, change detection, image classification, principal component analysis, etc. were applied in order to generate useful products that the responsible authorities could benefit from. The Sentinel data yielded good results for water mask extraction and ships detection. The analysis continued after the closure of the crisis situation when the water reached the nominal level again. The results indicate that Sentinel data can be successfully used for ship traffic monitoring, building the foundation of future endeavours for a durable monitoring of the Danube River.

Is cruising along European rivers primarily intended for seniors and workers from Eastern Europe?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erdeji Irma

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The subject of the paper is river cruising along the rivers of Europe in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy. The research needed to determine the trends in terms of consumers and labour force, particularly considering great political and economic changes in Europe (and the world in the last ten years. The aims of the research were set in relation to the following: to determine the profile of a tourist as well as the crew members. This paper is based on empirical and theoretical research. It combines quantitative primary and secondary as well as qualitative data collection (interview. Primary data was collected from the 'Uniworld' company by analysing crew manifests in order to define the demographical profile of the employees. Secondary data collection was used to define the profile of the tourist, where latest relevant publications were consulted. Qualitative method was used to gain more insight in the latest trends of River Cruising by interweaving the managers of the 'Uniworld' company. It was determined that 'baby boomers' are no longer prevalent on the cruise ships, but the 'millennials' cohort are on the rise. Such changes will require a new approach among the cruising companies - in terms of the concept of service delivery and marketing. However, among employees there is no significant change, suggesting that this type of job market is tightly regulated by EU regulations. This research offers valuable data in the field of tourism destination management, as well as the needs of some stakeholders, especially in terms of human resources management and management of strategic development issues. This is important both for the countries which already have positioned themselves on the cruising market as well as for emerging destinations.

Damage estimates for European and U.S.sites using the U.S. high-cycle fatigue data base

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sutherland, H J [Wind Energy Technology, Sandia National Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1996-09-01

This paper uses two high-cycle fatigue data bases, one for typical U.S. blade materials and one for European materials, to analyze the service lifetime of a wind turbine blade subjected to the WISPER load spectrum for northern European sites and the WISPER protocol load spectrum for U.S. wind farm sites. The U.S. data base contains over 2200 data points that were obtained using coupon testing procedures. These data are used to construct a Goodman diagram that is suitable for analyzing wind turbine blades. This result is compared to the Goodman diagram derived from the European fatigue data base FACT. The LIFE2 fatigue analysis code for wind turbines is then used to predict the service lifetime of a turbine blade subjected to the two loading histories. The results of this study indicate that the WISPER load spectrum from northern European sites significantly underestimates the WISPER protocol load spectrum from a U.S. wind farm site, i.e., the WISPER load spectrum significantly underestimates the number and magnitude of the loads observed at a U.S. wind farm site. Further, the analysis demonstrate that the European and the U.S. fatigue material data bases are in general agreement for the prediction of tensile failures. However, for compressive failures, the two data bases are significantly different, with the U.S. data base predicting significantly shorter service lifetimes than the European data base. (au) 14 refs.

76 FR 52543 - European Larch Canker; Expansion of Regulated Areas

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-23

...-2011-0029, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118... Road Unit 26, Riverdale, MD 20737; (301) 734-0917. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background European larch... kill mature and immature species of the genus Larix (larch) and Pseudolarix (Golden larch). In parts of...

77 FR 53884 - North Sky River Energy, LLC; Supplemental Notice That Initial Market-Based Rate Filing Includes...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-04

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. ER12-2444-000] North Sky River Energy, LLC; Supplemental Notice That Initial Market-Based Rate Filing Includes Request for... North Sky River Energy, LLC's application for market-based rate authority, with an accompanying rate...

Remotely Sensed Based Lake/Reservoir Routing in Congo River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Raoufi, R.; Beighley, E.; Lee, H.

2017-12-01

Lake and reservoir dynamics can influence local to regional water cycles but are often not well represented in hydrologic models. One challenge that limits their inclusion in models is the need for detailed storage-discharge behavior that can be further complicated in reservoirs where specific operation rules are employed. Here, the Hillslope River Routing (HRR) model is combined with a remotely sensed based Reservoir Routing (RR) method and applied to the Congo River Basin. Given that topographic data are often continuous over the entire terrestrial surface (i.e., does not differentiate between land and open water), the HRR-RR model integrates topographic derived river networks and catchment boundaries (e.g., HydroSHEDs) with water boundary extents (e.g., Global Lakes and Wetlands Database) to develop the computational framework. The catchments bordering lakes and reservoirs are partitioned into water and land portions, where representative flowpath characteristics are determined and vertical water balance and lateral routings is performed separately on each partition based on applicable process models (e.g., open water evaporation vs. evapotranspiration). To enable reservoir routing, remotely sensed water surface elevations and extents are combined to determine the storage change time series. Based on the available time series, representative storage change patterns are determined. Lake/reservoir routing is performed by combining inflows from the HRR-RR model and the representative storage change patterns to determine outflows. In this study, a suite of storage change patterns derived from remotely sensed measurements are determined representative patterns for wet, dry and average conditions. The HRR-RR model dynamically selects and uses the optimal storage change pattern for the routing process based on these hydrologic conditions. The HRR-RR model results are presented to highlight the importance of lake attenuation/routing in the Congo Basin.

A European perspective on GIS-based walkability and active modes of transport.

Science.gov (United States)

Grasser, Gerlinde; van Dyck, Delfien; Titze, Sylvia; Stronegger, Willibald J

2017-02-01

The association between GIS-based walkability and walking for transport is considered to be well established in USA and in Australia. Research on the association between walkability and cycling for transport in European cities is lacking. The aim of this study was to test the predictive validity of established walkability measures and to explore alternative walkability measures associated with walking and cycling for transport in a European context. Outcome data were derived from the representative cross-sectional survey ( n  = 843) ‘Radfreundliche Stadt’ of adults in the city of Graz (Austria). GIS-based walkability was measured using both established measures (e.g. gross population density, household unit density, entropy index, three-way intersection density, IPEN walkability index) and alternative measures (e.g. proportion of mixed land use, four-way intersection density, Graz walkability index). ANCOVAs were conducted to examine the adjusted association between walkability measures and outcomes. Household unit density, proportion of mixed land use, three-way intersection density and IPEN walkability index were positively associated with walking for transport, but the other measures were not. All walkability measures were positively associated with cycling for transport. The established walkability measures were applicable to a European city such as Graz. The alternative walkability measures performed well in a European context. Due to measurement issues the association between these walkability measures and walking for transport needs to be investigated further. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

[Nitrogen non-point source pollution identification based on ArcSWAT in Changle River].

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Ou-Ping; Sun, Si-Yang; Lü, Jun

2013-04-01

The ArcSWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model was adopted for Non-point source (NPS) nitrogen pollution modeling and nitrogen source apportionment for the Changle River watershed, a typical agricultural watershed in Southeast China. Water quality and hydrological parameters were monitored, and the watershed natural conditions (including soil, climate, land use, etc) and pollution sources information were also investigated and collected for SWAT database. The ArcSWAT model was established in the Changle River after the calibrating and validating procedures of the model parameters. Based on the validated SWAT model, the contributions of different nitrogen sources to river TN loading were quantified, and spatial-temporal distributions of NPS nitrogen export to rivers were addressed. The results showed that in the Changle River watershed, Nitrogen fertilizer, nitrogen air deposition and nitrogen soil pool were the prominent pollution sources, which contributed 35%, 32% and 25% to the river TN loading, respectively. There were spatial-temporal variations in the critical sources for NPS TN export to the river. Natural sources, such as soil nitrogen pool and atmospheric nitrogen deposition, should be targeted as the critical sources for river TN pollution during the rainy seasons. Chemical nitrogen fertilizer application should be targeted as the critical sources for river TN pollution during the crop growing season. Chemical nitrogen fertilizer application, soil nitrogen pool and atmospheric nitrogen deposition were the main sources for TN exported from the garden plot, forest and residential land, respectively. However, they were the main sources for TN exported both from the upland and paddy field. These results revealed that NPS pollution controlling rules should focus on the spatio-temporal distribution of NPS pollution sources.

Exploitation of the Vistula River from earliest times to the outbreak of World War II

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomasz Marcin Duchnowski

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Since the earliest times, the Vistula River has been an artery used for movement of people, commodities and cultures. The settlement network that began to develop along it constituted the foundation of the emerging Polish state in the Early Middle Ages. In the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights appeared downriver. After the outbreak of Prussia and Gdańsk Pomerania, they formed a state with a powerful economy and army. During their reign along the Vistula River (Wisła, many castles and fortified towns guarding its particular sections were erected. After the end of the Thirteen Years’ War (1466, almost the whole river with its tributaries was incorporated within the limits of Poland or countries recognising its authority. From the middle of the 16th century to the mid-17th century, the Vistula River performed the role of the main Polish trade route for many products sent to Western European countries through Gdańsk. The city was then experiencing the apogee of its magnificence. Cereals were the most important commodity back then. The gentry – the producers – and many towns intermediating in trade were growing rich thanks to the good economic situation. Then, the rich folklore of raftsmen immortalised by poets and pictured by painters came into being. In the 18th century, changes in agriculture in Western European countries and increasing competition caused depression in the export of Polish cereals. In addition, the partitions of Poland affected its balance. Because of this, the Vistula River flowed through three states: Austria, Russia and Prussia. All of them conducted separate policies concerning the river, which caused its decline as an important European water artery. In the 19th century, it remained unregulated. Germans performed the most works in the lower course of the river, while Russians did the least in its middle course. In the period of Second Polish Republic, the revived state had new needs, thus river development was not

Modelling tools for managing Induced RiverBank Filtration MAR schemes

Science.gov (United States)

De Filippis, Giovanna; Barbagli, Alessio; Marchina, Chiara; Borsi, Iacopo; Mazzanti, Giorgio; Nardi, Marco; Vienken, Thomas; Bonari, Enrico; Rossetto, Rudy

2017-04-01

Induced RiverBank Filtration (IRBF) is a widely used technique in Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) schemes, when aquifers are hydraulically connected with surface water bodies, with proven positive effects on quality and quantity of groundwater. IRBF allows abstraction of a large volume of water, avoiding large decrease in groundwater heads. Moreover, thanks to the filtration process through the soil, the concentration of chemical species in surface water can be reduced, thus becoming an excellent resource for the production of drinking water. Within the FP7 MARSOL project (demonstrating Managed Aquifer Recharge as a SOLution to water scarcity and drought; http://www.marsol.eu/), the Sant'Alessio IRBF (Lucca, Italy) was used to demonstrate the feasibility and technical and economic benefits of managing IRBF schemes (Rossetto et al., 2015a). The Sant'Alessio IRBF along the Serchio river allows to abstract an overall amount of about 0.5 m3/s providing drinking water for 300000 people of the coastal Tuscany (mainly to the town of Lucca, Pisa and Livorno). The supplied water is made available by enhancing river bank infiltration into a high yield (10-2 m2/s transmissivity) sandy-gravelly aquifer by rising the river head and using ten vertical wells along the river embankment. A Decision Support System, consisting in connected measurements from an advanced monitoring network and modelling tools was set up to manage the IRBF. The modelling system is based on spatially distributed and physically based coupled ground-/surface-water flow and solute transport models integrated in the FREEWAT platform (developed within the H2020 FREEWAT project - FREE and Open Source Software Tools for WATer Resource Management; Rossetto et al., 2015b), an open source and public domain GIS-integrated modelling environment for the simulation of the hydrological cycle. The platform aims at improving water resource management by simplifying the application of EU water-related Directives and at

The necessity of flood risk maps on Timis River

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aldescu, Geogr Catalin

2008-01-01

The paper aims to clarify the necessity of risk reduction in flood prone areas along the Timis River. Different methods to reduce risk in flood prone areas are analyzed as well. According to the EU Flood Directive it is mandatory for the European countries to develop flood maps and flood risk maps. The maps help to assess the vulnerable zones in the floodable (i.e. flood prone) areas. Many European countries have produced maps which identify areas prone to flooding events for specific known return periods. In Romania the flood risk maps have not been yet produced, but the process has been started to be implemented at the national and regional level, therefore the first results will be soon available. Banat Hydrographical Area was affected by severe floods on Timis River in 2000, 2005 and 2006. The 2005 flood was the most devastating one with large economic losses. As a result of these catastrophes the need for generating flood risk maps along the Timis. River was clearly stated. The water management experts can use these maps in order to identify the 'hot spots' in Timis catchment, give the people a better understanding of flood risk issues and help reducing flood risk more efficient in the identified vulnerable areas.

Riverine based eco-tourism: Trinity River non-market benefits estimates

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, A.J.; Taylor, J.G.

1998-01-01

California's Central Valley Project (CVP) was approved by voters in a statewide referendum in 1933. CVP referendum approval initiated funding for construction of important water development projects that had far reaching effects on regional water supplies. The construction of Trinity Dam in 1963 and the subsequent transbasin diversion of Trinity River flow was one of several CVP projects that had noteworthy adverse environmental and regional economic impacts. The Trinity River is the largest tributary of the Klamath River, and has its headwaters in the Trinity Alps of north-central California. After the construction of Trinity Dam in 1963, 90% of the Trinity River flow at Lewiston was moved to the Sacramento River via the Clear Creek Tunnel. Before 1963, the Trinity River was a major recreation resource of Northern California. The loss of streamflow has had a marked adverse impact on Trinity River-related recreation activities and the size and robustness of Trinity River salmon, steelhead, shad, and sturgeon runs. Trinity River water produces hydropower during its transit via Bureau of Reclamation canals and pumps to the northern San Joaquin Valley, where it is used for irrigated agriculture. The benefits provided by Trinity River instream flow-related environmental amenities were estimated with the travel cost method (TCM). Trinity River non-market benefits are about $406 million per annum, while the social cost of sending water down the Trinity River ranges from $17 to $42 million per annum, depending on the exact flow. We also discuss the relative magnitude of Trinity River survey data contingent value method (CVM) benefits estimates.

Influence of technical maintenance measures on ecological status of agricultural lowland rivers - Systematic review and implications for river management.

Science.gov (United States)

Bączyk, Anna; Wagner, Maciej; Okruszko, Tomasz; Grygoruk, Mateusz

2018-06-15

Intensification of agriculture and ongoing urban sprawl exacerbate pressures on rivers. Small rivers in agricultural landscapes are especially exposed to excessive technical actions implemented in order to allow for harvesting river water for irrigation, draining agricultural water and receiving sewage. Regular dredging and macrophyte removal strongly interfere with the global need for preserving river biodiversity that allows agricultural lowland rivers to remain refuges for a variety of species, and-accordingly-to keep water bodies resilient for the benefit of society. In order to provide a comprehensive look at the influence of agricultural lowland river management on the ecological status of these water bodies, we conducted a literature review and a meta-analysis. For the structured literature review we selected 203 papers reflecting on the response of aquatic ecosystems to dredging and macrophyte management actions. The database of scientific contributions developed for our study consists of papers written by the authors from 33 countries (first authorship) addressing dredging, macrophyte removal, status of fish and macroinvertebrates as well as the general ecological status of lowland agricultural rivers. We revealed that 96% of the analyzed papers indicated unilateral, negative responses of aquatic ecosystems, particularly macroinvertebrates, ichthyofauna and macrophyte composition, to maintenance measures. We revealed that studies conducted in the European Union on the ecological status of rivers appeared to significantly increase in quantity after the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Finally, we concluded that day-to-day management of lowland agricultural rivers requires revision in terms of compliance with environmental conservation requirements and the recurrent implementation of technical measures for river maintenance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Engaging expert communities in development of content of Russia’s regional geoportals (case study: “River basins in European Russia” geoportal)

Science.gov (United States)

Ermolaeva, P.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study is to attract expert communities’ intellectual resources to the process of developing a geoportal entitled "River Basins in European Russia". The results of a survey of experts (n=100) have shown that more than half of respondents had used a variety of geoportals’ data in their professional life. Data on digital relief models, streamflows and landscape maps are of greatest interest. In order to obtain a comprehensive social and ecological analysis of the territory, experts have expressed interest in placing data on population in the basins and its density, the volume of used natural resources, and recreational zones on the designed geoportal. In practical sense, our study can be viewed as a fruitful ground for the development of upward vertical communication (from citizens to the government) and partially horizontal communication among citizens via their engagement in the environmental decision-making process.

Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM): from Design to Implementation through European Projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magdaleno Mas, F.; Dalacamara Andres, G.

2015-01-01

The Centre for Applied Technique Studies (CETA) of CEDEX has been working over the last few years in different European projects related with the design and development of natural water retention measures (NWRM). These are a number of measures, boosted by the Water Unit of the Environment Directorate-General of the European Commission. with close links to green infrastructures, which try to integrate, from a multifunctional approach, different legal and technical requirements aimed at a better adaptation to extreme hydro meteorological events, environmental protection and conservation, and maintenance of ecosystem services. This paper reviews the underpinning foundations of the concept and the mechanisms for designing and implementing NWRM. It also shows the way they can be applied, by presenting different initiatives developed by CETA since 2008 in Navarra (Arga-Aragon rivers system). For fulfilling those works, CETA has collaborated with environmental and hydraulic authorities of Navarra. It has also actively cooperated with research centres, such as the Institute IMDEA Water. specifically in a European project devoted to the diffusion, assessment, and presentation of NWRM within the context of the EU River Basin Districts. (Author)

The European Union approach to flood risk management and improving societal resilience: lessons from the implementation of the Floods Directive in six European countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sally J. Priest

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Diversity in flood risk management approaches is often considered to be a strength. However, in some national settings, and especially for transboundary rivers, variability and incompatibility of approaches can reduce the effectiveness of flood risk management. Placed in the context of increasing flood risks, as well as the potential for flooding to undermine the European Union's sustainable development goals, a desire to increase societal resilience to flooding has prompted the introduction of a common European Framework. We provide a legal and policy analysis of the implementation of the Floods Directive (2007/60/EC in six countries: Belgium (Flemish region, England, France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden. Evaluation criteria from existing legal and policy literature frame the study of the Directive and its effect on enhancing or constraining societal resilience by using an adaptive governance approach. These criteria are initially used to analyze the key components of the EU approach, before providing insight of the implementation of the Directive at a national level. Similarities and differences in the legal translation of European goals into existing flood risk management are analyzed alongside their relative influence on policy and practice. The research highlights that the effect of the Floods Directive on increasing societal resilience has been nationally variable, in part because of its focus on procedural obligations, rather than on more substantive requirements. Analysis shows that despite a focus on transboundary river basin management, existing traditions of flood risk management have overridden objectives to harmonize flood risk management in some cases. The Directive could be strengthened by requiring more stringent cooperation and providing the competent authorities in international river basin districts with more power. Despite some shortcomings in directly affecting flood risk outcomes, the Directive has positively

Precise mapping of annual river bed changes based on airborne laser bathymetry

Science.gov (United States)

Mandlburger, Gottfried; Wieser, Martin; Pfeifer, Norbert; Pfennigbauer, Martin; Steinbacher, Frank; Aufleger, Markus

2014-05-01

Airborne Laser Bathymtery (ALB) is a method for capturing relatively shallow water bodies from the air using a pulsed green laser (wavelength=532nm). While this technique was first used for mapping coastal waters only, recent progress in sensor technology has opened the field to apply ALB to running inland waters. Especially for alpine rivers the precise mapping of the channel topography is a challenging task as the flow velocities are often high and the area is difficult and/or dangerous to access by boat or by feet. Traditional mapping techniques like tachymetry or echo sounding fail in such situations while ALB provides, both, high spot position accuracy in the cm range and high spatial resolution in the dm range. Furthermore, state-of-the-art ALB systems allow simultaneous mapping of the river bed and the riparian area and, therefore, represent a comprehensive and efficient technology for mapping the entire floodplain area. The maximum penetration depth depends on, both, water turbidity and bottom reflectivity. Consequently, ALB provides the highest accuracy and resolution over bright gravel rivers with relatively clear water. We demonstrate the capability of ALB for precise mapping of river bed changes based on three flight campaigns in April, May and October 2013 at the River Pielach (Lower Austria) carried out with Riegl's VQ-820-G topo-bathymetric laser scanner. Operated at a flight height of 600m above ground with a pulse repetition rate of 510kHz (effective measurement rate 200kHz) this yielded a mean point spacing within the river bed of 20cm (i.e. point density: 25 points/m2). The positioning accuracy of the river bed points is approx. 2-5cm and depends on the overall ranging precision (20mm), the quality of the water surface model (derived from the ALB point cloud), and the signal intensity (decreasing with water depth). All in all, the obtained point cloud allowed the derivation of a dense grid model of the channel topography (0.25m cell size) for all

Social-ecological resilience and law in the Platte River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Birge, Hannah E.; Allen, Craig R.; Craig, Robin; Garmestani, Ahjond S.; Hamm, Joseph A.; Babbitt, Christina; Nemec, Kristine T.; Schlager, Edella

2014-01-01

Efficiency and resistance to rapid change are hallmarks of both the judicial and legislative branches of the United States government. These defining characteristics, while bringing stability and predictability, pose challenges when it comes to managing dynamic natural systems. As our understanding of ecosystems improves, we must devise ways to account for the non-linearities and uncertainties rife in complex social-ecological systems. This paper takes an in-depth look at the Platte River basin over time to explore how the system's resilience—the capacity to absorb disturbance without losing defining structures and functions—responds to human driven change. Beginning with pre-European settlement, the paper explores how water laws, policies, and infrastructure influenced the region's ecology and society. While much of the post-European development in the Platte River basin came at a high ecological cost to the system, the recent tri-state and federal collaborative Platte River Recovery and Implementation Program is a first step towards flexible and adaptive management of the social-ecological system. Using the Platte River basin as an example, we make the case that inherent flexibility and adaptability are vital for the next iteration of natural resources management policies affecting stressed basins. We argue that this can be accomplished by nesting policy in a resilience framework, which we describe and attempt to operationalize for use across systems and at different levels of jurisdiction. As our current natural resources policies fail under the weight of looming global change, unprecedented demand for natural resources, and shifting land use, the need for a new generation of adaptive, flexible natural resources govern-ance emerges. Here we offer a prescription for just that, rooted in the social , ecological and political realities of the Platte River basin. Social-Ecological Resilience and Law in the Platte River Basin (PDF Download Available). Available

Diverse Approaches to Implement and Monitor River Restoration: A Comparative Perspective in France and Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Morandi, Bertrand; Kail, Jochem; Toedter, Anne; Wolter, Christian; Piégay, Hervé

2017-11-01

River restoration is a main emphasis of river management in European countries. Cross-national comparisons of its implementation are still rare in scientific literature. Based on French and German national censuses, this study compares river restoration practices and monitoring by analysing 102 French and 270 German projects. This comparison aims to draw a spatial and temporal framework of restoration practices in both countries to identify potential drivers of cross-national similarities and differences. The results underline four major trends: (1) a lag of almost 15 years in river restoration implementation between France and Germany, with a consequently higher share of projects in Germany than in France, (2) substantial similarities in restored reach characteristics, short reach length, small rivers, and in "agricultural" areas, (3) good correspondences between stressors identified and restoration measures implemented. Morphological alterations were the most important highlighted stressors. River morphology enhancement, especially instream enhancements, were the most frequently implemented restoration measures. Some differences exist in specific restoration practices, as river continuity restoration were most frequently implemented in French projects, while large wood introduction or channel re-braiding were most frequently implemented in German projects, and (4) some quantitative and qualitative differences in monitoring practices and a significant lack of project monitoring, especially in Germany compared to France. These similarities and differences between Germany and France in restoration application and monitoring possibly result from a complex set of drivers that might be difficult to untangle (e.g., environmental, technical, political, cultural).

European communion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Manners, Ian James

2013-01-01

Political theory of European union, through an engagement between political concepts and theoretical understandings, provides a means of identifying the EU as a political object. It is argued that understanding the projects, processes and products of European union, based on ‘sharing’ or ‘communion......’, provides a better means of perceiving the EU as a political object rather than terms such as ‘integration’ or ‘co-operation’. The concept of ‘European communion’ is defined as the ‘subjective sharing of relationships’, understood as the extent to which individuals or groups believe themselves to be sharing...... relations (or not), and the consequences of these beliefs for European political projects, processes and products. By exploring European communion through an engagement with contemporary political theory, using very brief illustrations from the Treaty of Lisbon, the article also suggests that European...

A Hydrograph-Based Sediment Availability Assessment: Implications for Mississippi River Sediment Diversion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timothy Rosen

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The Mississippi River Delta Plain has undergone substantial land loss caused by subsidence, relative sea-level rise, and loss of connectivity to the Mississippi River. Many restoration projects rely on diversions from the Mississippi River, but uncertainty exists about the timing and the amount of actually available sediment. This study examined long-term (1980–2010 suspended sediment yield as affected by different hydrologic regimes to determine actual suspended sediment availability and how this may affect diversion management. A stage hydrograph-based approach was employed to quantify total suspended sediment load (SSL of the lower Mississippi River at Tarbert Landing during three river flow conditions: Peak Flow Stage (stage = 16.8 m, discharge >32,000 m3 s−1, High Flow Stage (stage = 14.6 m, discharge = 25,000–32,000 m3 s−1, and Intermediate Flow Stage (Stage = 12.1 m, discharge = 18,000–25,000 m3 s−1. Suspended sediment concentration (SSC and SSL were maximized during High Flow and Intermediate Flow Stages, accounting for approximately 50% of the total annual sediment yield, even though duration of the stages accounted for only one-third of a year. Peak Flow Stage had the highest discharge, but significantly lower SSC (p < 0.05, indicating that diversion of the river at this stage would be less effective for sediment capture. The lower Mississippi River showed significantly higher SSC (p < 0.0001 and SSL (p < 0.0001 during the rising than the receding limb. When the flood pulse was rising, Intermediate Flow and High Flow Stages showed greater SSC and SSL than Peak Flow Stage. Together, Intermediate Flow and High Flow Stages on the rising limb annually discharged 28 megatonnes over approximately 42 days, identifying this to be the best period for sediment capture and diversion.

Predicting losing and gaining river reaches in lowland New Zealand based on a statistical methodology

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jing; Zammit, Christian; Dudley, Bruce

2017-04-01

The phenomenon of losing and gaining in rivers normally takes place in lowland where often there are various, sometimes conflicting uses for water resources, e.g., agriculture, industry, recreation, and maintenance of ecosystem function. To better support water allocation decisions, it is crucial to understand the location and seasonal dynamics of these losses and gains. We present a statistical methodology to predict losing and gaining river reaches in New Zealand based on 1) information surveys with surface water and groundwater experts from regional government, 2) A collection of river/watershed characteristics, including climate, soil and hydrogeologic information, and 3) the random forests technique. The surveys on losing and gaining reaches were conducted face-to-face at 16 New Zealand regional government authorities, and climate, soil, river geometry, and hydrogeologic data from various sources were collected and compiled to represent river/watershed characteristics. The random forests technique was used to build up the statistical relationship between river reach status (gain and loss) and river/watershed characteristics, and then to predict for river reaches at Strahler order one without prior losing and gaining information. Results show that the model has a classification error of around 10% for "gain" and "loss". The results will assist further research, and water allocation decisions in lowland New Zealand.

Estimating discharge from the Godavari river using ENVISAT, Jason-2, and SARAL/AltiKa radar altimeters

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Sridevi, T.; Sharma, Rashmi; Mehra, P.; Prasad, K.V.S.R.

://www.legos.obs-mip.fr/soa/hydrologie/hydroweb), U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/global_reservoir), and European Space Agency and De Montfort University River and Lake Project (http... has been established between river heights and in-situ discharge with high correlation and from Fig. 7, it was already observed a good correlation between the altimetry river heights and in-situ heights, the comparison could therefore be extended...

Application of Science-Based Restoration Planning to a Desert River System

Science.gov (United States)

Laub, Brian G.; Jimenez, Justin; Budy, Phaedra

2015-06-01

Persistence of many desert river species is threatened by a suite of impacts linked to water infrastructure projects that provide human water security where water is scarce. Many desert rivers have undergone regime shifts from spatially and temporally dynamic ecosystems to more stable systems dominated by homogenous physical habitat. Restoration of desert river systems could aid in biodiversity conservation, but poses formidable challenges due to multiple threats and the infeasibility of recovery to pre-development conditions. The challenges faced in restoring desert rivers can be addressed by incorporating scientific recommendations into restoration planning efforts at multiple stages, as demonstrated here through an example restoration project. In particular, use of a watershed-scale planning process can identify data gaps and irreversible constraints, which aid in developing achievable restoration goals and objectives. Site-prioritization focuses limited the resources for restoration on areas with the greatest potential to improve populations of target organisms. Investment in research to understand causes of degradation, coupled with adoption of a guiding vision is critical for identifying feasible restoration actions that can enhance river processes. Setting monitoring as a project goal, developing hypotheses for expected outcomes, and implementing restoration as an experimental design will facilitate adaptive management and learning from project implementation. Involvement of scientists and managers during all planning stages is critical for developing process-based restoration actions and an implementation plan to maximize learning. The planning process developed here provides a roadmap for use of scientific recommendations in future efforts to recover dynamic processes in imperiled riverine ecosystems.

Application of science-based restoration planning to a desert river system

Science.gov (United States)

Laub, Brian G.; Jimenez, Justin; Budy, Phaedra

2015-01-01

Persistence of many desert river species is threatened by a suite of impacts linked to water infrastructure projects that provide human water security where water is scarce. Many desert rivers have undergone regime shifts from spatially and temporally dynamic ecosystems to more stable systems dominated by homogenous physical habitat. Restoration of desert river systems could aid in biodiversity conservation, but poses formidable challenges due to multiple threats and the infeasibility of recovery to pre-development conditions. The challenges faced in restoring desert rivers can be addressed by incorporating scientific recommendations into restoration planning efforts at multiple stages, as demonstrated here through an example restoration project. In particular, use of a watershed-scale planning process can identify data gaps and irreversible constraints, which aid in developing achievable restoration goals and objectives. Site-prioritization focuses limited the resources for restoration on areas with the greatest potential to improve populations of target organisms. Investment in research to understand causes of degradation, coupled with adoption of a guiding vision is critical for identifying feasible restoration actions that can enhance river processes. Setting monitoring as a project goal, developing hypotheses for expected outcomes, and implementing restoration as an experimental design will facilitate adaptive management and learning from project implementation. Involvement of scientists and managers during all planning stages is critical for developing process-based restoration actions and an implementation plan to maximize learning. The planning process developed here provides a roadmap for use of scientific recommendations in future efforts to recover dynamic processes in imperiled riverine ecosystems.

Do Karst Rivers “deserve” their own biotic index? A ten years study on macrozoobenthos in Croatia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rađa Biljana

2010-07-01

Full Text Available In this study we present the results of a ten year survey of the aquatic macroinvertebrate fauna along four karst rivers: Jadro, Žrnovnica, Grab and Ruda, all of them situated in the Middle Dalmatia region of Croatia, in an attempt to construct the Iliric Biotic Index, which will be more applicable for the water quality analysis than the most frequently applied biotic index in Croatia, the Italian Modification of Extended Biotic Index. The rivers geologically belong to the Dinaric karst, unique geological phenomena in Europe. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected along each river at 15 sites by standard methods of sampling along with several physicochemical parameters, including: temperature, dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, alkalinity, hardness and pH. Univariate and multivariate techniques revealed differences in the macroinvertebrate community structure as well as in physicochemical parameters between the Karst rivers and continental rivers. Based on those differences, the Iliric Biotic Index was proposed as the standard of karst river water quality in Croatia in accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive. Differences between the Iliric Biotic Index and the most commonly used biotic indices in the European Community and the USA (The Biological Monitoring Working Party (B.M.W.P. scores, i.e. Extended Biotic Index, Indice Biotique, Family Biotic Index suggest that karst rivers need a new biotic index.

Factors influencing periglacial fluvial morphology in the northern European Russian tundra and taiga

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huisink, M.; de Moor, J.J.W.; Kasse, C.; Virtanen, T.

2002-01-01

The influence of geology, discharge regime, slope, vegetation type, vegetation density and permafrost conditions on periglacial channel morphology has been investigated in the Usa catchment (northern European Russia). Rivers are dominated by meandering or anabranching plan forms and rarely show

River response to variations of periglacial climate in mid-latitude Europe.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mol, J.; Vandenberghe, J.; Kasse, C.

2000-01-01

The Last Glaciation was characterised by considerable changes in climate. Many European river basins reacted to these changes by initial incision and subsequent pattern change. Earlier research explained this by the time lag of vegetation development after a climatic change, which considerably

Fusion of navigational data in River Information Services

Science.gov (United States)

Kazimierski, W.

2009-04-01

River Information Services (RIS) is the complex system of solutions and services for inland shipping. It has been the scope of works carried out in most of European countries for last several years. There were also a few major pan-European projects like INDRIS or COMPRIS launched for these purposes. The main idea of RIS is to harmonize the activities of various companies, authorities and other users of inland waterways in Europe. In the last time growing activity in this area in Poland can be also noticed. The leading example can be the works carried out in Chair of Geoinformatics in Maritime University of Szczecin regarding RIS for the needs of Odra River. The Directive 2005/44/EC of European Parliament and Europe Council, followed by European Commission regulations, give precise guidelines on implementing RIS in Europe, stating the services that should be provided. Among them Traffic Information and Traffic Management services can be found. As per guidelines they should be based on tracking and tracing of ships in the inland waters. The results of tracking and tracing are Tactical Traffic Image and Strategic Traffic Image. The guidelines stated that, tracking and tracing system in RIS shall consist of various type sensors. The most important of them is thought to be Automatic Information System (AIS), and particularly its river version - Inland AIS. It is based on determining the position of ships by satellite positioning systems (mainly DGPS) and transmitting it to other users on radio VHF frequences. This guarantees usually high accuracy of data related to movement of ships (assuming proper functioning of system and ship's sensors), and gives the possibility of transmitting additional information about ship, like dimensions, port of destination, cargo, etc. However the other sensors that can be used for tracking shall not be forgotten. The most important of them are radar (traditionally used for tracking purposes in Vessel Traffic Systems) and video camera

Short-term variability of Johor River discharge based on wavelet analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, N.; Kamaruddin, S. A.; Heryansyah, A.

2015-02-01

River discharge provides a direct measure of water quantity and availability of water for specific uses. It also provides the basis for understanding river basin processes and is essential for interpreting and understanding river flow characteristics. This study investigates the temporal variability of river discharge records of Johor River. Wavelet analysis of discharge records for 30 years was carried out to characterize the river flow variability. Our results indicate that Johor River discharge data shows a significant short-term variability of between 0.6 to 2.5 years.

Classification of Tropical River Using Chemometrics Technique: Case Study in Pahang River, Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohd Khairul Amri Kamarudin; Mohd Ekhwan Toriman; Nur Hishaam Sulaiman

2015-01-01

River classification is very important to know the river characteristic in study areas, where this database can help to understand the behaviour of the river. This article discusses about river classification using Chemometrics techniques in mainstream of Pahang River. Based on river survey, GIS and Remote Sensing database, the chemometric analysis techniques have been used to identify the cluster on the Pahang River using Hierarchical Agglomerative Cluster Analysis (HACA). Calibration and validation process using Discriminant Analysis (DA) has been used to confirm the HACA result. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) study to see the strong coefficient where the Pahang River has been classed. The results indicated the main of Pahang River has been classed to three main clusters as upstream, middle stream and downstream. Base on DA analysis, the calibration and validation model shows 100 % convinced. While the PCA indicates there are three variables that have a significant correlation, domination slope with R"2 0.796, L/D ratio with R"2 -0868 and sinuosity with R"2 0.557. Map of the river classification with moving class also was produced. Where the green colour considered in valley erosion zone, yellow in a low terrace of land near the channels and red colour class in flood plain and valley deposition zone. From this result, the basic information can be produced to understand the characteristics of the main Pahang River. This result is important to local authorities to make decisions according to the cluster or guidelines for future study in Pahang River, Malaysia specifically and for Tropical River generally. The research findings are important to local authorities by providing basic data as a guidelines to the integrated river management at Pahang River, and Tropical River in general. (author)

Modelling nutrient fluxes from source to river load : a macroscopic analysis applied to the Rhine and Elbe basins

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wit, de M.

2000-01-01

In many European rivers, including the major streams of the Rhine and Elbe basins, the nutrient load (N and P) still exceeds target levels. In this paper, a model is presented that describes the river nutrient load as a function of nutrient sources, runoff and lithology in the upstream basin. The

A European core curriculum in cariology: the knowledge base

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Anderson, P.; Beeley, J.; Monteiro, P.M.; de Soet, H.; Andrian, S.; Amaechi, B.; Huysmans, M.C.D.N.J.M.

2011-01-01

This paper is part of a series of papers towards a European Core Curriculum in Cariology for undergraduate dental students. The European Core Curriculum in Cariology is the outcome of a joint workshop of the European Organization for Caries Research (ORCA) together with the Association for Dental

Microplastics profile along the Rhine River

Science.gov (United States)

Mani, Thomas; Hauk, Armin; Walter, Ulrich; Burkhardt-Holm, Patricia

2015-01-01

Microplastics result from fragmentation of plastic debris or are released to the environment as pre-production pellets or components of consumer and industrial products. In the oceans, they contribute to the ‘great garbage patches’. They are ingested by many organisms, from protozoa to baleen whales, and pose a threat to the aquatic fauna. Although as much as 80% of marine debris originates from land, little attention was given to the role of rivers as debris pathways to the sea. Worldwide, not a single great river has yet been studied for the surface microplastics load over its length. We report the abundance and composition of microplastics at the surface of the Rhine, one of the largest European rivers. Measurements were made at 11 locations over a stretch of 820 km. Microplastics were found in all samples, with 892,777 particles km −2 on average. In the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, a peak concentration of 3.9 million particles km −2 was measured. Microplastics concentrations were diverse along and across the river, reflecting various sources and sinks such as waste water treatment plants, tributaries and weirs. Measures should be implemented to avoid and reduce the pollution with anthropogenic litter in aquatic ecosystems. PMID:26644346

Microplastics profile along the Rhine River

Science.gov (United States)

Mani, Thomas; Hauk, Armin; Walter, Ulrich; Burkhardt-Holm, Patricia

2015-12-01

Microplastics result from fragmentation of plastic debris or are released to the environment as pre-production pellets or components of consumer and industrial products. In the oceans, they contribute to the ‘great garbage patches’. They are ingested by many organisms, from protozoa to baleen whales, and pose a threat to the aquatic fauna. Although as much as 80% of marine debris originates from land, little attention was given to the role of rivers as debris pathways to the sea. Worldwide, not a single great river has yet been studied for the surface microplastics load over its length. We report the abundance and composition of microplastics at the surface of the Rhine, one of the largest European rivers. Measurements were made at 11 locations over a stretch of 820 km. Microplastics were found in all samples, with 892,777 particles km -2 on average. In the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, a peak concentration of 3.9 million particles km -2 was measured. Microplastics concentrations were diverse along and across the river, reflecting various sources and sinks such as waste water treatment plants, tributaries and weirs. Measures should be implemented to avoid and reduce the pollution with anthropogenic litter in aquatic ecosystems.

Fractionation and ecological risk of metals in urban river sediments in Zhongshan City, Pearl River Delta.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Jiannan; Cao, Yingzi; Tan, Haijian; Wang, Yanman; Luo, Jiaqi

2011-09-01

Surface sediments collected from nine urban rivers located in Zhongshan City, Pearl River Delta, were analyzed for total concentration of metals with digestion and chemical fractionation adopting the modified European Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) sequential extraction procedure. The results showed that concentration and fractionation of metals varied significantly among the rivers. The total concentration of eight metals in most rivers did not exceed the China Environmental Quality Standard for Soil, Grade III. The potential ecological risk of metals to rivers were related to the land use patterns, in the order of manufacturing areas > residential areas > agriculture areas. The concentration of Pb in the reducible fraction was relatively high (60.0-84.3%). The dominant proportions of Cd, Zn and Cu were primary in the non-residual fraction (67.0%, 71.8% and 81.4% on average respectively), while the percentages of the residual fractions of Cr and Ni varied over a wide range (43-85% and 24-71% respectively). The approaches of the Håkanson ecological risk index and Secondary Phase Enrichment Factor were applied for ecological risk assessment and metal enrichment calculation. The results indicated Hg and Cd had posed high potential ecological risk to urban rivers in this region. Meanwhile, there was widespread pollution and high enrichment of Cu in river sediments in this region. Multiple regression analysis showed that five water quality parameters (pH, DO, COD(Mn), NH(4)(+)-N, TP) had little influence on the distribution of metal fractionation. This result revealed that the ecological risk of metals was not eliminated along with the improvement in water quality. Correlation studies showed that among the metals, Group A (Cd, As, Pb, Zn Hg, r = 0.730-0.924) and Group B (Cr, Cu, Ni, r = 0.815-0.948) were obtained, and the metal contaminations were from industrial activities rather than residential.

Determination of metal-based nanoparticles in the river Dommel in the Netherlands via ultrafiltration, HR-ICP-MS and SEM

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Markus, A. A.; Krystek, P.; Tromp, P. C.; Parsons, J. R.; Roex, E. W.M.; Voogt, P. de; Laane, R. W.P.M.

2018-01-01

We investigated the occurrence of metal-based nanoparticles in a natural system, the river Dommel in the Netherlands. The river itself is well-studied as far as hydrology and water quality is concerned, easily accessible and contains one major wastewater treatment plant discharging onto this river.

An Evaluation of River Health for the Weihe River in Shaanxi Province, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinxi Song

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Excessive socioeconomic activities in the Weihe River region have caused severe ecosystem degradation, and the call for the recovery and maintenance of the river health has drawn great attention. Based on the connotation of river health, previous research findings, and status quo of the Weihe River ecosystem, in this study, we developed a novel health evaluation index system to quantitatively determine the health of the Weihe River in Shaanxi Province. The river in the study area was divided into five reaches based on the five hydrological gauging stations, and appropriate evaluation indices for each river section were selected according to the ecological environmental functions of that section. A hybrid approach integrating analytic hierarchy process (AHP and a fuzzy synthetic evaluation method was applied to measure the river health. The results show that Linjiancun-Weijiabao reach and Weijiabao-Xianyang reach are in the “moderate” level of health and Lintong-Huaxian reach and downstream of Huaxian reach are in the “poor” health rating, whereas Xianyang-Lintong reach is in the “sick” rating. Moreover, the most sensitive factors were determined, respectively, for each reach from upper stream to lower stream in the study area.

Basin of the river Oskil as a tourist-recreational area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Валентина Клименко

2017-09-01

Full Text Available At the current stage of Ukraine’s economic development tourism is a priority sector of our country’s economy. Due to the fact that Ukraine has set a high priority goal - to join the European Union, we should pay attention to the conditions of various areas and sectors of our economy, in particular, the quality of tourism services, whether the recreational sector meets European standards. Many economically developed countries make tourism the most important among other sectors to fill the budget and closely monitor the quality of tourist services. Due to the rapid development of the tourism industry in our country the question has arisen as to conformity of recreational facilities conditions with international standards and finding new places of recreation, including water tourism. The aim of the study is to highlight the Oskil River Basin (within Kharkiv region as a tourist and recreational area and the use of the study materials in the learning process. The article deals with problems of insufficiently studied use of the river Oskil basin both as a tourist, and a recreational area. The hydrographic characteristics of the reservoir have been studied to illustrate the conformity of water objects with the standards and requirements of tourist and recreational activities; methods and techniques of water resources assessment have been analyzed for recreation; the river Oskil (within Ukraine and Chervono-Oskil reservoir have been assessed on the possibility of tourist-recreational use. The ways to use the study materials in education have been determined. Recreational potential of the river and the reservoir should not be underestimated. Thus, analyzing resources of the Oskil river basin and Chervono-Oskil reservoir in terms of recreation, we can conclude that the water of the river is not equally suitable for recreational purposes. The river basin can be used as an object of beach-bathing leisure, tourist boating and rafting, sport rafting

Water constraints on European power supply under climate change: impacts on electricity prices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vliet, van M.T.H.; Vögele, S.; Rübbelke, D.

2013-01-01

Recent warm, dry summers showed the vulnerability of the European power sector to low water availability and high river temperatures. Climate change is likely to impact electricity supply, in terms of both water availability for hydropower generation and cooling water usage for thermoelectric power

Estimating extreme river discharges in Europe through a Bayesian network

Science.gov (United States)

Paprotny, Dominik; Morales-Nápoles, Oswaldo

2017-06-01

Large-scale hydrological modelling of flood hazards requires adequate extreme discharge data. In practise, models based on physics are applied alongside those utilizing only statistical analysis. The former require enormous computational power, while the latter are mostly limited in accuracy and spatial coverage. In this paper we introduce an alternate, statistical approach based on Bayesian networks (BNs), a graphical model for dependent random variables. We use a non-parametric BN to describe the joint distribution of extreme discharges in European rivers and variables representing the geographical characteristics of their catchments. Annual maxima of daily discharges from more than 1800 river gauges (stations with catchment areas ranging from 1.4 to 807 000 km2) were collected, together with information on terrain, land use and local climate. The (conditional) correlations between the variables are modelled through copulas, with the dependency structure defined in the network. The results show that using this method, mean annual maxima and return periods of discharges could be estimated with an accuracy similar to existing studies using physical models for Europe and better than a comparable global statistical model. Performance of the model varies slightly between regions of Europe, but is consistent between different time periods, and remains the same in a split-sample validation. Though discharge prediction under climate change is not the main scope of this paper, the BN was applied to a large domain covering all sizes of rivers in the continent both for present and future climate, as an example. Results show substantial variation in the influence of climate change on river discharges. The model can be used to provide quick estimates of extreme discharges at any location for the purpose of obtaining input information for hydraulic modelling.

European mobility cultures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haustein, Sonja; Nielsen, Thomas A. Sick

2016-01-01

More targeted European policies promoting green travel patterns require better knowledge on differing mobility cultures across European regions. As a basis for this, we clustered the EU population into eight mobility styles based on Eurobarometer data. The mobility styles - including, for example...... positions on the path towards sustainable mobility and therefore different requirements towards European platforms and support measures, e.g. for 'Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans'. The country clusters can provide a starting point for future communication and targeting of European efforts in sustainable...

Application of the european water framework directive for the determination of the ecological quality of Alcanadre river and administration recommendations; Aplicaciond e la directiva europea del agua para la determinacion de la calidad ecologica dle rio Alcandre y recomendaciones de gesition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lanaja, F. J.; Hernandez, C.; Bonilla, B.; Montull, B.

2008-07-01

Public entities, agricultural and industrial economic sectors, and ecosystems depend on the water supplied by the natural environment. The European Water Framework directive requirements, water demands and key surface water pollution problems identified in a river basin, lead to the need to develop a surface water quality indicator system. This tool allows the assessment of the pressure-state-impact of human activities on natural waters. It is shown that the most relevant questions for the implementation of an indicator system for the surface waters of this river basin are: eutrophication, bacterial contamination, presence of organic matter, oxidation state and organic metals coming from industrial wastewater discharges. (Author) 17 refs.

Invitation strategies and coverage in the population-based cancer screening programmes in the European Union.

Science.gov (United States)

Vale, Diama B; Anttila, Ahti; Ponti, Antonio; Senore, Carlo; Sankaranaryanan, Rengaswamy; Ronco, Guglielmo; Segnan, Nereo; Tomatis, Mariano; Žakelj, Maja P; Elfström, Klara M; Lönnberg, Stefan; Dillner, Joakim; Basu, Partha

2018-03-21

The aim of this study was to describe the compliance of the population-based cancer screening programmes in the European Union Member States to the invitation strategies enumerated in the European Guidelines and the impact of such strategies on the invitational coverage. Experts in screening programme monitoring from the respective countries provided data. Coverage by invitation was calculated as the proportion of individuals in the target age range receiving a screening invitation over the total number of annualized eligible population. The invitation strategies of 30 breasts, 25 cervical and 27 colorectal national or regional population-based screening programmes are described. Individual mail invitations are sent by 28 breasts, 20 cervical and 25 colorectal screening programmes. Faecal occult blood test kits are sent by post in 17 of the colorectal cancer screening programmes. The majority of programmes claimed to have a population registry, although some use health insurance data as the database for sending invitations. At least 95% invitation coverage was reached by 16 breast, six cervical and five colorectal screening programmes. Majority of the programmes comply with the invitation strategies enumerated in the European guidelines, although there is still scope for improvements. Coverage by invitation is below the desirable level in many population-based cancer screening programmes in European Union.

How campaigns enhance European issues voting during European Parliament elections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beach, Derek; Møller Hansen, Kasper; Larsen, Martin Vinæs

2017-01-01

Based on findings from the literature on campaign effects on the one hand, and the literature on European Parliament elections on the other, we propose a model of European Parliamentary elections in which the campaign shift the calculus of electoral support, making differences in national political...... allegiances less important and attitudes about the European project more important by informing voters of and getting them interested in European politics. In effect, we argue that the political campaign leading up to the election makes European Parliament elections less second-order. While previous studies...... have demonstrated that EU attitudes can matter for voting behavior in European Parliament elections, existing research has drawn on post-election surveys that do not enable us to capture campaign effects. Our contribution is to assess the impact of a campaign by utilizing a rolling cross sectional...

Integrated Ecological River Health Assessments, Based on Water Chemistry, Physical Habitat Quality and Biological Integrity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ji Yoon Kim

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This study evaluated integrative river ecosystem health using stressor-based models of physical habitat health, chemical water health, and biological health of fish and identified multiple-stressor indicators influencing the ecosystem health. Integrated health responses (IHRs, based on star-plot approach, were calculated from qualitative habitat evaluation index (QHEI, nutrient pollution index (NPI, and index of biological integrity (IBI in four different longitudinal regions (Groups I–IV. For the calculations of IHRs values, multi-metric QHEI, NPI, and IBI models were developed and their criteria for the diagnosis of the health were determined. The longitudinal patterns of the river were analyzed by a self-organizing map (SOM model and the key major stressors in the river were identified by principal component analysis (PCA. Our model scores of integrated health responses (IHRs suggested that mid-stream and downstream regions were impaired, and the key stressors were closely associated with nutrient enrichment (N and P and organic matter pollutions from domestic wastewater disposal plants and urban sewage. This modeling approach of IHRs may be used as an effective tool for evaluations of integrative ecological river health..

Satellite-based empirical models linking river plume dynamics with hypoxic area andvolume

Science.gov (United States)

Satellite-based empirical models explaining hypoxic area and volume variation were developed for the seasonally hypoxic (O2 < 2 mg L−1) northern Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Mississippi River. Annual variations in midsummer hypoxic area and ...

First record of proliferative kidney disease agent Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae in wild brown trout and European grayling in Finland.

Science.gov (United States)

Vasemägi, Anti; Nousiainen, Ilkka; Saura, Ari; Vähä, Juha-Pekka; Valjus, Jorma; Huusko, Ari

2017-06-19

The myxozoan endoparasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae causes temperature-driven proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in salmonid fishes. Despite the economic and ecological importance of PKD, information about the distribution of the parasite is still scarce. Here, we report for the first time the occurrence of T. bryosalmonae in wild brown trout Salmo trutta and European grayling Thymallus thymallus populations in Finland. We detected T. bryosalmonae at high prevalence in both brown trout and European grayling from the transboundary Finnish-Russian River Koutajoki system (Rivers Oulankajoki, Kuusinkijoki, Kitkajoki, Maaninkajoki, and Juumajoki) in north-eastern Finland. In southern Finland, T. bryosalmonae was detected in River Siuntionjoki young-of-the-year brown trout collected both in 2015 and 2016 (100% prevalence), while the parasite was not observed in fish from 3 other rivers (Ingarskila, Mustajoki, and Vantaanjoki) flowing to the Gulf of Finland. Our results, together with those from recent studies of Atlantic salmon, indicate that T. bryosalmonae is distributed over much higher latitudes in northern Europe than previously appreciated. We expect that increasing water temperatures will likely cause new PKD outbreaks in these more northerly regions in the future.

Developing a Competency-Based Pan-European Accreditation Framework for Health Promotion

Science.gov (United States)

Battel-Kirk, Barbara; Van der Zanden, Gerard; Schipperen, Marielle; Contu, Paolo; Gallardo, Carmen; Martinez, Ana; Garcia de Sola, Silvia; Sotgiu, Alessandra; Zaagsma, Miriam; Barry, Margaret M.

2012-01-01

Background: The CompHP Pan-European Accreditation Framework for Health Promotion was developed as part of the CompHP Project that aimed to develop competency-based standards and an accreditation system for health promotion practice, education, and training in Europe. Method: A phased, multiple-method approach was employed to facilitate consensus…

European Strategy for Accelerator-Based Neutrino Physics

CERN Document Server

Bertolucci, Sergio; Cervera, Anselmo; Donini, Andrea; Dracos, Marcos; Duchesneau, Dominique; Dufour, Fanny; Edgecock, Rob; Efthymiopoulos, Ilias; Gschwendtner, Edda; Kudenko, Yury; Long, Ken; Maalampi, Jukka; Mezzetto, Mauro; Pascoli, Silvia; Palladino, Vittorio; Rondio, Ewa; Rubbia, Andre; Rubbia, Carlo; Stahl, Achim; Stanco, Luca; Thomas, Jenny; Wark, David; Wildner, Elena; Zito, Marco

2012-01-01

Massive neutrinos reveal physics beyond the Standard Model, which could have deep consequences for our understanding of the Universe. Their study should therefore receive the highest level of priority in the European Strategy. The discovery and study of leptonic CP violation and precision studies of the transitions between neutrino flavours require high intensity, high precision, long baseline accelerator neutrino experiments. The community of European neutrino physicists involved in oscillation experiments is strong enough to support a major neutrino long baseline project in Europe, and has an ambitious, competitive and coherent vision to propose. Following the 2006 European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP) recommendations, two complementary design studies have been carried out: LAGUNA/LBNO, focused on deep underground detector sites, and EUROnu, focused on high intensity neutrino facilities. LAGUNA LBNO recommends, as first step, a conventional neutrino beam CN2PY from a CERN SPS North Area Neutrino Fac...

Promoting Sustainability Transparency in European Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis Based on Administrative Cultures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrés Navarro-Galera

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, the transparency of governments with respect to the sustainability of public services is a very interesting issue for stakeholders and academics. It has led to previous research and international organisations (EU, IMF, OECD, United Nations, IFAC, G-20, World Bank to recommend promotion of the online dissemination of economic, social and environmental information. Based on previous studies about e-government and the influence of administrative cultures on governmental accountability, this paper seeks to identify political actions useful to improve the practices of transparency on economic, social and environmental sustainability in European local governments. We perform a comparative analysis of sustainability information published on the websites of 72 local governments in 10 European countries grouped into main three cultural contexts (Anglo-Saxon, Southern European and Nordic. Using international sustainability reporting guidelines, our results reveal significant differences in local government transparency in each context. The most transparent local governments are the Anglo-Saxon ones, followed by Southern European and Nordic governments. Based on individualized empirical results for each administrative style, our conclusions propose useful policy interventions to enhance sustainability transparency within each cultural tradition, such as development of legal rules on transparency and sustainability, tools to motivate local managers for online diffusion of sustainability information and analysis of information needs of stakeholders.

European Climate - Energy Security Nexus. A model based scenario analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Criqui, Patrick; Mima, Silvana

2011-01-01

In this research, we have provided an overview of the climate-security nexus in the European sector through a model based scenario analysis with POLES model. The analysis underline that under stringent climate policies, Europe take advantage of a double dividend in its capacity to develop a new cleaner energy model and in lower vulnerability to potential shocks on the international energy markets. (authors)

Corn-based ethanol production compromises goal of reducing nitrogen export by the Mississippi River.

Science.gov (United States)

Donner, Simon D; Kucharik, Christopher J

2008-03-18

Corn cultivation in the United States is expected to increase to meet demand for ethanol. Nitrogen leaching from fertilized corn fields to the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River system is a primary cause of the bottom-water hypoxia that develops on the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico each summer. In this study, we combine agricultural land use scenarios with physically based models of terrestrial and aquatic nitrogen to examine the effect of present and future expansion of corn-based ethanol production on nitrogen export by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico. The results show that the increase in corn cultivation required to meet the goal of 15-36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by the year 2022 suggested by a recent U.S. Senate energy policy would increase the annual average flux of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) export by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers by 10-34%. Generating 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol by the year 2022 will increase the odds that annual DIN export exceeds the target set for reducing hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico to >95%. Examination of extreme mitigation options shows that expanding corn-based ethanol production would make the already difficult challenges of reducing nitrogen export to the Gulf of Mexico and the extent of hypoxia practically impossible without large shifts in food production and agricultural management.

Geostatistical enhancement of european hydrological predictions

Science.gov (United States)

Pugliese, Alessio; Castellarin, Attilio; Parajka, Juraj; Arheimer, Berit; Bagli, Stefano; Mazzoli, Paolo; Montanari, Alberto; Blöschl, Günter

2016-04-01

Geostatistical Enhancement of European Hydrological Prediction (GEEHP) is a research experiment developed within the EU funded SWITCH-ON project, which proposes to conduct comparative experiments in a virtual laboratory in order to share water-related information and tackle changes in the hydrosphere for operational needs (http://www.water-switch-on.eu). The main objective of GEEHP deals with the prediction of streamflow indices and signatures in ungauged basins at different spatial scales. In particular, among several possible hydrological signatures we focus in our experiment on the prediction of flow-duration curves (FDCs) along the stream-network, which has attracted an increasing scientific attention in the last decades due to the large number of practical and technical applications of the curves (e.g. hydropower potential estimation, riverine habitat suitability and ecological assessments, etc.). We apply a geostatistical procedure based on Top-kriging, which has been recently shown to be particularly reliable and easy-to-use regionalization approach, employing two different type of streamflow data: pan-European E-HYPE simulations (http://hypeweb.smhi.se/europehype) and observed daily streamflow series collected in two pilot study regions, i.e. Tyrol (merging data from Austrian and Italian stream gauging networks) and Sweden. The merger of the two study regions results in a rather large area (~450000 km2) and might be considered as a proxy for a pan-European application of the approach. In a first phase, we implement a bidirectional validation, i.e. E-HYPE catchments are set as training sites to predict FDCs at the same sites where observed data are available, and vice-versa. Such a validation procedure reveals (1) the usability of the proposed approach for predicting the FDCs over the entire river network of interest using alternatively observed data and E-HYPE simulations and (2) the accuracy of E-HYPE-based predictions of FDCs in ungauged sites. In a

The effect of waste water treatment on river metal concentrations: removal or enrichment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Teuchies, J.; Bervoets, L.; Cox, T.J.S.; Meire, P.; de Deckere, E.

2011-01-01

Purpose Discharge of untreated domestic and industrial waste in many European rivers resulted in low oxygen concentrations and contamination with trace metals, often concentrated in sediments. Under these anoxic conditions, the formation of insoluble metal sulfides is known to reduce metal

A microsatellite baseline for genetic stock identification of European Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gilbey, John; Coughlan, Jamie; Wennevik, Vidar

2018-01-01

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) populations from different river origins mix in the North Atlantic during the marine life stage. To facilitate marine stock identification, we developed a genetic baseline covering the European component of the species' range excluding the Baltic Sea, from the Rus...

ANALYSIS OF FREE ROUTE AIRSPACE AND PERFORMANCE BASED NAVIGATION IMPLEMENTATION IN THE EUROPEAN AIR NAVIGATION SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Svetlana Pavlova

2014-12-01

Full Text Available European Air Traffic Management system requires continuous improvements as air traffic is increasingday by day. For this purpose it was developed by international organizations Free Route Airspace and PerformanceBased Navigation concepts that allow to offer a required level of safety, capacity, environmental performance alongwith cost-effectiveness. The aim of the article is to provide detailed analysis of Free Route Airspace and PerformanceBased Navigation implementation status within European region including Ukrainian air navigation system.

Multi-model ensemble projections of European river floods and high flows at 1.5, 2, and 3 degree global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Thober, S.; Kumar, R.; Wanders, N.; Marx, A.; Pan, M.; Rakovec, O.; Samaniego, L. E.; Sheffield, J.; Wood, E. F.; Zink, M.

2017-12-01

Severe river floods often result in huge economic losses and fatalities. Since 1980, almost 1500 such events have been reported in Europe. This study investigates climate change impacts on European floods under 1.5, 2, and 3 K global warming. The impacts are assessed employing a multi-model ensemble containing three hydrologic models (HMs: mHM, Noah-MP, PCR-GLOBWB) forced by five CMIP5 General Circulation Models (GCMs) under three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs 2.6, 6.0, and 8.5). This multi-model ensemble is unprecedented with respect to the combination of its size (45 realisations) and its spatial resolution, which is 5 km over entire Europe. Climate change impacts are quantified for high flows and flood events, represented by 10% exceedance probability and annual maxima of daily streamflow, respectively. The multi-model ensemble points to the Mediterranean region as a hotspot of changes with significant decrements in high flows from -11% at 1.5 K up to -30% at 3 K global warming mainly resulting from reduced precipitation. Small changes (< ±10%) are observed for river basins in Central Europe and the British Isles under different levels of warming. Projected higher annual precipitation increases high flows in Scandinavia, but reduced snow water equivalent decreases flood events in this region. The contribution by the GCMs to the overall uncertainties of the ensemble is in general higher than that by the HMs. The latter, however, have a substantial share of the overall uncertainty and exceed GCM uncertainty in the Mediterranean and Scandinavia. Adaptation measures for limiting the impacts of global warming could be similar under 1.5 K and 2 K global warming, but has to account for significantly higher changes under 3 K global warming.

The European hadron therapy community touches base

CERN Multimedia

Audrey Ballantine, Manuela Cirilli, Evangelia Dimovasili, Manjit Dosanjh, Seamus Hegarty

2010-01-01

The European hadron therapy community gathered in Stockholm from 3 to 5 September for the annual ENLIGHT workshops. Three of the four EC-funded projects born under the umbrella of ENLIGHT (see box) were discussed in the prestigious Nobel Forum at the Karolinska Institutet.   Souvenir photo from the ENLIGHT workshops On its second birthday, the PARTNER Initial Training Network was especially under the spotlight, as the European Commission conducted a formal project review bringing together the institutes, companies and young researchers involved. The 21 PARTNER researchers experienced the thrill of presenting their work in this privileged setting. During the coffee breaks, they joked about this being their only chance in life to speak in the Nobel Forum – but who knows what these brilliant young minds will achieve! They certainly impressed the European Commission’s Project Officer Gianluca Coluccio and Expert Reviewer Kaisa Hellevuo, who stated that PARTNER is a showcase proj...

Towards the implementation of an integrated ecosystem fleet-based management of European fisheries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gascuel, D.; Merino, G.; Döring, R.D.; Druon, D.N.; Goti, L.; Guénette, S.; Macher, C.; Soma, K.; Travers-Trolet, M.; Mackinson, S.

2012-01-01

Using the Celtic Sea and the North Sea as case studies, the fleet-based approach is shown to be the pathway to implement an effective ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM) in European seas. First, a diagnostic on the health of each ecosystem is proposed based on the reconstruction of

The times are changing: temporal shifts in patterns of fish invasions in central European fresh waters.

Science.gov (United States)

Rabitsch, W; Milasowszky, N; Nehring, S; Wiesner, C; Wolter, C; Essl, F

2013-01-01

This study examines the invasion history of alien fish species based on exhaustive national data sets on fish invasions of two contiguous central European countries (Germany and Austria). Fifteen alien fish species are currently established in both countries, constituting 14 and 17% of the total freshwater fish fauna of Germany and Austria, respectively. In both countries, six alien species are present, but not established. The status of five alien species in Germany and three species in Austria remains unknown. Accumulation rates of alien fish species have increased in recent decades with >50% of them reported after 1971. North America and Asia were the primary sources of alien fish species in Germany and Austria up to the 1980s, whereas European species of Ponto-Caspian origin dominate now. Fisheries (including aquaculture) and the animal trade were responsible for most earlier introductions, whereas waterways were the main pathway for recent invaders. The extent of the spatial distribution of alien species was positively correlated with residence time, i.e. the time elapsed since the first national record. Different thermal preferences of early invaders (mostly coldwater species) and new invaders (typically warmwater adapted) may benefit the latter in the face of climate change. It is concluded that new challenges for alien fish management arise and that ecosystem-based approaches as endorsed by the E.U. Water Framework Directive (maintaining or restoring good ecological status of rivers and streams) should become the centrepiece of river management in Europe. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Fish Biology © 2012 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

Controls on anastomosis in lowland river systems: Towards process-based solutions to habitat conservation.

Science.gov (United States)

Marcinkowski, Paweł; Grabowski, Robert C; Okruszko, Tomasz

2017-12-31

Anastomosing rivers were historically common around the world before extensive agricultural and industrial development in river valleys. Few lowland anastomosing rivers remain in temperate zones, and the protection of these river-floodplain systems is an international conservation priority. However, the mechanisms that drive the creation and maintenance of multiple channels, i.e. anabranches, are not well understood, particularly for lowland rivers, making it challenging to identify effective management strategies. This study uses a novel multi-scale, process-based hydro-geomorphological approach to investigate the natural and anthropogenic controls on anastomosis in lowland river reaches. Using a wide range of data (hydrologic, cartographic, remote-sensing, historical), the study (i) quantifies changes in the planform of the River Narew, Poland over the last 100years, (ii) documents changes in the natural and anthropogenic factors that could be driving the geomorphic change, and (iii) develops a conceptual model of the controls of anastomosis. The results show that 110km of anabranches have been lost from the Narew National Park (6810ha), a 42% reduction in total anabranch length since 1900. The rates of anabranch loss have increased as the number of pressures inhibiting anabranch creation and maintenance has multiplied. The cessation of localized water level and channel management (fishing dams, water mills and timber rafting), the loss of traditional floodplain activities (seasonal mowing) and infrastructure construction (embanked roads and an upstream dam) are contributing to low water levels and flows, the deposition of sediment at anabranch inlets, the encroachment of common reed (Phragmites australis), and the eventual loss of anabranches. By identifying the processes driving the loss of anabranches, this study provides transferable insights into the controls of anastomosis in lowland rivers and the management solutions needed to preserve the unique

A Business Analysis of a SKYLON-based European Launch Service Operator

Science.gov (United States)

Hempsell, Mark; Aprea, Julio; Gallagher, Ben; Sadlier, Greg

2016-04-01

Between 2012 and 2014 an industrial consortium led by Reaction Engines conducted a feasibility study for the European Space Agency with the objective to explore the feasibility of SKYLON as the basis for a launcher that meets the requirements established for the Next Generation European Launcher. SKYLON is a fully reusable single stage to orbit launch system that is enabled by the unique performance characteristic of the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine and is under active development. The purpose of the study which was called ;SKYLON-based European Launch Service Operator (S-ELSO); was to support ESA decision making on launch service strategy by exploring the potential implications of this new launch system on future European launch capability and the European industry that supports it. The study explored both a SKYLON operator (S-ELSO) and SKYLON manufacturer as separate business ventures. In keeping with previous studies, the only strategy that was found that kept the purchase price of the SKYLON low enough for a viable operator business was to follow an ;airline; business model where the manufacturer sells SKYLONs to other operators in addition to S-ELSO. With the assumptions made in the study it was found that the SKYLON manufacturer with a total production run of between 30 and 100 SKYLONs could expect an Internal Rate of Return of around 10%. This was judged too low for all the funding to come from commercial funding sources, but is sufficiently high for a Public Private Partnership. The S-ELSO business model showed that the Internal Rate of Return would be high enough to consider operating without public support (i.e. commercial in operation, irrespective of any public funding of development), even when the average launch price is lowered to match the lowest currently quoted price for expendable systems.

River Discharge Estimation by Using Altimetry Data and Simplified Flood Routing Modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tommaso Moramarco

2013-08-01

Full Text Available A methodology to estimate the discharge along rivers, even poorly gauged ones, taking advantage of water level measurements derived from satellite altimetry is proposed. The procedure is based on the application of the Rating Curve Model (RCM, a simple method allowing for the estimation of the flow conditions in a river section using only water levels recorded at that site and the discharges observed at another upstream section. The European Remote-Sensing Satellite 2, ERS-2, and the Environmental Satellite, ENVISAT, altimetry data are used to provide time series of water levels needed for the application of RCM. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the approach, the results are compared with the ones obtained by applying an empirical formula that allows discharge estimation from remotely sensed hydraulic information. To test the proposed procedure, the 236 km-reach of the Po River is investigated, for which five in situ stations and four satellite tracks are available. Results show that RCM is able to appropriately represent the discharge, and its performance is better than the empirical formula, although this latter does not require upstream hydrometric data. Given its simple formal structure, the proposed approach can be conveniently utilized in ungauged sites where only the survey of the cross-section is needed.

The Influence of Water Conservancy Projects on River Network Connectivity, A Case of Luanhe River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Z.; Li, C.

2017-12-01

Connectivity is one of the most important characteristics of a river, which is derived from the natural water cycle and determine the renewability of river water. The water conservancy project can change the connectivity of natural river networks, and directly threaten the health and stability of the river ecosystem. Based on the method of Dendritic Connectivity Index (DCI), the impacts from sluices and dams on the connectivity of river network are deeply discussed herein. DCI quantitatively evaluate the connectivity of river networks based on the number of water conservancy facilities, the connectivity of fish and geographical location. The results show that the number of water conservancy facilities and their location in the river basin have a great influence on the connectivity of the river network. With the increase of the number of sluices and dams, DCI is decreasing gradually, but its decreasing range is becoming smaller and smaller. The dam located in the middle of the river network cuts the upper and lower parts of the whole river network, and destroys the connectivity of the river network more seriously. Therefore, this method can be widely applied to the comparison of different alternatives during planning of river basins and then provide a reference for the site selection and design of the water conservancy project and facility concerned.

Xenoestrogens in the River Elbe and its tributaries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stachel, Burkhard; Ehrhorn, Ute; Heemken, Olaf-Peter; Lepom, Peter; Reincke, Heinrich; Sawal, Georg; Theobald, Norbert

2003-01-01

High concentrations of organic chemicals in the River Elbe may be detrimental to aquatic organisms. - 4-Alkylphenols, 4-alkylphenol ethoxylates, 4-alkylphenoxy carboxylates, bisphenol A, bisphenol F, 4-hydroxyacetophenon, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid and steroid hormones were analyzed in water samples of the River Elbe and its tributaries Schwarze Elster, Mulde, Saale, Havel and Schwinge. Additionally, freshly deposited sediments (FDS, composite samples) of the River Elbe and its tributaries were analyzed. The concentrations in water samples ranged from (in ng/l): bisphenol A 4 to 92, branched nonylphenol 13 to 87, branched nonylphenol ethoxylates <0.5 to 120, 4-tert. nonylphenoxy carboxylates <10 to 940 and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid 4 to 12. Steroid hormones were only detected in the Czech tributaries Jizera and Vltava in concentrations near the limit of quantification. In FDS samples the concentrations amounted to (in μg/kg d.w.): bisphenol A 10-380, branched nonylphenol 27-430, branched nonylphenol ethoxylates 24-3700, nonylphenoxy carboxylates <50 and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid 23-4400. Increased bisphenol A concentrations were found in water and FDS samples taken from the Czech-German border at Schmilka and the mouth of the Schwinge (only water sample). According to studies conducted in the Elbe Estuary and the German Bight, the River Elbe must be considered as a major source of pollution for the North Sea in respect of the compounds analyzed. A comparison of bisphenol A concentrations, 4-alkylphenols and the corresponding ethoxylates analyzed in the River Elbe and its tributaries with those found in other German surface waters indicated a low level of contamination. The evaluation of the data based on LOEC-values indicated that the concentrations were well below the effectivity threshold for some 4-alkylphenols. According to recent ecotoxicological investigations, for example, with prosobranch snails, bisphenol A concentrations found in water samples of the River Elbe and

The European Location Framework - from National to European

Science.gov (United States)

Pauknerova, E.; Sidlichovsky, P.; Urbanas, S.; Med, M.

2016-06-01

The European Location Framework (ELF) means a technical infrastructure which will deliver authoritative, interoperable geospatial reference data from all over Europe for analysing and understanding information connected to places and features. The ELF has been developed and set up through the ELF Project, which has been realized by a consortium of partners (public, private and academic organisations) since March 2013. Their number increased from thirty to forty in the year 2016, together with a project extension from 36 to 44 months. The project is co-funded by the European Commission's Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and will end in October 2016. In broad terms, the ELF Project will deliver a unique gateway to the authoritative reference geospatial information for Europe (harmonised pan-European maps, geographic and land information) sourced from the National Mapping and Cadastral Authorities (NMCAs) around Europe and including transparent licensing. This will be provided as an online ELF web service that will deliver an up-to-date topographic base map and also as view & download services for access to the ELF datasets. To develop and build up the ELF, NMCAs are accompanied and collaborate with several research & academia institutes, a standardisation body, system integrators, software developers and application providers. The harmonisation is in progress developing and triggering a number of geo-tools like edge-matching, generalisation, transformation and others. ELF will provide also some centralised tools like Geo Locator for searching location based on geographical names, addresses and administrative units, and GeoProduct Finder for discovering the available web-services and licensing them. ELF combines national reference geo-information through the ELF platform. ELF web services will be offered to users and application developers through open source (OSKARI) and proprietary (ArcGIS Online) cloud platforms. Recently, 29 NMCAs plus the

Analysis of river health variation under the background of urbanization based on entropy weight and matter-element model: A case study in Huzhou City in the Yangtze River Delta, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Guangbo; Xu, Youpeng; Yu, Zhihui; Song, Song; Zhang, Yuan

2015-05-01

Maintaining the health of the river ecosystem is an essential ecological and environmental guarantee for regional sustainable development and one of the basic objectives in water resource management. With the rapid development of urbanization, the river health situation is deteriorating, especially in urban areas. The river health evaluation is a complex process that involves various natural and social components; eight eco-hydrological indicators were selected to establish an evaluation system, and the variation of river health status under the background of urbanization was explored based on entropy weight and matter-element model. The comprehensive correlative degrees of urban river health of Huzhou City in 2001, 2006 and 2010 were then calculated. The results indicated that river health status of the study area was in the direction of pathological trend, and the impact of limiting factors (such as Shannon's diversity index and agroforestry output growth rate) played an important role in river health. The variation of maximum correlative degree could be classified into stationary status, deterioration status, deterioration-to-improvement status, and improvement-to-deterioration status. There was a severe deterioration situation of river health under the background of urbanization. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing river health in Europe and Switzerland

Science.gov (United States)

Milano, Marianne; Chèvre, Nathalie; Reynard, Emmanuel

2017-04-01

River conditions and welfare of aquatic ecosystems are threatened by anthropogenic and climatic changes. The release of personal-care products, pharmaceuticals and crop protection products is increasing and climate change is likely to cause significant changes in hydrological regimes affecting water resources' capacity to dissolve pollutants. Assessing river health, i.e. the ability of a river to support and maintain a balanced ecosystem close to the natural habitat, is thus of major concern to ensure the development of ecosystems and to provide enough clean useable water to users. Such studies involve physical, chemical and biological processes and characteristics. In Europe and Switzerland, standardized procedures have been developed to assess the hydromorphological, ecological and toxicological status of rivers. The European Water Framework Directive sets ecological requirements and chemical guidelines while the Swiss Modular Stepwise Procedure suggests methods to apprehend ecological deficits and promote water management plans. In this study, both procedures were applied and compared in order (i) to address their capacity to follow-up the spatial and temporal variability of the river's water quality and (ii) to identify challenges that still need to be addressed to assess river's health. Applied on the Boiron River (canton of Vaud, Switzerland) for a 11-year period (2005-2015), both frameworks highlight that no section of the river currently meets a good environmental state. This river flows through a diversified agricultural area causing a progressive deterioration of its chemical and biological quality. The two methods also identify two periods of time with significant changes of the river's water quality. The 2009-2011 period is characterized by a significant deterioration of the river's ecological and toxicological state due to severe low flows and an increased use of pesticides. However, since 2013, an improvement in water quality is identified in

Compromised Rivers: Understanding Historical Human Impacts on Rivers in the Context of Restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ellen Wohl

2005-12-01

Full Text Available A river that preserves a simplified and attractive form may nevertheless have lost function. Loss of function in these rivers can occur because hydrologic and geomorphic processes no longer create and maintain the habitat and natural disturbance regimes necessary for ecosystem integrity. Recognition of compromised river function is particularly important in the context of river restoration, in which the public perception of a river's condition often drives the decision to undertake restoration as well as the decision about what type of restoration should be attempted. Determining the degree to which a river has been altered from its reference condition requires a knowledge of historical land use and the associated effects on rivers. Rivers of the Front Range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains in the United States are used to illustrate how historical land uses such as beaver trapping, placer mining, tie drives, flow regulation, and the construction of transportation corridors continue to affect contemporary river characteristics. Ignorance of regional land use and river history can lead to restoration that sets unrealistic goals because it is based on incorrect assumptions about a river's reference condition or about the influence of persistent land-use effects.

Habitat loss as the main cause of the slow recovery of fish faunas of regulated large rivers in Europe: The transversal floodplain gradient

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aarts, B.G.W.; Van den Brink, F.W.B.; Nienhuis, P.H.

2004-01-01

In large European rivers the chemical water quality has improved markedly in recent decades, yet the recovery of the fish fauna is not proceeding accordingly. Important causes are the loss of habitats in the main river channels and their floodplains, and the diminished hydrological connectivity

Map-based prediction of organic carbon in headwater streams improved by downstream observations from the river outlet

Science.gov (United States)

Temnerud, J.; von Brömssen, C.; Fölster, J.; Buffam, I.; Andersson, J.-O.; Nyberg, L.; Bishop, K.

2016-01-01

In spite of the great abundance and ecological importance of headwater streams, managers are usually limited by a lack of information about water chemistry in these headwaters. In this study we test whether river outlet chemistry can be used as an additional source of information to improve the prediction of the chemistry of upstream headwaters (size interquartile range (IQR)) of headwater stream TOC for a given catchment, based on a large number of candidate variables including sub-catchment characteristics from GIS, and measured river chemistry at the catchment outlet. The best candidate variables from the PLS models were then used in hierarchical linear mixed models (MM) to model TOC in individual headwater streams. Three predictor variables were consistently selected for the MM calibration sets: (1) proportion of forested wetlands in the sub-catchment (positively correlated with headwater stream TOC), (2) proportion of lake surface cover in the sub-catchment (negatively correlated with headwater stream TOC), and (3) river outlet TOC (positively correlated with headwater stream TOC). Including river outlet TOC improved predictions, with 5-15 % lower prediction errors than when using map information alone. Thus, data on water chemistry measured at river outlets offer information which can complement GIS-based modelling of headwater stream chemistry.

About the coding system of rivers, catchment basing and their characteristics of the republic of Armenia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avagyan, A.A.; Arakelyan, A.A.

2011-01-01

The coding of rivers, catchements, lakes and seas is one of the most important requirements of Water Framework Directive of the European Union. This coding provides solutions to actual problems of planning and management of water resources of the Republic of Armenia. The coding system provides the hierarchy of water bodies and watersheds with their typology as well as their geographic and natural conditions, anthropogenic pressures and ecological status. This approach is a fundamentally new complex solution to the coding of water resources. The coding technique allows you to automate the assessment and mapping of environmental risks and areas of water bodies which are subjected to significant pressure and also helps to solve other problems concerning the planning and the management of water resources. A complex code of each water body consists of the following groups of codes: Hydrographic code - an identifier of a water body in the hydrographic system of the country; Codes of static attributes in the system requirements of the Water Framework Directive of the European Union; Codes of static attributes of the qualifiers of the RA National Water Program; Codes of dynamic attributes that define the quality of water and characteristics of water use; Codes of dynamic attributes describing the human impact and determining the ecological status of water body

Interspecific variation in resistance of Asian, European, and North American birches (Betula spp.) to bronze birch borer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae).

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, David G; Muilenburg, Vanessa L; Herms, Daniel A

2011-06-01

Bronze birch borer (Agrilus anxius Gory) is the key pest of birches (Betula spp.) in North America, several of which have been recommended for ornamental landscapes based on anecdotal reports of borer resistance that had not been confirmed experimentally. In a 20-yr common garden experiment initiated in 1979 in Ohio, North American birch species, including paper birch (Betula papyrifera Marshall), 'Whitespire' gray birch (Betula populifolia Marshall), and river birch (Betula nigra L.), were much more resistant to bronze birch borer than species indigenous to Europe and Asia, including European white birch (Betula pendula Roth), downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.), monarch birch (Betula maximowicziana Regel), and Szechuan white birch (Betula szechuanica Jansson). Within 8 yr of planting, every European white, downy, and Szechuan birch had been colonized and killed, although 100% of monarch birch had been colonized and 88% of these plants were killed after nine years. Conversely, 97% of river birch, 76% of paper birch, and 73% Whitespire gray birch were alive 20 yr after planting, and river birch showed no evidence of colonization. This pattern is consistent with biogeographic theory of plant defense: North American birch species that share a coevolutionary history with bronze birch borer were much more resistant than naïve hosts endemic to Europe and Asia, possibly by virtue of evolution of targeted defenses. This information suggests that if bronze birch borer were introduced to Europe or Asia, it could threaten its hosts there on a continental scale. This study also exposed limitations of anecdotal observation as evidence of host plant resistance.

The computer coordination method and research of inland river traffic based on ship database

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Shanshan; Li, Gen

2018-04-01

A computer coordinated management method for inland river ship traffic is proposed in this paper, Get the inland ship's position, speed and other navigation information by VTS, building ship's statics and dynamic data bases, writing a program of computer coordinated management of inland river traffic by VB software, Automatic simulation and calculation of the meeting states of ships, Providing ship's long-distance collision avoidance information. The long-distance collision avoidance of ships will be realized. The results show that, Ships avoid or reduce meetings, this method can effectively control the macro collision avoidance of ships.

Towards a publicly available, map-based regional software tool to estimate unregulated daily streamflow at ungauged rivers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. A. Archfield

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Streamflow information is critical for addressing any number of hydrologic problems. Often, streamflow information is needed at locations that are ungauged and, therefore, have no observations on which to base water management decisions. Furthermore, there has been increasing need for daily streamflow time series to manage rivers for both human and ecological functions. To facilitate negotiation between human and ecological demands for water, this paper presents the first publicly available, map-based, regional software tool to estimate historical, unregulated, daily streamflow time series (streamflow not affected by human alteration such as dams or water withdrawals at any user-selected ungauged river location. The map interface allows users to locate and click on a river location, which then links to a spreadsheet-based program that computes estimates of daily streamflow for the river location selected. For a demonstration region in the northeast United States, daily streamflow was, in general, shown to be reliably estimated by the software tool. Estimating the highest and lowest streamflows that occurred in the demonstration region over the period from 1960 through 2004 also was accomplished but with more difficulty and limitations. The software tool provides a general framework that can be applied to other regions for which daily streamflow estimates are needed.

Towards a publicly available, map-based regional software tool to estimate unregulated daily streamflow at ungauged rivers

Science.gov (United States)

Archfield, Stacey A.; Steeves, Peter A.; Guthrie, John D.; Ries, Kernell G.

2013-01-01

Streamflow information is critical for addressing any number of hydrologic problems. Often, streamflow information is needed at locations that are ungauged and, therefore, have no observations on which to base water management decisions. Furthermore, there has been increasing need for daily streamflow time series to manage rivers for both human and ecological functions. To facilitate negotiation between human and ecological demands for water, this paper presents the first publicly available, map-based, regional software tool to estimate historical, unregulated, daily streamflow time series (streamflow not affected by human alteration such as dams or water withdrawals) at any user-selected ungauged river location. The map interface allows users to locate and click on a river location, which then links to a spreadsheet-based program that computes estimates of daily streamflow for the river location selected. For a demonstration region in the northeast United States, daily streamflow was, in general, shown to be reliably estimated by the software tool. Estimating the highest and lowest streamflows that occurred in the demonstration region over the period from 1960 through 2004 also was accomplished but with more difficulty and limitations. The software tool provides a general framework that can be applied to other regions for which daily streamflow estimates are needed.

Metal Chemical and Isotope Characterisation in the Upper Loire River Basin, France

Science.gov (United States)

Widory, D.; Nigris, R.; Morard, A.; Gassama, N.; Poirier, A.; Bourrain, X.

2016-12-01

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) elaborated by the European Commission regulates water resources in the EC based on five years management plans. A new management plan that started in 2016 imposes strict water quality criteria to its member states, including good status thresholds for metallic contaminants. The Loire River, the most important river in France, flows through areas with lithologies naturally containing high metal concentrations in the upper part of its basin. Understanding these metal fluxes into the river is thus a prerequisite to understand their potential impact on the quality of its water in regards to the criteria defined by the WFD. The Massif Central, a residue of the Hercynian chain, is composed of granitic and volcanic rocks. Both its upstream position in the Loire basin and its numerous metal mineralizations made this region a good candidate for characterizing the natural metal geochemical background of its surface waters. To fulfill this objective we focused on the Pb, Cd and Zn chemical and isotope characteristics of selected non-anthropized small watersheds. The investigated small watersheds were selected for supposedly draining a single lithology and undergoing (as far as possible) negligible to no anthropogenic pressure. Results showed that although the high metal potential of the upper part of the Loire River basin has been highly exploited by humans for centuries, metal concentrations during the hydrological cycle are still under the guidelines defined by the WFD. Isotope compositions/ratios are strongly related to the corresponding lithologies along the rivers and help precisely define the local geochemical background that can then be used to identify and quantify any anthropogenic inputs downstream.

Environmental impacts of rare earth mining and separation based on Eudialyte. A new European way

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schreiber, Andrea; Marx, Josefine; Zapp, Petra; Hake, Juergen Friedrich [Forschungszentrum Juelich (Germany). Inst. of Energy and Climate Research - Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IKE-STE); Vossenkaul, Daniel; Friedrich, Bernd [RWTH Aachen (Germany). Inst. of Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling

2016-07-01

Neodymium and dysprosium are two rare earth elements (REEs), out of a group of 17 elements with similar chemical properties. Due to their unique properties, REEs gained increasing importance in many new technologies like wind turbines, batteries, lighting, and medical technique. However, the production of REEs requires high material and energy consumption and is associated with considerably environmental burdens e.g. radioactive loaded dust and tailings. Due to the Chinese hegemony regarding REE production and the strong dependency of European industry on Chinese REE exports this paper presents a possible European production chain of REEs based on the mineral Eudialyte found in Norra Karr (Sweden). Because almost 90% of the total mines production of 109,000 t REO equivalents in 2013 [USGS, 2013] occurred in China, the European production is compared to the Chinese route. Bayan Obo is the largest REE deposit in China located near Baotou in Inner Mongolia. Using the Life Cycle Assessment method (LCA), the environmental impacts of both production lines are assessed. Although LCA is a well-known methodology to determine environmental aspects from cradle-to-grave, there are only a few LCA studies available considering REE production, almost all based on process information gathered in the 1990s. This study presents newly estimated data of a possible European Eudialyte based production route collected in a corporate 4-year project together with Siemens AG, RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Julich. The results for the new European process route show reduced environmental burdens although the total REE content in Eudialyte is much smaller than in the Chinese deposit. Especially, the results for dysprosium from Eudialyte outreach those for Bayan Obo, due to the higher content of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs).

Environmental impacts of rare earth mining and separation based on Eudialyte. A new European way

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schreiber, Andrea; Marx, Josefine; Zapp, Petra; Hake, Juergen Friedrich; Vossenkaul, Daniel; Friedrich, Bernd

2016-01-01

Neodymium and dysprosium are two rare earth elements (REEs), out of a group of 17 elements with similar chemical properties. Due to their unique properties, REEs gained increasing importance in many new technologies like wind turbines, batteries, lighting, and medical technique. However, the production of REEs requires high material and energy consumption and is associated with considerably environmental burdens e.g. radioactive loaded dust and tailings. Due to the Chinese hegemony regarding REE production and the strong dependency of European industry on Chinese REE exports this paper presents a possible European production chain of REEs based on the mineral Eudialyte found in Norra Karr (Sweden). Because almost 90% of the total mines production of 109,000 t REO equivalents in 2013 [USGS, 2013] occurred in China, the European production is compared to the Chinese route. Bayan Obo is the largest REE deposit in China located near Baotou in Inner Mongolia. Using the Life Cycle Assessment method (LCA), the environmental impacts of both production lines are assessed. Although LCA is a well-known methodology to determine environmental aspects from cradle-to-grave, there are only a few LCA studies available considering REE production, almost all based on process information gathered in the 1990s. This study presents newly estimated data of a possible European Eudialyte based production route collected in a corporate 4-year project together with Siemens AG, RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Julich. The results for the new European process route show reduced environmental burdens although the total REE content in Eudialyte is much smaller than in the Chinese deposit. Especially, the results for dysprosium from Eudialyte outreach those for Bayan Obo, due to the higher content of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs).

Calculation of the Instream Ecological Flow of the Wei River Based on Hydrological Variation

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Shengzhi Huang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available It is of great significance for the watershed management department to reasonably allocate water resources and ensure the sustainable development of river ecosystems. The greatly important issue is to accurately calculate instream ecological flow. In order to precisely compute instream ecological flow, flow variation is taken into account in this study. Moreover, the heuristic segmentation algorithm that is suitable to detect the mutation points of flow series is employed to identify the change points. Besides, based on the law of tolerance and ecological adaptation theory, the maximum instream ecological flow is calculated, which is the highest frequency of the monthly flow based on the GEV distribution and very suitable for healthy development of the river ecosystems. Furthermore, in order to guarantee the sustainable development of river ecosystems under some bad circumstances, minimum instream ecological flow is calculated by a modified Tennant method which is improved by replacing the average flow with the highest frequency of flow. Since the modified Tennant method is more suitable to reflect the law of flow, it has physical significance, and the calculation results are more reasonable.

New flux based dose–response relationships for ozone for European forest tree species

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Büker, P.; Feng, Z.; Uddling, J.; Briolat, A.; Alonso, R.; Braun, S.; Elvira, S.; Gerosa, G.; Karlsson, P.E.; Le Thiec, D.

2015-01-01

To derive O 3 dose–response relationships (DRR) for five European forest trees species and broadleaf deciduous and needleleaf tree plant functional types (PFTs), phytotoxic O 3 doses (PODy) were related to biomass reductions. PODy was calculated using a stomatal flux model with a range of cut-off thresholds (y) indicative of varying detoxification capacities. Linear regression analysis showed that DRR for PFT and individual tree species differed in their robustness. A simplified parameterisation of the flux model was tested and showed that for most non-Mediterranean tree species, this simplified model led to similarly robust DRR as compared to a species- and climate region-specific parameterisation. Experimentally induced soil water stress was not found to substantially reduce PODy, mainly due to the short duration of soil water stress periods. This study validates the stomatal O 3 flux concept and represents a step forward in predicting O 3 damage to forests in a spatially and temporally varying climate. - Highlights: • We present new ozone flux based dose–response relationships for European trees. • The model-based study accounted for the soil water effect on stomatal flux. • Different statistically derived ozone flux thresholds were applied. • Climate region specific parameterisation often outperformed simplified parameterisation. • Findings could help redefining critical levels for ozone effects on trees. - New stomatal flux based ozone dose–response relationships for tree species are derived for the regional risk assessment of ozone effects on European forest ecosystems.

A geomorphological characterisation of river systems in South Africa: A case study of the Sabie River

Science.gov (United States)

Eze, Peter N.; Knight, Jasper

2018-06-01

Fluvial geomorphology affects river character, behaviour, evolution, trajectory of change and recovery potential, and as such affects biophysical interactions within a catchment. Water bodies in South Africa, in common with many other water-stressed parts of the world, are generally under threat due to increasing natural and anthropogenic influences including aridity, siltation and pollution, as well as climate and environmental change. This study reports on a case study to characterise the geomorphology of different river systems in South Africa, with the aim of better understanding their properties, controls, and implications for biophysical interactions including water quality, biodiversity (aquatic and riparian), and human activity within the catchment. The approach adopted is based on the River Styles® framework (RSF), a geomorphology-based approach developed for rivers in New Zealand and Australia, but applied here for the first time to South Africa. Based on analysis of remote sensing imagery, SRTM-2 digital topographic data and field observations on sites through the entire river system, six geomorphic elements were identified along the Sabie River, northeast South Africa (gorge, bedrock-forced meander, low-moderate sinuosity planform controlled sand bed, meandering sand bed, low sinuosity fine grained sand bed, and floodouts), using the RSF classification scheme and based on the RSF procedural tree of Brierley and Fryirs (2005). Previous geomorphological studies along the Sabie River have shown that different reaches respond differently to episodic floods; we use these data to link river geomorphological character (as defined by the RSF) to the hydrodynamic conditions and processes giving rise to such character. This RSF approach can be used to develop a new management approach for river systems that considers their functional biophysical behaviour within individual reaches, rather than considering them as homogeneous and uniform systems.

The Climaware project: Impacts of climate change on water resources management - regional strategies and European view

Science.gov (United States)

Thirel, Guillaume; D'Agostino, Daniela; Démerliac, Stéphane; Dorchies, David; Flörke, Martina; Jay-Allemand, Maxime; Jost, Claudine; Kehr, Katrin; Perrin, Charles; Scardigno, Alessandra; Schneider, Christof; Theobald, Stephan; Träbing, Klaus

2014-05-01

an integrated analysis across different spatial scales. To fulfil the objectives of the ClimAware project, the following modelling methodology was implemented. Starting from a European modelling approach of water availability and use based on the WaterGAP3 model, the changes in the hydrologic regimes and water use of different sectors were analysed. Subsequently three case studies were used to investigate the impacts of CC at a regional scale. Regional models from three different countries and focusing on three types of water management issues were developed: • Hydromorphology (Eder basin, Germany): By using different scenarios, the influence of CC on the hydromorphological characteristics of the River Weser according to the WFD was evaluated and proposals for implementation were given. The objective was to examine, on typical river sections, how the WFD objectives can be implemented under CC constraints. • Dam management (Seine basin, France): Water management on the River Seine for water supply and flood alleviation is partly based on the management of artificial reservoirs. The case study developed scenarios linking the impact of CC on water resources and the expected change on the uses and on the management of the system. • Agricultural water use (Apulia region, Italy): In this region, economic and demographic changes cause an increase in the demand for good-quality municipal and industrial water. Besides, changes in the agricultural practices increase the demand for water in the agricultural sector. Since water is scarce in this region, the study focuses on the agricultural sector, which has the largest water saving potential. The final assessment comprises a cross-scale integration between the European and regional modelling frameworks in order to facilitate knowledge transfer and to help establishing sustainable and integrated water resources management plans.

THE ASSESSMENT OF HYDROMORPHOLOGICAL STATUS OF ROMANIAN RIVERS

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TECUCI I.

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The quality protection and improvement of the aquatic ecosystems and achievement of "good status" for all water bodies until 2015, involved integration of key ecosystem principles into water policies and a series of new management elements. Thus, the "health" status of aquatic ecosystems is a new objective for European water policy which is reflected in the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems, being defined by the biological, morphological and physico-chemical quality components as well as the presence of specific pollutants (synthetic and non-synthetic. In order to achieve good ecological status / good ecological potential for all water bodies (rivers of Romania, the paper presents an innovative approach regarding monitoring of hydromorphological quality component and its integration in the assessment of ecological status of water bodies. In this approach the river system is seen in the context of stream corridor as a complex of ecosystems which includes not only the river, but also the riparian zone with the species of plants and animals that inhabit this space. The river corridor is responsible for shaping the river bad, retaining the water and sediments, and also constitutes the support for creating a variety of habitats / microhabitats for communities of aquatic organisms underlying the assessment of ecological status of rivers. In this context, the paper presents hydromorphological indicators set identified in accordance with the requirements of the WFD and a hydromorphological classification system of rivers in five quality classes which should represent a scientific basis for the water monitoring and evaluation system and assists in a judicious way the decision makers to improve water quality in Romania.

Solution by dilution?--A review on the pollution status of the Yangtze River.

Science.gov (United States)

Floehr, Tilman; Xiao, Hongxia; Scholz-Starke, Björn; Wu, Lingling; Hou, Junli; Yin, Daqiang; Zhang, Xiaowei; Ji, Rong; Yuan, Xingzhong; Ottermanns, Richard; Roß-Nickoll, Martina; Schäffer, Andreas; Hollert, Henner

2013-10-01

The Yangtze River has been a source of life and prosperity for the Chinese people for centuries and is a habitat for a remarkable variety of aquatic species. But the river suffers from huge amounts of urban sewage, agricultural effluents, and industrial wastewater as well as ship navigation wastes along its course. With respect to the vast amounts of water and sediments discharged by the Yangtze River, it is reasonable to ask whether the pollution problem may be solved by simple dilution. This article reviews the past two decades of published research on organic pollutants in the Yangtze River and several adjacent water bodies connected to the main stream, according to a holistic approach. Organic pollutant levels and potential effects of water and sediments on wildlife and humans, measured in vitro, in vivo, and in situ, were critically reviewed. The contamination with organic pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofurans, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), and others, of water and sediment along the river was described. Especially Wuhan section and the Yangtze Estuary exhibited stronger pollution than other sections. Bioassays, displaying predominantly the endpoints mutagenicity and endocrine disruption, applied at sediments, drinking water, and surface water indicated a potential health risk in several areas. Aquatic organisms exhibited detectable concentrations of toxic compounds like PCBs, OCPs, PBDEs, and PFCs. Genotoxic effects could also be assessed in situ in fish. To summarize, it can be stated that dilution reduces the ecotoxicological risk in the Yangtze River, but does not eliminate it. Keeping in mind an approximately 14 times greater water discharge compared to the major European river Rhine, the absolute pollution mass transfer of the Yangtze River is of severe concern for

A spatial and seasonal assessment of river water chemistry across North West England.

Science.gov (United States)

Rothwell, J J; Dise, N B; Taylor, K G; Allott, T E H; Scholefield, P; Davies, H; Neal, C

2010-01-15

This paper presents information on the spatial and seasonal patterns of river water chemistry at approximately 800 sites in North West England based on data from the Environment Agency regional monitoring programme. Within a GIS framework, the linkages between average water chemistry (pH, sulphate, base cations, nutrients and metals) catchment characteristics (topography, land cover, soil hydrology, base flow index and geology), rainfall, deposition chemistry and geo-spatial information on discharge consents (point sources) are examined. Water quality maps reveal that there is a clear distinction between the uplands and lowlands. Upland waters are acidic and have low concentrations of base cations, explained by background geological sources and land cover. Localised high concentrations of metals occur in areas of the Cumbrian Fells which are subjected to mining effluent inputs. Nutrient concentrations are low in the uplands with the exception sites receiving effluent inputs from rural point sources. In the lowlands, both past and present human activities have a major impact on river water chemistry, especially in the urban and industrial heartlands of Greater Manchester, south Lancashire and Merseyside. Over 40% of the sites have average orthophosphate concentrations >0.1mg-Pl(-1). Results suggest that the dominant control on orthophosphate concentrations is point source contributions from sewage effluent inputs. Diffuse agricultural sources are also important, although this influence is masked by the impact of point sources. Average nitrate concentrations are linked to the coverage of arable land, although sewage effluent inputs have a significant effect on nitrate concentrations. Metal concentrations in the lowlands are linked to diffuse and point sources. The study demonstrates that point sources, as well as diffuse sources, need to be considered when targeting measures for the effective reduction in river nutrient concentrations. This issue is clearly important

The development of a system to assess the ecological quality of streams based on macroinvertebrates - design of the sampling programme within the AQEM project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hering, D.; Buffagni, A.; Moog, O.; Sandin, L.; Sommerhäuser, M.; Strubauer, I.; Feld, C.; Johnson, R.; Pinto, P.; Skoulikidis, N.; Verdonschot, P.F.M.; Zahrádková, S.

2003-01-01

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires river assessment systems based on benthic invertebrates. The AQEM project is developing, at a European scale, such a methodology, based on a comparison of communities of reference streams and degraded streams. The project is focussing on three main

Water-quality data for the Missouri River and Missouri River alluvium near Weldon Spring, St. Charles County, Missouri, 1991--92

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kleeschulte, M.J.

1993-01-01

This report contains the water-quality data collected at two cross sections across the Missouri River and from monitoring wells in the Missouri River alluvium near Defiance, Missouri. The sampling results indicate the general water composition from the Missouri River changes with different flow conditions. During low-base flow conditions, the water generally contained about equal quantities of calcium and sodium plus potassium and similar quantities of bicarbonate and sulfate. During high-base flow conditions, water from the river predominantly was a calcium bicarbonate type. During runoff conditions, the water from the river was a calcium bicarbonate type, and sulfate concentrations were larger than during high-base flow conditions but smaller than during low-base flow conditions. The total and dissolved uranium concentrations at both the upstream and downstream cross sections, as well as from the different vertical samples across the river, were similar during each sampling event. However, sodium, sulfate, nitrate, and total and dissolved uranium concentrations varied with different flow conditions. Sodium and sulfate concentrations were larger during low-base flow conditions than during high-base flow or runoff conditions, while nitrate concentrations decreased during low-base flow conditions. Both total and dissolved uranium concentrations were slightly larger during runoff events than during low-base or high-base flow conditions

Trace elements and radionuclides in the Connecticut River and Amazon River estuary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dion, E.P.

1983-01-01

The Connecticut River, its estuary, and the Amazon River estuary were studied to elucidate some of the processes which control river water chemistry and the flux of elements to the sea. The approach taken was to identify inputs to the Connecticut River and to investigate geochemical processes which modify the dissolved load. The form and quantity of nuclides which are in turn supplied to the estuary are altered by processes unique to that transition zone to the ocean. The Connecticut River estuary was sampled on a seasonal basis to investigate the role of the estuary in controlling the flux of elements to the sea. The knowledge gained from the Connecticut River study was applied to the quantitatively more significant Amazon River estuary. There a variety of samples were analyzed to understand the processes controlling the single greatest flux of elements to the Atlantic Ocean. The results indicate that estimates of the total flux of nuclides to the oceans can best be calculated based on groundwater inputs. Unless significant repositories for nuclides exist in the river-estuarine system, the groundwater flux of dissolved nuclides is that which will eventually be delivered to the ocean despite the reactions which were shown to occur in both rivers and estuaries. 153 references, 63 figures, 28 tables

Prevention of Polluting Rivers and Lakes from Ships

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Natalija Jolić

2005-09-01

Full Text Available Traffic on rivers and lakes in Europe has been ve1y well developed.The reason for this is the transport cost, relative speedand good connectivity of major European cities by rivers andcanals. In Croatia, this transport mode is lagging behind therest of Europe. Croatia is located at an interesting section of theriver transversal, but due to several reasons, river navigation inCroatia has not been developed to any major extent. As operatingriver ships the most frequent types are: towboats, pushboatsand self-propelled ships. The installed diesel engines, propulsionand auxiliary engines run at high power. Proportional tothe increase in the power of installed engines is also the increasein the volume of waste produced by the engines. Also, the olderthe engine, the greater volume of waste it produces. Ships mayalso cause pollution by wastewaters and garbage. This pollutionthreat grows with the greater number of people on boardand the age of the ship. In order to minimize these possibilitiesof pollution, it is necesswy to control all the time the properfunctioning of the ships, train the staff and construct receptionfacilities on land.

A (desintegração da África pós-colonial em A Bend in the River de V. S. Naipaul = The (disintegration of post-colonial Africa in A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Bolfarine

2010-01-01

Full Text Available O presente trabalho visa refletir sobre as consequências do imperialismo europeu em uma cidade africana fictícia, inspirada no Zaire, representada por V. S. Naipaul na obra A Bend in The River (1979. O artigo investiga a falta de integração entre as diferentesesferas sociais que se formaram no leste da África, a partir da imigração de indianos e asiáticos como indentured workers, trabalhadores contratados. Serão analisados trechos do romance que possuem como foco as consequências dos relacionamentos inter-raciaisvividos entre diferentes personagens. A conclusão é que A Bend in the River demonstra que a política de dividir para governar, posta em prática pelos europeus, influenciou a construção de uma sociedade fragmentada, desigual, hierárquica e determinista. O pessimismo deNaipaul corrobora a ideologia racista do colonialismo, que prega a pressuposição pelo negro africano da superioridade do branco europeu, reafirmando o seu direito de oprimir e dominar os povos colonizados. O campo teórico é constituído com base nos estudos de Avtar Brah, Edward Said, Michael Gorra.This work aims at reflecting upon the consequences of European imperialism in a fictitious African city, supposedly situated in Zaire, represented by V. S. Naipaul in A Bend in the River (1979. The article investigates the lack of integration between different social spheres, which were formed in East Africa, after the immigration of Indians and Asians as indentured workers. Different excerpts of the novel that focus on the consequences of the inter-racial relationships between different characters in the narrative will be analyzed. The conclusion is that A Bend in the River reveals that the divide and rule policy, put into practice by the Europeancolonizer, influenced the construction of a society that is fragmented, unequal, hierarchical and deterministic. Naipaul’s pessimism supports the racist ideology of colonialism, which preachesthe assumption by the

Raising European Citizens: Constructing European Identities in French and English Textbooks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inari Sakki

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Schools play a pivotal role in the formation of identities and in the political socialization of youth. This study explores the social representations of European integration in French and English school textbooks and shows how the social representations are discursively used to construct national and European identities. By analysing the history and civics textbooks of major educational publishers, this study aims to demonstrate how European integration is understood, made familiar and concretized in the school textbooks of the two influential but different European countries. The findings suggest some shared and some diverse patterns in the way the two European countries portray and construct the political project of European integration. These representations, constructed around French Europe in French textbooks and ambivalent Europe in English textbooks, share the images of a strong European economy and a French-led political Europe. However, they position themselves differently with respect to the United States, motivation for the European unification process and the significance of common values and heritage. In both countries textbooks draw upon memories that are important for group identity. While the French textbooks make European integration meaningful in reference to a shared post-war collective memory and to a cultural memory based on a more ancient idea of Europe, shared values and heritage, the English textbooks anchor it more strongly to domestic policy.

Future changes in heat-waves, droughts and floods in 571 European cities

Science.gov (United States)

Guerreiro, Selma; Dawson, Richard; Kilsby, Chris; Lewis, Elizabeth; Ford, Alistair

2017-04-01

Future changes in heat-waves, droughts and floods were assessed for 571 European cities. We used all available climate model runs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 - CMIP5 - for their higher emission scenario (RCP8.5) and grouped the projections into Low, Mid and High impact scenarios. This resulted in impact projections outside the range of published literature, but enabled us to better understand uncertainties in future climate projections (both due to climate model errors but also the effects of natural variability) therefore providing the basis for broad scale risk analysis and thereafter identification of robust adaptation strategies. While heat-waves will worsen for every European city, changes in droughts and floods are spatially variable and climate model dependent. The largest increases in the number of heat-wave days are shown to be in southern Europe, but higher heat-wave maximum temperature increases are expected in the mid-latitudes. In the low impact scenario, drought conditions are expected to intensify only in southern Europe while river flooding in expected to worsen in the north. However, in the high impact scenario most European cities show increases in both drought conditions and river flooding. There is a very wide range of projections for future changes in Europe with disagreement between different studies, partly due to their methodological differences but potentially also due to the small number of climate model runs that limits the uncertainties due to natural variability and model errors that each study captures.

Development and validation of a bacteria-based index of biotic integrity for assessing the ecological status of urban rivers: A case study of Qinhuai River basin in Nanjing, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jie; Li, Yi; Qian, Bao; Niu, Lihua; Zhang, Wenlong; Cai, Wei; Wu, Hainan; Wang, Peifang; Wang, Chao

2017-07-01

With the increasing human disturbance to urban rivers, the extinction and biodiversity losses of some macroorganism species decreased the accuracy of bioassessment. In this study, a novel index of biotic integrity based on bacteria (Ba-IBI) was first developed for Qinhuai River in Nanjing city, China. Thirty-two biofilm samples were collected along the river bank and the bacterial communities were identified by high-throughput sequencing. By the range, responsive, and redundancy tests, four core metrics were selected from the dataset of 78 candidate metrics, including Pielou's evenness index, proportion of Paenibacillus, proportion of OTUs tolerant to organic pollution and proportion of Nitrosomonas. The results showed that the Ba-IBI was able to effectively discriminate different impaired site groups, and had a good correlation with the index of water quality (r = 0.79, p river. Our study revealed that the Ba-IBI is an effective and reliable approach for assessing the ecological status of Qinhuai River basin, which can complement the existing ecological assessment approaches for urban rivers. Meanwhile, repeted surveys and field validations are still needed to further improve the applicability of the index in future studies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multisource Data-Based Integrated Agricultural Drought Monitoring in the Huai River Basin, China

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Peng; Zhang, Qiang; Wen, Qingzhi; Singh, Vijay P.; Shi, Peijun

2017-10-01

Drought monitoring is critical for early warning of drought hazard. This study attempted to develop an integrated remote sensing drought monitoring index (IRSDI), based on meteorological data for 2003-2013 from 40 meteorological stations and soil moisture data from 16 observatory stations, as well as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data using a linear trend detection method, and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. The objective was to investigate drought conditions across the Huai River basin in both space and time. Results indicate that (1) the proposed IRSDI monitors and describes drought conditions across the Huai River basin reasonably well in both space and time; (2) frequency of drought and severe drought are observed during April-May and July-September. The northeastern and eastern parts of Huai River basin are dominated by frequent droughts and intensified drought events. These regions are dominated by dry croplands, grasslands, and highly dense population and are hence more sensitive to drought hazards; (3) intensified droughts are detected during almost all months except January, August, October, and December. Besides, significant intensification of droughts is discerned mainly in eastern and western Huai River basin. The duration and regions dominated by intensified drought events would be a challenge for water resources management in view of agricultural and other activities in these regions in a changing climate.

Biomonitoring of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams in Europe: Current practice and priorities to enhance ecological status assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Stubbington, Rachel; Chadd, Richard; Cid, Núria; Csabai, Zoltán; Miliša, Marko; Morais, Manuela; Munné, Antoni; Pařil, Petr; Pešić, Vladimir; Tziortzis, Iakovos; Verdonschot, Ralf C M; Datry, Thibault

2018-03-15

Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) are common across Europe and dominate some Mediterranean river networks. In all climate zones, IRES support high biodiversity and provide ecosystem services. As dynamic ecosystems that transition between flowing, pool, and dry states, IRES are typically poorly represented in biomonitoring programmes implemented to characterize EU Water Framework Directive ecological status. We report the results of a survey completed by representatives from 20 European countries to identify current challenges to IRES status assessment, examples of best practice, and priorities for future research. We identify five major barriers to effective ecological status classification in IRES: 1. the exclusion of IRES from Water Framework Directive biomonitoring based on their small catchment size; 2. the lack of river typologies that distinguish between contrasting IRES; 3. difficulties in defining the 'reference conditions' that represent unimpacted dynamic ecosystems; 4. classification of IRES ecological status based on lotic communities sampled using methods developed for perennial rivers; and 5. a reliance on taxonomic characterization of local communities. Despite these challenges, we recognize examples of innovative practice that can inform modification of current biomonitoring activity to promote effective IRES status classification. Priorities for future research include reconceptualization of the reference condition approach to accommodate spatiotemporal fluctuations in community composition, and modification of indices of ecosystem health to recognize both taxon-specific sensitivities to intermittence and dispersal abilities, within a landscape context. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The European Public on Social Media

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tarta, Ancuta-Gabriela

This study explorers the European public on social media by discussing the case of communicative interactions taking place on the official Facebook page of the European Parliament. Based on the theoretical framework conceptualizing the public and the public sphere on social network sites, the study...... examines the European social media public from two perspectives. The first is a top-down, institutional perspective of European Parliament, based on a case-study approach to the way this European institution constructs and addresses the public through its social media communication. The second is a bottom......-up perspective of the public of social media users, informed by a content analysis of Facebook comments and a discourse analysis of live chat interactions with Members of the European Parliament. Results confirm a discursive potential of the Facebook public of users. In the case of the Facebook comment threads...

Impact of beaver ponds on river discharge and sediment deposition along the Chevral River, Ardennes, Belgium

Science.gov (United States)

Nyssen, Jan; Frankl, Amaury; Pontzeele, Jolien; De Visscher, Maarten; Billi, Paolo

2013-04-01

With the recovery of the European beaver (Castor fiber) and their capacity to engineer fluvial landscapes, questions arise as to how they influence river discharge and sediment transport. The Chevral river (Ardennes, Belgium) contains two beaver dam sequences which appeared in 2004 and count now about 30 dams. Flow discharges and sediment fluxes were measured at the in- and outflow of each dam sequence. Volumes of sediment deposited behind the dams were measured. Between 2004 and 2011, peak flows were topped off, and the magnitude of extreme events decreased. 1710 m³ of sediment were deposited behind the beaver dams, with an average sediment thickness of 25 cm. The thickness of the sediment layer is related to the area of the beaver ponds. Along the stream, beaver pond sediment thickness displayed a sinusoidal deposition pattern, in which ponds with thick sediment layers were preceded by a series of ponds with thinner sediment layers. A downstream textural coarsening in the dam sequences was also observed, probably due to dam failures subsequent to surges. Differences in sediment flux between the in- and outflow at the beaver pond sequence were related to the river hydrograph, with deposition taking place during the rising limbs and slight erosion during the falling limbs. The seven-year-old sequences have filtered 190 tons of sediment out of the Chevral river, which is of the same order of magnitude as the 374 tons measured in pond deposits, with the difference between the values corresponding to beaver excavations (60 tons), inflow from small tributaries, and runoff from the valley flanks. Hydrogeomorphic effects of C. fiber and C. canadensis activity are similar in magnitude. The detailed analysis of changes to hydrology in beaver pond sequences confirms the potential of beavers to contribute to river and wetland restoration and catchment management.

A market-based approach to share water and benefits in transboundary river basins

Science.gov (United States)

Arjoon, Diane; Tilmant, Amaury; Herrmann, Markus

2016-04-01

The equitable sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins is necessary to reach a consensus on basin-wide development and management activities. Benefit sharing arrangements must be collaboratively developed to be perceived as efficient, as well as equitable, in order to be considered acceptable to all riparian countries. The current literature falls short of providing practical, institutional arrangements that ensure maximum economic welfare as well as collaboratively developed methods for encouraging the equitable sharing of benefits. In this study we define an institutional arrangement that distributes welfare in a river basin by maximizing the economic benefits of water use and then sharing these benefits in an equitable manner using a method developed through stakeholder involvement. In this methodology (i) a hydro-economic model is used to efficiently allocate scarce water resources to water users in a transboundary basin, (ii) water users are obliged to pay for water, and (iii) the total of these water charges are equitably redistributed as monetary compensation to users. The amount of monetary compensation, for each water user, is determined through the application of a sharing method developed by stakeholder input, based on a stakeholder vision of fairness, using an axiomatic approach. The whole system is overseen by a river basin authority. The methodology is applied to the Eastern Nile River basin as a case study. The technique ensures economic efficiency and may lead to more equitable solutions in the sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins because the definition of the sharing rule is not in question, as would be the case if existing methods, such as game theory, were applied, with their inherent definitions of fairness.

Monitoring the Behavior of Emerging Contaminants in Wastewater-Impacted Rivers Based on the Use of Fluorescence Excitation Emission Matrixes (EEM).

Science.gov (United States)

Sgroi, Massimiliano; Roccaro, Paolo; Korshin, Gregory V; Vagliasindi, Federico G A

2017-04-18

This study investigated the applicability of fluorescence indexes based on the interpretation of excitation emission matrices (EEMs) by PARAFAC analysis and by selecting fluorescence intensities at a priori defined excitation/emission pairs as surrogates for monitoring the behavior of emerging organic compounds (EOCs) in two catchment basins impacted by wastewater discharges. Relevant EOC and EEM data were obtained for a 90 km stretch of the Simeto River, the main river in Sicily, and the smaller San Leonardo River, which was investigated for a 17 km stretch. The use of fluorescence indexes developed by these two different approaches resulted in similar observations. Changes of the fluorescence indexes that correspond to a group of humic-like fluorescing species were determined to be highly correlated with the concentrations of recalcitrant contaminants such as sucralose, sulfamethoxazole and carbamazepine, which are typical wastewater markers in river water. Changes of the fluorescence indexes related to tyrosine-like substances were well correlated with the concentrations of ibuprofen and caffeine, anthropogenic indicators of untreated wastewater discharges. Chemical oxygen demand and dissolved organic carbon concentrations were correlated with humic-like fluorescence indexes. The observed correlations were site-specific and characterized by different regression parameters for every collection event. Caffeine and carbamazepine showed correlations with florescence indexes in the San Leonardo River and in the alluvial plain stretch of the Simeto River, whereas sucralose, sulfamethoxazole and ibuprofen have always been well correlated in all the investigated river stretches. However, when data of different collection events from river stretches where correlations were observed were combined, good linear correlations were obtained for data sets generated via the normalization of the measured concentrations by the average value for the corresponding collection event

Phosphorus losses from agricultural areas in river basins; effects and uncertainties of targeted mitigation measures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kronvang, B.; Bechmann, M.; Lundekvam, H.; Behrendt, H.; Rubaek, G.H.; Schoumans, O.F.; Syversen, N.; Andersen, H.E.; Hoffmann, C.C.

2005-01-01

In this paper we show the quantitative and relative importance of phosphorus (P) losses from agricultural areas within European river basins and demonstrate the importance of P pathways, linking agricultural source areas to surface water at different scales. Agricultural P losses are increasingly

The European Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology-European Institute of Radiotherapy (ESTRO-EIR) report on 3D CT-based in-room image guidance systems: a practical and technical review and guide

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Korreman, Stine; Rasch, Coen; McNair, Helen

2010-01-01

The past decade has provided many technological advances in radiotherapy. The European Institute of Radiotherapy (EIR) was established by the European Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) to provide current consensus statement with evidence-based and pragmatic guidelines on topics...

Analysis of the impact of biomechanical traits of European black Poplar on riverbank flow resistance

Science.gov (United States)

Battista Chirico, Giovanni; Saulino, Luigi; Pasquino, Vittorio; Villani, Paolo; Rita, Angelo; Todaro, Luigi; Saracino, Antonio

2016-04-01

Predicting the effects of riparian plants on river flow dynamics is fundamental for an appropriate river management. Riparian woody vegetation enhances bank cohesion and provides ecosystem services by mitigating nutrient and sediment loads to the river flow and enhancing biodiversity. However riparian trees also contribute to river flow resistance and thus can have a significant impact on flow dynamics during flood events. The flow-plant interaction mainly depends on plant morphological characters (e.g. diameter, height, canopy size, foliage density) and biomechanical properties, such as its flexural rigidity. This study aims at testing the hypothesis that the hydrodynamic behaviour of the European black Poplar (∖textit{Populus nigra} L.), a common woody riparian plant, is influenced by specific biomechanical traits developed as result of its adaptation to different river ecosystems. We examine the morphological and biomechanical properties of living stems of black Poplar sampled in two different riverine environments in Southern Italy located only a few kilometres apart. The two sample sets of living stems exhibit similar morphological traits but significantly different Young module of elasticity. We compared the drag forces that the flow would exert on these two different sets of plants for a wide range of flow velocities, by employing a numerical model that accounts for the bending behaviour of the woody plant due to the hydrodynamic load, under the hypothesis of complete submergence. A Monte Carlo approach was applied in order to account for the stochastic variability of the morphological and mechanical parameters affecting plant biomechanical behaviour. We identified a threshold value of the plant diameter, above which the two sets of European black Poplars are subjected to drag forces that differ by more than 25{∖%} on average, for flow velocities larger than 1 m/s.

Mapping the Soil Texture in the Heihe River Basin Based on Fuzzy Logic and Data Fusion

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Ling Lu

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Mapping soil texture in a river basin is critically important for eco-hydrological studies and water resource management at the watershed scale. However, due to the scarcity of in situ observation of soil texture, it is very difficult to map the soil texture in high resolution using traditional methods. Here, we used an integrated method based on fuzzy logic theory and data fusion to map the soil texture in the Heihe River basin in an arid region of Northwest China, by combining in situ soil texture measurement data, environmental factors, a previous soil texture map, and other thematic maps. Considering the different landscape characteristics over the whole Heihe River basin, different mapping schemes have been used to extract the soil texture in the upstream, middle, and downstream areas of the Heihe River basin, respectively. The validation results indicate that the soil texture map achieved an accuracy of 69% for test data from the midstream area of the Heihe River basin, which represents a much higher accuracy than that of another existing soil map in the Heihe River basin. In addition, compared with the time-consuming and expensive traditional soil mapping method, this new method could ensure greater efficiency and a better representation of the explicitly spatial distribution of soil texture and can, therefore, satisfy the requirements of regional modeling.

The European Parliament and the European future of Albania

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Skerdilajd Bajramaj

2015-07-01

Full Text Available On 06.24.2014 Albania was granted the status of candidate country. The foreign ministers of the 28 European Union member states decided unanimously to grant the candidate status for Albania. After receiving the status of “candidate country” for EU membership, the institutional relations with European international bodies are becoming stronger. One of these institutions, which during this time has increased its authority with Albania, is the European Parliament. In this paper will be analyzed the composition, competences and functioning of this particular institution, which is not only important for the future of the European Union and its Member States, but also for those who aim to join in. The study will be based on decisions made by this legislative body, as the only direct representative of the citizens of the European Union, and the impact they have on the performance and functioning of the Member States and the EU itself. In order to verify the validity of these claims, the analysis aims to assess the scope of the legislative function of the European Parliament post-Lisbon, examining its participation in the EU lawmaking both from the point of view of quantity and quality in over the past legislatures. Particular attention has been given to the examination of the changes that have taken place with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and the areas most affected. We will finally look at the work and contribution of the European Parliament, through the instruments at his disposal, on behalf of Albania’s progress towards full accession in the European Union.

An Efficient Method for Mapping High-Resolution Global River Discharge Based on the Algorithms of Drainage Network Extraction

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Jiaye Li

2018-04-01

Full Text Available River discharge, which represents the accumulation of surface water flowing into rivers and ultimately into the ocean or other water bodies, may have great impacts on water quality and the living organisms in rivers. However, the global knowledge of river discharge is still poor and worth exploring. This study proposes an efficient method for mapping high-resolution global river discharge based on the algorithms of drainage network extraction. Using the existing global runoff map and digital elevation model (DEM data as inputs, this method consists of three steps. First, the pixels of the runoff map and the DEM data are resampled into the same resolution (i.e., 0.01-degree. Second, the flow direction of each pixel of the DEM data (identified by the optimal flow path method used in drainage network extraction is determined and then applied to the corresponding pixel of the runoff map. Third, the river discharge of each pixel of the runoff map is calculated by summing the runoffs of all the pixels in the upstream of this pixel, similar to the upslope area accumulation step in drainage network extraction. Finally, a 0.01-degree global map of the mean annual river discharge is obtained. Moreover, a 0.5-degree global map of the mean annual river discharge is produced to display the results with a more intuitive perception. Compared against the existing global river discharge databases, the 0.01-degree map is of a generally high accuracy for the selected river basins, especially for the Amazon River basin with the lowest relative error (RE of 0.3% and the Yangtze River basin within the RE range of ±6.0%. However, it is noted that the results of the Congo and Zambezi River basins are not satisfactory, with RE values over 90%, and it is inferred that there may be some accuracy problems with the runoff map in these river basins.

The organic pollutant status of rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina as determined by a combination of active and passive sampling methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Harman, Christopher; Grung, Merete; Djedjibegovic, Jasmina; Marjanovic, Aleksandra; Fjeld, Eirik; Braaten, Hans Fredrik Veiteberg; Sober, Miroslav; Larssen, Thorjørn; Ranneklev, Sissel Brit

2018-04-15

There is an overall lack of data concerning the pollution status of Bosnia Herzegovina, which is confounded by fragmented national environmental management. The present study aimed to provide some initial data for concentrations of priority substances in two major Bosnian Rivers, using two types of passive sampler (PS) as well as by using high volume water sampling (HVWS). Overall, concentrations of most persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and legacy pesticides, were shown to be low. However, around the town of Doboj on the Bosna River, concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) breached European standards for several compounds and reached 67 ng L -1 for freely dissolved concentrations and 250 ng L -1 for total concentrations. In general, contamination was lower in the Neretva River compared to the Bosna, although for brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), results suggested an active source of PBDEs at one location based on the ratio of congeners 47 and 99. Direct comparisons between the different sampling techniques used are not straightforward, but similar patterns of PAH contamination were shown by HVWS and PS in the Bosna River. There are both scientific and practical considerations when choosing which type of sampling technique to apply, and this should be decided based on the goals of each individual study.

Simulating Spawning and Juvenile Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Habitat in Colorado River Based on High-Flow Effects

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Weiwei Yao

2017-02-01

Full Text Available High flow generates significant alterations in downstream river reaches, resulting in physical condition changes in the downstream regions of the river such as water depth, flow velocity, water temperature and river bed. These alterations will lead to change in fish habitat configuration in the river. This paper proposes a model system to evaluate the high flow effects on river velocity, water depth, substrates changes, temperature distribution and consequently assess the change in spawning and juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss habitats in the downstream region of the Glen Canyon Dam. Firstly, based on the 2 dimensional (2D depth-averaged CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics model and heat transfer equation applied for simulation, three indices were simulated, namely depth, flow velocity and temperature distribution. Then, the spawning and juvenile fish preference curves were obtained based on these three indices and substrates distribution. After that, the habitat model was proposed and used to simulate the high flow effects on juvenile and spawning rainbow trout habitat structure. Finally, the weighted usable area (WUA and overall suitability index (OSI of the spawning and juvenile fish species were quantitatively simulated to estimate the habitat sensitivity. The results illustrate that the high flow effect (HFE increased the juvenile rainbow trout habitat quality but decreased the spawning rainbow trout habitat quality. The juvenile trout were mainly affected by the water depth while the spawning rainbow trout were dominated by the bed elevation.

Facility Service Market an European Overview based on EU Statistics

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Alexander Redlein

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The macro-economic impact of facility management and facility services in special was not scientifically analysed by now. Some studies analysed single countries but were mainly lacking solid data. Especially a Pan European comparison is lacking. This paper presents the results of an in depth analysis of the Eurostat figures. It compares the facility service industry with other industries in particular the construction industry. It also compares the largest European economies (Germany, France and Italy. The study concentrates on the outsourced services only, as these are listed in the European Statistics. The results show big differences between the European countries. It also highlights that the facility service industry is the third largest regarding number of employees and the fourth largest regarding value added.

EFFECTS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRRIGATION RESERVOIRS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF POLLUTANTS IN ESTUARINE ZONES OF SMALL MEDITERRANEAN RIVERS. THE CASE OF SPERCHIOS RIVER, GREECE

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Manos Dassenakis

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Sperchios is a small river in central Greece and although its estuary has been characterised as an Important Bird Area and is included in the European network “NATURA 2000”, it is very poorly managed from an environmental point of view. The Sperchios basin is one of the most important agricultural regions in Greece but it is influenced also by industrial and urban pollution. An earthen dyke is erected b every summer about 2km upstream from the river mouth in order to collect the river water for irrigation purposes. The change in the site of the intermixing zone due to this fact affects the salinity of the water and the amount of suspended matter as well as the chemical behaviour and partitioning of both heavy metals and nutrients. The suspended matter was found to be the major carrier for most metals e.g. lead, zinc, copper whereas phosphorus was the limiting factor for the phytoplankton growth.

River meander modeling of the Wabash River near the Interstate 64 Bridge near Grayville, Illinois

Science.gov (United States)

Lant, Jeremiah G.; Boldt, Justin A.

2018-01-16

Natural river channels continually evolve and change shape over time. As a result, channel evolution or migration can cause problems for bridge structures that are fixed in the flood plain. A once-stable bridge structure that was uninfluenced by a river’s shape could be encroached upon by a migrating river channel. The potential effect of the actively meandering Wabash River on the Interstate 64 Bridge at the border with Indiana near Grayville, Illinois, was studied using a river migration model called RVR Meander. RVR Meander is a toolbox that can be used to model river channel meander migration with physically based bank erosion methods. This study assesses the Wabash River meandering processes through predictive modeling of natural meandering over the next 100 years, climate change effects through increased river flows, and bank protection measures near the Interstate 64 Bridge.

Multi-model ensemble projections of European river floods and high flows at 1.5, 2, and 3 degrees global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Thober, Stephan; Kumar, Rohini; Wanders, Niko; Marx, Andreas; Pan, Ming; Rakovec, Oldrich; Samaniego, Luis; Sheffield, Justin; Wood, Eric F.; Zink, Matthias

2018-01-01

Severe river floods often result in huge economic losses and fatalities. Since 1980, almost 1500 such events have been reported in Europe. This study investigates climate change impacts on European floods under 1.5, 2, and 3 K global warming. The impacts are assessed employing a multi-model ensemble containing three hydrologic models (HMs: mHM, Noah-MP, PCR-GLOBWB) forced by five CMIP5 general circulation models (GCMs) under three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs 2.6, 6.0, and 8.5). This multi-model ensemble is unprecedented with respect to the combination of its size (45 realisations) and its spatial resolution, which is 5 km over the entirety of Europe. Climate change impacts are quantified for high flows and flood events, represented by 10% exceedance probability and annual maxima of daily streamflow, respectively. The multi-model ensemble points to the Mediterranean region as a hotspot of changes with significant decrements in high flows from -11% at 1.5 K up to -30% at 3 K global warming mainly resulting from reduced precipitation. Small changes (impacts of global warming could be similar under 1.5 K and 2 K global warming, but have to account for significantly higher changes under 3 K global warming.

Model-Based Evaluation of Urban River Restoration: Conflicts between Sensitive Fish Species and Recreational Users

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Aude Zingraff-Hamed

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Urban rivers are socioecological systems, and restored habitats may be attractive to both sensitive species and recreationists. Understanding the potential conflicts between ecological and recreational values is a critical issue for the development of a sustainable river-management plan. Habitat models are very promising tools for the ecological evaluation of river restoration projects that are already concluded, ongoing, or even to be planned. With our paper, we make a first attempt at integrating recreational user pressure into habitat modeling. The objective of this study was to analyze whether human impact is likely to hinder the re-establishment of a target species despite the successful restoration of physical habitat structures in the case of the restoration of the Isar River in Munich (Germany and the target fish species Chondostroma nasus L. Our analysis combined high-resolution 2D hydrodynamic modeling with mapping of recreational pressure and used an expert-based procedure for modeling habitat suitability. The results are twofold: (1 the restored river contains suitable physical habitats for population conservation but has low suitability for recruitment; (2 densely used areas match highly suitable habitats for C. nasus. In the future, the integrated modeling procedure presented here may allow ecological refuge for sensitive target species to be included in the design of restoration and may help in the development of visitor-management plans to safeguard biodiversity and recreational ecosystem services.

Transformation of dwelling culture based on riverine community in Musi River Palembang

Science.gov (United States)

Wicaksono, Bambang; Siswanto, Ari; Kusdiwanggo, Susilo; Anwar, Widya Fransiska Febriati

2017-11-01

Palembang City development since the Palembang Darussalam Sultanate era to the reformation era has impact on the living culture community, less of the raft houses, houses on stilts transformed into a terraced house, and the house became the dominant land. Dwelling Culture oriented on transformation of river become land-oriented. The development has leaving identity, character, and potential of the riverine architecture and dwelling life of river. The goals of study are to describe a case and revealing the meaning of dwelling cultural transformation in Musi River society from the process of cultural acculturation and investigate the architectural aspect from the form of house and modes of dwelling through the structuralism approach. The data collection is conducted qualitatively by using data collection techniques such as observation, interview, literature study, whereas the method of analysis, is a method that is done through Levi-Strauss structuralism approach that identifies all the elements of community thought in a systematic procedure. The results showed the structure behind the orientation, position, shape, and layout of dwelling revealed through the meanings in it. It means, the change and development from cultural acculturation process which oriented in the land dwelling, based on structure thinking of Palembang society.

Web-based Media at European Universities: Systems, Usage, and Motivation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Godsk, Mikkel

2009-01-01

This paper presents the results of two surveys analyzing the usage of and the systems available for web-based media at European universities, and how the teachers can be motivated to increase their usage of such materials in their teaching practice. The surveys were carried out April-May 2009 among...... obvious. The surveys also show that many teachers are already using web-based media in their teaching practice and by addressing some of their teaching circumstances it would be possible to increase the usage even further. Based on these results the paper presents five initiatives to motivate the teachers...

Syntectonic Mississippi River Channel Response: Integrating River Morphology and Seismic Imaging to Detect Active Faults

Science.gov (United States)

Magnani, M. B.

2017-12-01

Alluvial rivers, even great rivers such as the Mississippi, respond to hydrologic and geologic controls. Temporal variations of valley gradient can significantly alter channel morphology, as the river responds syntectonically to attain equilibrium. The river will alter its sinuosity, in an attempt to maintain a constant gradient on a surface that changes slope through time. Therefore, changes of river pattern can be the first clue that active tectonics is affecting an area of pattern change. Here I present geomorphological and seismic imaging evidence of a previously unknown fault crossing the Mississippi river south of the New Madrid seismic zone, between Caruthersville, Missouri and Osceola, Arkansas, and show that both datasets support Holocene fault movement, with the latest slip occurring in the last 200 years. High resolution marine seismic reflection data acquired along the Mississippi river imaged a NW-SE striking north-dipping fault displacing the base of the Quaternary alluvium by 15 m with reverse sense of movement. The fault consistently deforms the Tertiary, Cretaceous and Paleozoic formations. Historical river channel planforms dating back to 1765 reveal that the section of the river channel across the fault has been characterized by high sinuosity and steep projected-channel slope compared to adjacent river reaches. In particular, the reach across the fault experienced a cutoff in 1821, resulting in a temporary lowering of sinuosity followed by an increase between the survey of 1880 and 1915. Under the assumption that the change in sinuosity reflects river response to a valley slope change to maintain constant gradient, I use sinuosity through time to calculate the change in valley slope since 1880 and therefore to estimate the vertical displacement of the imaged fault in the past 200 years. Based on calculations so performed, the vertical offset of the fault is estimated to be 0.4 m, accrued since at least 1880. If the base of the river alluvium

Evaluation of urban river landscape design rationality based on AHP

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Qiao Lifang

2008-12-01

Full Text Available An evaluation model for the rationality of the landscape design of urban rivers was established with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP method so as to provide a foundation for updating the landscape design of urban rivers. The evaluation system was divided into four layers, including the target layer, the comprehensive layer, the element layer, and the index layer. Each layer was made of different indices. The evaluation standards for each index were also given in this paper. This evaluation model was proved tenable through its application to the landscape design rationality evaluation of the Weihe River in Xinxiang City of Henan Province. The results show that the water quality, space, activity, facility, community, width of vegetation, sense of beauty and water content are among the most influential factors and should be considered the main basis for evaluating the rationality of the landscape design of urban rivers.

Parcelling out the Watershed: The Recurring Consequences of Organising Columbia River Management within a Basin-Based Territory

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Eve Vogel

2012-02-01

Full Text Available This article examines a 75-year history of North America’s Columbia river to answer the question: what difference does a river basin territory actually make? Advocates reason that river basins and watersheds are natural and holistic water management spaces, and can avoid the fragmentations and conflicts endemic to water management within traditional political territories. However, on the Columbia, this reasoning has not played out in practice. Instead, basin management has been shaped by challenges from and negotiations with more traditional jurisdictional spaces and political districts. The recurring result has been 'parcelling out the watershed': coordinating river management to produce a few spreadable benefits, and distributing these benefits, as well as other responsibilities and policy-making influence, to jurisdictional parts and political districts. To provide generous spreadable benefits, river management has unevenly emphasised hydropower, resulting in considerable environmental losses. However, benefits have been widely spread and shared – and over time challengers have forced management to diversify. Thus a river basin territory over time produced patterns of both positive and negative environmental, social, economic, and democratic outcomes. To improve the outcomes of watershed-based water management, we need more interactive and longer-term models attentive to dynamic politics and geographies.

A comparative analysis of restoration measures and their effects on hydromorphology and benthic invertebrates in 26 central and southern European rivers.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jähnig, S.C.; Brabec, K.; Buffagni, A.; Erba, S.; Lorenz, A.; Ofenböck, T.; Verdonschot, P.F.M.; Hering, D.

2010-01-01

1. Hydromorphological river restoration usually leads to habitat diversification, but the effects on benthic invertebrates, which are frequently used to assess river ecological status, are minor. We compared the effects of river restoration on morphology and benthic invertebrates by investigating 26

Development of a statistical model for the determination of the probability of riverbank erosion in a Meditteranean river basin

Science.gov (United States)

Varouchakis, Emmanouil; Kourgialas, Nektarios; Karatzas, George; Giannakis, Georgios; Lilli, Maria; Nikolaidis, Nikolaos

2014-05-01

Riverbank erosion affects the river morphology and the local habitat and results in riparian land loss, damage to property and infrastructures, ultimately weakening flood defences. An important issue concerning riverbank erosion is the identification of the areas vulnerable to erosion, as it allows for predicting changes and assists with stream management and restoration. One way to predict the vulnerable to erosion areas is to determine the erosion probability by identifying the underlying relations between riverbank erosion and the geomorphological and/or hydrological variables that prevent or stimulate erosion. A statistical model for evaluating the probability of erosion based on a series of independent local variables and by using logistic regression is developed in this work. The main variables affecting erosion are vegetation index (stability), the presence or absence of meanders, bank material (classification), stream power, bank height, river bank slope, riverbed slope, cross section width and water velocities (Luppi et al. 2009). In statistics, logistic regression is a type of regression analysis used for predicting the outcome of a categorical dependent variable, e.g. binary response, based on one or more predictor variables (continuous or categorical). The probabilities of the possible outcomes are modelled as a function of independent variables using a logistic function. Logistic regression measures the relationship between a categorical dependent variable and, usually, one or several continuous independent variables by converting the dependent variable to probability scores. Then, a logistic regression is formed, which predicts success or failure of a given binary variable (e.g. 1 = "presence of erosion" and 0 = "no erosion") for any value of the independent variables. The regression coefficients are estimated by using maximum likelihood estimation. The erosion occurrence probability can be calculated in conjunction with the model deviance regarding

The Forgotten Legacy: Sediment From Historical Gold Mining Greatly Exceeds all Other Anthropogenic Sources in SE Australian Rivers

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherfurd, I.; Davies, P.; Macklin, M. G.; Grove, J. R.

2016-12-01

Coarse and fine sediment has been a major pollutant of Australian rivers and receiving waters since European settlement in 1788. Anthropogenic sediment budget models demonstrate that catchment and channel erosion has increased background sediment delivery by 10 to 20 times across SE Australia, but these estimates ignore the contribution of historical gold mining. Detailed historical records allow us to reconstruct the delivery of coarse and fine sediment (including contaminated sediment) to the fluvial system. Between 1851 and 1900 alluvial gold mining in the state of Victoria liberated between 1.2 billion and 1.4 billion m3 of coarse and fine sediment into streams. Catchment scale modelling demonstrates that this volume is at least twice the volume of all anthropogenic (post-European) erosion from hillslopes, river banks, and gullies. We map the deposition and remobilization of these contaminated legacy mining sediments down selected valleys, and find that many contemporary floodplains are blanketed with mining sediments (although mercury contamination is present but low), and discrete sediment-slugs can be recognized migrating down river beds. Overall, the impact of gold mining is one of the strongest indicators of the Anthropocene in the Australian landscape, and the level of impact on rivers is substantially greater than recognized in the past. Perhaps of most interest is the rapid recovery of many river systems from the substantial impacts of gold mining. The result is that these major changes to the landscape are largely forgotten.

The European energy community is now

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andoura, Sami; Buzek, Jerzy; Delors, Jacques; Vitorino, Antonio

2013-01-01

On the eve of the European Council on 22 May dealing with energy issues, the Jacques Delors Institute publishes a Tribune calling for the implementation of a positive agenda for the European energy policy and the definition of the concrete bases of a genuine European Energy

Zinc and Its Isotopes in the Loire River Basin, France

Science.gov (United States)

Millot, R.; Desaulty, A. M.; Bourrain, X.

2014-12-01

The contribution of human activities such as industries, agriculture and domestic inputs, becomes more and more significant in the chemical composition of the dissolved load of rivers. Human factors act as a supplementary key process. Therefore the mass-balance for the budget of catchments and river basins include anthropogenic disturbances. The Loire River in central France is approximately 1010 km long and drains an area of 117,800 km2. In the upper basin, the bedrock is old plutonic rock overlain by much younger volcanic rocks. The intermediate basin includes three major tributaries flowing into the Loire River from the left bank: the Cher, the Indre and the Vienne rivers; the main stream flows westward and its valley stretches toward the Atlantic Ocean. Here, the Loire River drains the sedimentary series of the Paris Basin, mainly carbonate deposits. The lower Loire basin drains pre-Mesozoic basement of the Armorican Massif and its overlying Mesozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary deposits. The Loire River is one of the main European riverine inputs to the Atlantic ocean. Here we are reporting concentration and isotope data for Zn in river waters and suspended sediments from the Loire River Basin. In addition, we also report concentration and isotope data for the different industrial sources within the Loire Basin, as well as data for biota samples such as mussels and oysters from the Bay of Biscay and North Brittany. These organisms are known to be natural accumulators of metal pollutants. Zinc isotopic compositions are rather homogeneous in river waters with δ66Zn values ranging from 0.21 to 0.39‰. This range of variation is very different from anthropogenic signature (industrial and/or agriculture release) that displays δ66Zn values between 0.02 to 0.14‰. This result is in agreement with a geogenic origin and the low Zn concentrations in the Loire River Basin (from 0.8 to 6 µg/L).

Restoring Landform Geodiversity in Modified Rivers and Catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Ben; Clifford, Nicholas

2014-05-01

also undertaken to show landform position within catchments and the wider river network. We conclude that river restoration could play an important role in the assessment and improvement of geodiversity within heavily-modified European catchments

Fish Individual-based Numerical Simulator (FINS): A particle-based model of juvenile salmonid movement and dissolved gas exposure history in the Columbia River Basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scheibe, Timothy D.; Richmond, Marshall C.

2002-01-01

This paper describes a numerical model of juvenile salmonid migration in the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The model, called the Fish Individual-based Numerical Simulator or FINS, employs a discrete, particle-based approach to simulate the migration and history of exposure to dissolved gases of individual fish. FINS is linked to a two-dimensional (vertically-averaged) hydrodynamic simulator that quantifies local water velocity, temperature, and dissolved gas levels as a function of river flow rates and dam operations. Simulated gas exposure histories can be input to biological mortality models to predict the effects of various river configurations on fish injury and mortality due to dissolved gas supersaturation. Therefore, FINS serves as a critical linkage between hydrodynamic models of the river system and models of biological impacts. FINS was parameterized and validated based on observations of individual fish movements collected using radiotelemetry methods during 1997 and 1998 . A quasi-inverse approach was used to decouple fish swimming movements from advection with the local water velocity, allowing inference of time series of non-advective displacements of individual fish from the radiotelemetry data. Statistical analyses of these displacements are presented, and confirm that strong temporal correlation of fish swimming behavior persists in some cases over several hours. A correlated random-walk model was employed to simulate the observed migration behavior, and parameters of the model were estimated that lead to close correspondence between predictions and observations

Community Based Warning and Evacuation System against Debris Flow in the Upper Jeneberang River, Gowa, South Sulawesi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sutikno Hardjosuwarno

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Gigantic collapse of the Caldera wall of Mt. Bawakaraeng (2,830 m in March 2004 had supplied the sediment volume of 230 million to the most upper stream of Jeneberang River, which flowed down to the lower reach in the form of debris flow which is triggered by rainfall. The purpose of the research is to provide a system which is able to forecast the occurrence of debris flow, to identify the weak points along the river course, to identify the hazard areas and how to inform effectively and efficiently the warning messages to the inhabitants in the dangerous area by using the existing modern equipment combined with the traditional one. The standard rainfall which is used to judge the occurrence of debris flow was established by Yano method. It is based on the historical data of rainfall that trigger and not trigger to the occurrence of debris flow which is widely used in Japan so far. The hazard area was estimated by Two-Dimensional Simulation Model for debris flow, the debris flow arrival time at each point in the river were estimated by dividing their distance from reference point by debris flow velocity, where the check dam no. 7-1 in Manimbahoi was designated as reference point. The existing evacuation routes were checked by field survey, the strength and coverage of sound for kentongan and manual siren were examined using sound pressure level at the location of the existing monitoring post and the effectiveness of warning and evacuation were evaluated by comparing the warning and evacuation time against the debris flow arrival time. It was resulted that debris flow occurrence was triggered by short duration of high rainfall intensity, long duration of low rainfall intensity and the outbreak of natural dam which is formed by land slide or bank collapses. The hazard area of upper Jeneberang River are mostly located on the river terraces where the local inhabitants earn their living through cultivating the river terraces as paddy fields, dry

Water Budget Closure Based on GRACE Measurements and Reconstructed Evapotranspiration Using GLDAS and Water Use Data over the Yellow River and Changjiang River Basins

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, M.; Ma, Z.; Yuan, X.

2017-12-01

It is important to evaluate the water budget closure on the basis of the currently available data including precipitation, evapotranspiration (ET), runoff, and GRACE-derived terrestrial water storage change (TWSC) before using them to resolve water-related issues. However, it remains challenging to achieve the balance without the consideration of human water use (e.g., inter-basin water diversion and irrigation) for the estimation of other water budget terms such as the ET. In this study, the terrestrial water budget closure is tested over the Yellow River Basin (YRB) and Changjiang River Basin (CJB, Yangtze River Basin) of China. First, the actual ET is reconstructed by using the GLDAS-1 land surface models, the high quality observation-based precipitation, naturalized streamflow, and the irrigation water (hereafter, ETrecon). The ETrecon, evaluated using the mean annual water-balance equation, is of good quality with the absolute relative errors less than 1.9% over the two studied basins. The total basin discharge (Rtotal) is calculated as the residual of the water budget among the observation-based precipitation, ETrecon, and the GRACE-TWSC. The value of the Rtotal minus the observed total basin discharge is used to evaluate the budget closure, with the consideration of inter-basin water diversion. After the ET reconstruction, the mean absolute imbalance value reduced from 3.31 cm/year to 1.69 cm/year and from 15.40 cm/year to 1.96 cm/year over the YRB and CJB, respectively. The estimation-to-observation ratios of total basin discharge improved from 180.8% to 86.8% over the YRB, and from 67.0% to 101.1% over the CJB. The proposed ET reconstruction method is applicable to other human-managed river basins to provide an alternative estimation.

Event-based rainfall-runoff modelling of the Kelantan River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Basarudin, Z.; Adnan, N. A.; Latif, A. R. A.; Tahir, W.; Syafiqah, N.

2014-02-01

Flood is one of the most common natural disasters in Malaysia. According to hydrologists there are many causes that contribute to flood events. The two most dominant factors are the meteorology factor (i.e climate change) and change in land use. These two factors contributed to floods in recent decade especially in the monsoonal catchment such as Malaysia. This paper intends to quantify the influence of rainfall during extreme rainfall events on the hydrological model in the Kelantan River catchment. Therefore, two dynamic inputs were used in the study: rainfall and river discharge. The extreme flood events in 2008 and 2004 were compared based on rainfall data for both years. The events were modeled via a semi-distributed HEC-HMS hydrological model. Land use change was not incorporated in the study because the study only tries to quantify rainfall changes during these two events to simulate the discharge and runoff value. Therefore, the land use data representing the year 2004 were used as inputs in the 2008 runoff model. The study managed to demonstrate that rainfall change has a significant impact to determine the peak discharge and runoff depth for the study area.

Event-based rainfall-runoff modelling of the Kelantan River Basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basarudin, Z; Adnan, N A; Latif, A R A; Syafiqah, N; Tahir, W

2014-01-01

Flood is one of the most common natural disasters in Malaysia. According to hydrologists there are many causes that contribute to flood events. The two most dominant factors are the meteorology factor (i.e climate change) and change in land use. These two factors contributed to floods in recent decade especially in the monsoonal catchment such as Malaysia. This paper intends to quantify the influence of rainfall during extreme rainfall events on the hydrological model in the Kelantan River catchment. Therefore, two dynamic inputs were used in the study: rainfall and river discharge. The extreme flood events in 2008 and 2004 were compared based on rainfall data for both years. The events were modeled via a semi-distributed HEC-HMS hydrological model. Land use change was not incorporated in the study because the study only tries to quantify rainfall changes during these two events to simulate the discharge and runoff value. Therefore, the land use data representing the year 2004 were used as inputs in the 2008 runoff model. The study managed to demonstrate that rainfall change has a significant impact to determine the peak discharge and runoff depth for the study area

A Large Scale Problem Based Learning inter-European Student Satellite Construction Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard; Alminde, Lars; Bisgaard, Morten

2006-01-01

that electronic communication technology was vital within the project. Additionally the SSETI EXPRESS project implied the following problems it didn’t fit to a standard semester - 18 months for the satellite project compared to 5/6 months for a “normal” semester project. difficulties in integrating the tasks......A LARGE SCALE PROBLEM BASED LEARNING INTER-EUROPEAN STUDENT SATELLITE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT This paper describes the pedagogical outcome of a large scale PBL experiment. ESA (European Space Agency) Education Office launched January 2004 an ambitious project: Let students from all over Europe build....... The satellite was successfully launched on October 27th 2005 (http://www.express.space.aau.dk). The project was a student driven project with student project responsibility adding at lot of international experiences and project management skills to the outcome of more traditional one semester, single group...

Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network-Based Message Forwarding for a River Pollution Monitoring Wireless Sensor Network Application.

Science.gov (United States)

Velásquez-Villada, Carlos; Donoso, Yezid

2016-03-25

Communications from remote areas that may be of interest is still a problem. Many innovative projects applied to remote sites face communications difficulties. The GOLDFISH project was an EU-funded project for river pollution monitoring in developing countries. It had several sensor clusters, with floating WiFi antennas, deployed along a downstream river's course. Sensor clusters sent messages to a Gateway installed on the riverbank. This gateway sent the messages, through a backhaul technology, to an Internet server where data was aggregated over a map. The communication challenge in this scenario was produced by the antennas' movement and network backhaul availability. Since the antennas were floating on the river, communications could be disrupted at any time. Also, 2G/3G availability near the river was not constant. For non-real-time applications, we propose a Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN)-based solution where all nodes have persistent storage capabilities and DTN protocols to be able to wait minutes or hours to transmit. A mechanical backhaul will periodically visit the river bank where the gateway is installed and it will automatically collect sensor data to be carried to an Internet-covered spot. The proposed forwarding protocol delivers around 98% of the messages for this scenario, performing better than other well-known DTN routing protocols.

Developing the remote sensing-based water environmental model for monitoring alpine river water environment over Plateau cold zone

Science.gov (United States)

You, Y.; Wang, S.; Yang, Q.; Shen, M.; Chen, G.

2017-12-01

Alpine river water environment on the Plateau (such as Tibetan Plateau, China) is a key indicator for water security and environmental security in China. Due to the complex terrain and various surface eco-environment, it is a very difficult to monitor the water environment over the complex land surface of the plateau. The increasing availability of remote sensing techniques with appropriate spatiotemporal resolutions, broad coverage and low costs allows for effective monitoring river water environment on the Plateau, particularly in remote and inaccessible areas where are lack of in situ observations. In this study, we propose a remote sense-based monitoring model by using multi-platform remote sensing data for monitoring alpine river environment. In this study some parameterization methodologies based on satellite remote sensing data and field observations have been proposed for monitoring the water environmental parameters (including chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), water turbidity (WT) or water clarity (SD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total organic carbon (TOC)) over the china's southwest highland rivers, such as the Brahmaputra. First, because most sensors do not collect multiple observations of a target in a single pass, data from multiple orbits or acquisition times may be used, and varying atmospheric and irradiance effects must be reconciled. So based on various types of satellite data, at first we developed the techniques of multi-sensor data correction, atmospheric correction. Second, we also built the inversion spectral database derived from long-term remote sensing data and field sampling data. Then we have studied and developed a high-precision inversion model over the southwest highland river backed by inversion spectral database through using the techniques of multi-sensor remote sensing information optimization and collaboration. Third, take the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra river as the study area, we validated the key

Predicting the aquatic risk of realistic pesticide mixtures to species assemblages in Portuguese river basins.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Emília; Daam, Michiel A; Cerejeira, Maria José

2015-05-01

Although pesticide regulatory tools are mainly based on individual substances, aquatic ecosystems are usually exposed to multiple pesticides from their use on the variety of crops within the catchment of a river. This study estimated the impact of measured pesticide mixtures in surface waters from 2002 and 2008 within three important Portuguese river basins ('Mondego', 'Sado' and 'Tejo') on primary producers, arthropods and fish by toxic pressure calculation. Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs), in combination with mixture toxicity models, were applied. Considering the differences in the responses of the taxonomic groups as well as in the pesticide exposures that these organisms experience, variable acute multi-substance potentially affected fractions (msPAFs) were obtained. The median msPAF for primary producers and arthropods in surface waters of all river basins exceeded 5%, the cut-off value used in the prospective SSD approach for deriving individual environmental quality standards. A ranking procedure identified various photosystem II inhibiting herbicides, with oxadiazon having the relatively largest toxic effects on primary producers, while the organophosphorus insecticides, chlorfenvinphos and chlorpyrifos, and the organochloride endosulfan had the largest effects on arthropods and fish, respectively. These results ensure compliance with European legislation with regard to ecological risk assessment and management of pesticides in surface waters. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A European collaboration research programme to study and test large scale base isolated structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Renda, V.; Verzeletti, G.; Papa, L.

1995-01-01

The improvement of the technology of innovative anti-seismic mechanisms, as those for base isolation and energy dissipation, needs of testing capability for large scale models of structures integrated with these mechanisms. These kind experimental tests are of primary importance for the validation of design rules and the setting up of an advanced earthquake engineering for civil constructions of relevant interest. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission offers the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment located at Ispra - Italy, as a focal point for an international european collaboration research programme to test large scale models of structure making use of innovative anti-seismic mechanisms. A collaboration contract, opened to other future contributions, has been signed with the national italian working group on seismic isolation (Gruppo di Lavoro sull's Isolamento Sismico GLIS) which includes the national research centre ENEA, the national electricity board ENEL, the industrial research centre ISMES and producer of isolators ALGA. (author). 3 figs

Testing a ground-based canopy model using the wind river canopy crane

Science.gov (United States)

Robert Van Pelt; Malcolm P. North

1999-01-01

A ground-based canopy model that estimates the volume of occupied space in forest canopies was tested using the Wind River Canopy Crane. A total of 126 trees in a 0.25 ha area were measured from the ground and directly from a gondola suspended from the crane. The trees were located in a low elevation, old-growth forest in the southern Washington Cascades. The ground-...

Flooding Capability for River-based Scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Curtis L. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Prescott, Steven [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Ryan, Emerald [Idaho State Univ., Pocatello, ID (United States); Calhoun, Donna [Boise State Univ., ID (United States); Sampath, Ramprasad [Centroid Labs., Los Angeles, CA (United States); Anderson, S. Danielle [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Casteneda, Cody [Boise State Univ., ID (United States)

2015-10-01

This report describes the initial investigation into modeling and simulation tools for application of riverine flooding representation as part of the Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) Pathway external hazards evaluations. The report provides examples of different flooding conditions and scenarios that could impact river and watershed systems. Both 2D and 3D modeling approaches are described.

Functional groups of macro-benthos of selected sites of upstream of Hron River and Hnilec River

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rufusova, A.

2011-01-01

The author used six functional groups of macro-benthos based on 'species traits', which are indicated with the Greek letters α to ζ. In the work authors applied this method to the macroinvertebrate communities of selected sites of upstream of the Hron River and the Hnilec River. The method appropriately captured increasing gradient of anthropogenic changes in the direction of the river continuum. Although the method was used for Slovak rivers for the first time, it seems to be promising for use in the future. (author)

Hydromorphological adjustments and re-adjustments of low energy rivers in a sub-urban catchment following historical engineering and recent urbanization

Science.gov (United States)

Jugie, Marion; Gob, Frédéric; Slawson, Deborah; Le-Coeur, Charles

2014-05-01

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD, October 2000) mandated that the Member States of the European Union achieve the general objective of protection of aquatic ecology by 2015. European rivers and streams have to attain "good ecological status" through the preservation and restoration of aquatic environments. Member will have to ensure environmental continuity through "the adequate distribution of fish species and transport of sediments". In France, more than 61,000 transverse structures - mill dams, weirs, diversion gates - have been identified on rivers as being obstacles to ecological and sedimentary continuity. Because of their historical occupation by societies, rivers flowing in the Paris area have long been anthropized and artificialized. River courses, channel shape, sediment transport and hydrological regime modifications have tremendously transformed the hydrosystems surrounding the city of Paris. The Merantaise's catchment is one of this low energy river watershed, near Paris, that have been modified by historical engineering, especially during medieval-modern times and by the building of the Versailles Castle (XVIIth century). The hydraulic infrastructures are still there and impact the hydromorphogical conditions of the river (incision, lateral erosion, …). In addition to these ancient pressures a rapid and massive urbanization of the suburban areas has applied a new type of constraint to the hydrosystems in recent decades. This undermines the balance that was established following ancient engineering and disturbs the current functioning of the valley. These new types of land occupation have significantly altered the ecological circumstances and transformed the hydrological responses of rivers. In this study, we therefore seek to understand these processes of successive adjustments (ancient and recent) of a small river from the urban margins of the Orge watershed (to the south of Paris). We use a multi-scalar spatial and temporal approach to

Macroinvertebrate diversity in the karst Jadro River (Croatia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rađa Biljana

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the results of 10 years of investigation of the aquatic macroinvertebrate fauna along the karst Jadro River. The Jadro is a typical karst river. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected along the river at 15 sites by standard methods of sampling, in addition to which several physicochemical parameters were also determined. Based on qualitative and quantitative composition of the macroinvertebrate fauna, correspondence analysis divided the river course into three sections: upstream, midcourse, and downstream. Forty-three taxa were recorded. Results of saprobiological analysis based on macrozoobenthos indicate that water of the Jadro River belongs to quality classes I and II.

European oil product supply modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saint-Antonin, V.

1998-01-01

Over the last few years, trends in European oil product consumption (in terms of level as structure and quality) has important implications of the refining industry. In this context, the purpose of this thesis consists in building a mathematical programming model applied to the European refineries in order to determine oil product supply prices, European refining industry investments and oil product exchanges of the European Union. The first part presents the reason for our choice for a long-term aggregate multi-refineries linear programming model, based on European refineries characteristics and the objectives of our model. Its dual properties are studied in detail and we focus particularly on the European exchange modelling. In the second part, an analysis of the European refining trends leads us to identify parameters and variables of the model that are essential to the aggregate representation of the European oil product supply. The third part is devoted to the use of this model, regarding two scenarios of increasingly stringent specifications for gasoline and diesel oil. Our interest for these products is due to their important share of the European oil product consumption and the not insignificant responsibility of the transport sector for atmospheric pollution. Finally, in order to have the use of an overall picture of the European refining industry, we build a regression model summarizing, though a few equations, the main relations between the major endogenous and exogenous variables o the LP model. Based on pseudo-data, this kind of model provides a simple and robust representation of the oil product supply. But a more specialized analysis of the refining industry operations, turning on a technical assessment of processing units, is reliant on the use of an optimization model such as the model we have built. (author)

Integral ordering of the River Vardar Valley

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stavrov, Jordan

2004-01-01

From Skopje to Gevgelia, an annual quantity of 4,5 billions M 3 of water flows out of the territory through the Vardar River for only 60 hours. This poses two questions. The first is whether the flowing out of the water can be decelerated, i.e., whether the water can be kept for at least 60 days and the second question is how this can be realized. Construction of 12 hydroelectric power plants is envisaged along Vardar River, i.e., its section extending from Skopje to the border on Greece, which means within a length of 200 km. Two of these are classical hydroelectric power plants (HPP 'Veles' and HPP 'Gradec'), while the remaining 10 hydroelectric power plants are distributed in a cascade along the river course, with small water head of H = 8,20 - 8,50 m and are considered ecological hydroelectric power plants according to European criteria. For us, these represent a new technology of design and construction particularly considering the part referring to the equipment, while in Europe, there is assembly-line production of such equipment. Presented very briefly in the paper shall be the main technical information on these hydroelectric power plants, namely HPP Kukuricani, as a pilot project to be realized by AD ESM. (Author)

Movement patterns of seaward migrating European eel (Anguilla anguilla) at a complex of riverine barriers: implications for conservation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Piper, Adam T.; Svendsen, Jon Christian; Wright, Rosalind M.

2017-01-01

, this is currently lacking for many species. Employing high-resolution positioning telemetry, this study examined movements of downstream migrating adult European eel, Anguilla anguilla, as they encountered a complex of water control structures in one location on the River Stour, southern England. The distribution...

Biological surveys on the Savannah River in the vicinity of the Savannah River Plant (1951-1976)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Matthews, R. A.

1982-04-01

In 1951, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia was contracted by the Savannah River Plant to initiate a long-term monitoring program in the Savannah River. The purpose of this program was to determine the effect of the Savannah River Plant on the Savannah River aquatic ecosystem. The data from this monitoring program have been computerized by the Savannah River Laboratory, and are summarized in this report. During the period from 1951-1976, 16 major surveys were conducted by the Academy in the Savannah River. Water chemistry analyses were made, and all major biological communities were sampled qualitatively during the spring and fall of each survey year. In addition, quantitative diatom data have been collected quarterly since 1953. Major changes in the Savannah River basin, in the Savannah River Plant's activities, and in the Academy sampling patterns are discussed to provide a historical overview of the biomonitoring program. Appendices include a complete taxonomic listing of species collected from the Savannah River, and summaries of the entire biological and physicochemical data base.

Geological setting control of flood dynamics in lowland rivers (Poland).

Science.gov (United States)

Wierzbicki, Grzegorz; Ostrowski, Piotr; Falkowski, Tomasz; Mazgajski, Michał

2018-04-27

We aim to answer a question: how does the geological setting affect flood dynamics in lowland alluvial rivers? The study area covers three river reaches: not trained, relatively large on the European scale, flowing in broad valleys cut in the landscape of old glacial plains. We focus on the locations where levees [both: a) natural or b) artificial] were breached during flood. In these locations we identify (1) the erosional traces of flood (crevasse channels) on the floodplain displayed on DEM derived from ALS LIDAR. In the main river channel, we perform drillings in order to measure the depth of the suballuvial surface and to locate (2) the protrusions of bedrock resistant to erosion. We juxtapose on one map: (1) the floodplain geomorphology with (2) the geological data from the river channel. The results from each of the three study reaches are presented on maps prepared in the same manner in order to enable a comparison of the regularities of fluvial processes written in (1) the landscape and driven by (2) the geological setting. These processes act in different river reaches: (a) not embanked and dominated by ice jam floods, (b) embanked and dominated by rainfall and ice jam floods. We also analyse hydrological data to present hydrodynamic descriptions of the flood. Our principal results indicate similarity of (1) distinctive erosional patterns and (2) specific geological features in all three study reaches. We draw the conclusion: protrusions of suballuvial bedrock control the flood dynamics in alluvial rivers. It happens in both types of rivers. In areas where the floodplain remains natural, the river inundates freely during every flood. In other areas the floodplain has been reclaimed by humans who constructed an artificial levee system, which protects the flood-prone area from inundation, until levee breach occurs. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of Lakhara chemical power station (LPTS) effluents on the river Indus water quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahar, R.B.; Memon, H.M.; Khushwar, M.Y.

2000-01-01

The variation of the quality of river Indus water with respect to the seasonal changes, discharge of water and dilution with the effluents of Lakhra Thermal Power Station (LTPS), has been monitored. The studies were focussed on the river Indus water quality before and after mixing the effluents of the power station. The samples were collected monthly from the representative locations of the river Indus, and analyzed for the residues (total, filterable, non-filterable, volatile and fixed), pH, temperature (air and water), conductance, chloride, hardness, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) /sub 5/- nitrate, phosphate, sulfate, ammonia, ammonium, silicates, magnesium, potassium, calcium and sodium. The results have been compared with the permissible limits of ECC (European Economic Community) standards for drinking and surface water. (author)

Transnational European Television Drama

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bondebjerg, Ib; Redvall, Eva Novrup; Helles, Rasmus

This book deals with the role of television drama in Europe as enabler of transnational, cultural encounters for audiences and the creative community. It demonstrates that the diversity of national cultures is a challenge for European TV drama but also a potential richness and source of creative...... variation. Based on data on the production, distribution and reception of recent TV drama from several European countries, the book presents a new picture of the transnational European television culture. The authors analyse main tendencies in television policy and challenges for national broadcasters...

Metazoan parasites of Neogobius fishes in the Slovak section of the River Danube

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Ondračková, Markéta; Dávidová, M.; Pečínková, M.; Blažek, R.; Gelnar, M.; Valová, Zdenka; Černý, J.; Jurajda, Pavel

2005-01-01

Roč. 21, č. 4 (2005), s. 345-349 ISSN 0175-8659. [European Congress of Ichthyology /11./. Tallinn, 06.09.2004-10.09.2004] R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GP524/05/P291 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60930519 Keywords : Nematoda * River Danube Subject RIV: GL - Fishing Impact factor: 0.563, year: 2005

Distribution of soil saprophagous macrofauna along a zonal gradient in the Biebrza River floodplain (Poland)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Wytwer, J.; Pižl, Václav; Sterzyńska, M.; Tajovský, Karel

2010-01-01

Roč. 74, - (2010), s. 169-179 ISSN 1211-376X. [Central European Workshop on Soil Zoology /10./. České Budějovice, 21.04.2009-24.04.2009] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60660521 Keywords : wetlands * river floodplain * soil fauna Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour

RiverHeath: Neighborhood Loop Geothermal Exchange System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Geall, Mark [RiverHeath LLC, Appleton, WI (United States)

2016-07-11

The goal of the RiverHeath project is to develop a geothermal exchange system at lower capital infrastructure cost than current geothermal exchange systems. The RiverHeath system features an innovative design that incorporates use of the adjacent river through river-based heat exchange plates. The flowing water provides a tremendous amount of heat transfer. As a result, the installation cost of this geothermal exchange system is lower than more traditional vertical bore systems. Many urban areas are located along rivers and other waterways. RiverHeath will serve as a template for other projects adjacent to the water.

Measuring river from the cloud - River width algorithm development on Google Earth Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, X.; Pavelsky, T.; Allen, G. H.; Donchyts, G.

2017-12-01

Rivers are some of the most dynamic features of the terrestrial land surface. They help distribute freshwater, nutrients, sediment, and they are also responsible for some of the greatest natural hazards. Despite their importance, our understanding of river behavior is limited at the global scale, in part because we do not have a river observational dataset that spans both time and space. Remote sensing data represent a rich, largely untapped resource for observing river dynamics. In particular, publicly accessible archives of satellite optical imagery, which date back to the 1970s, can be used to study the planview morphodynamics of rivers at the global scale. Here we present an image processing algorithm developed using the Google Earth Engine cloud-based platform, that can automatically extracts river centerlines and widths from Landsat 5, 7, and 8 scenes at 30 m resolution. Our algorithm makes use of the latest monthly global surface water history dataset and an existing Global River Width from Landsat (GRWL) dataset to efficiently extract river masks from each Landsat scene. Then a combination of distance transform and skeletonization techniques are used to extract river centerlines. Finally, our algorithm calculates wetted river width at each centerline pixel perpendicular to its local centerline direction. We validated this algorithm using in situ data estimated from 16 USGS gauge stations (N=1781). We find that 92% of the width differences are within 60 m (i.e. the minimum length of 2 Landsat pixels). Leveraging Earth Engine's infrastructure of collocated data and processing power, our goal is to use this algorithm to reconstruct the morphodynamic history of rivers globally by processing over 100,000 Landsat 5 scenes, covering from 1984 to 2013.

Three-dimensional Virtual Simulation of Oil Spill of Yangtze River in Chongqing Area Based on Emergency Decision

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shuzhe; Huang, Liwen

the river of Yangtze River in Chongqing area is continuous curved. Hydrology and channel situation is complex, and the transportation is busy. With the increasing of shipments of hazardous chemicals year by year, oil spill accident risk is rising. So establishment of three-dimensional virtual simulation of oil spill and its application in decision-making has become an urgent task. This paper detailed the process of three-dimensional virtual simulation of oil spill and established a system of three-dimensional virtual Simulation of oil spill of Yangtze River in Chongqing area by establishing an oil spill model of the Chongqing area based on oil particles model, and the system has been used in emergency decision to provide assistance for the oil spill response.

Distribution of the communities of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera in the basin of the Sasar river

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia MIHALESCU

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Life of zoobenthic communities that populate the watercourses is influenced by the mode of setting up of the substrate, slope, flowing speed and water flow as well as by the anthropogenic influence. Ephemeroptera, and Plecoptera and also Trichoptera (EPT are the main biomarkers in the evaluation of the health condition of the aquatic ecosystems. The new river classification methodologies in quality classes have been tested and mostly harmonized at European level. This paper followed the distribution mode of EPT in the Sasar river basin and evidencing their biomarker quality.

Integrated assessment of river health based on the conditions of water quality,aquatic life and physical habitat

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

MENG Wei; ZHANG Nan; ZHANG Yuan; ZHENG Binghui

2009-01-01

The health conditions of Liao River were assessed using 25 sampling sites in April 2005, with water quality index, biotic index and physical habitat quality index.Based on the method of cluster analysis (CA) for water quality indices, it reveals that heavily polluted sites of Liao River are located at estuary and mainstream.The aquatic species surveyed were attached algae and benthic invertebrates.The result shows that the diversity and biomass of attached algae and benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) are degrading as the chemical and physical quality of water bodies deteriorating.Physiochemical parameters, BOD5, CODCr, TN, TP, NH3-N, DO, petroleum hydrocarbon and conductivity, were statistically analyzed with principal component analysis and correlation analysis.The statistical results were incorporated into the integrated assessing water quality index, combining fecal coliform count, attached algae diversity, B-IBI and physical habitat quality score, a comprehensive integrated assessing system of river ecological health was established.Based on the systimetic assesment, the assessed sites are categorized into 9 "healthy" and "sub-healthy" sites and 8 "sub-sick" and "sick" sites.

Diagnosis and treatment of Merkel Cell Carcinoma. European consensus-based interdisciplinary guideline

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lebbe, Celeste; Becker, Jürgen C; Grob, Jean-Jacques

2015-01-01

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare tumour of the skin of neuro-endocrine origin probably developing from neuronal mechanoreceptors. A collaborative group of multidisciplinary experts form the European Dermatology Forum (EDF), The European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) and the European...

Desk-study on habitat quality for the European Sturgeon in the Dutch Rhine and southern North Sea

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Winter, H.V.; Teal, L.R.; Wolfshaar, van de K.E.; Griffioen, A.B.; Houben, B.; Breve, N.W.P.

2015-01-01

One of the most endangered fish species worldwide is the European sturgeon Acipenser sturio. The River Rhine was home to an important sturgeon population that went locally extinct in the first half of the 20th century. In recent decades, many improvements of the ecological quality of the Rhine have

A Simplified Nitrogen Assessment in Tagus River Basin: A Management Focused Review

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Cláudia M. d. S. Cordovil

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Interactions among nitrogen (N management and water resources quality are complex and enhanced in transboundary river basins. This is the case of Tagus River, which is an important river flowing from Spain to Portugal in the Iberian Peninsula. The aim was to provide a N assessment review along the Tagus River Basin regarding mostly agriculture, livestock, and urban activities. To estimate reactive nitrogen (Nr load into surface waters, emission factor approaches were applied. Nr pressures are much higher in Spain than in Portugal (~13 times, which is mostly because of livestock intensification. Some policy and technical measures have been defined aiming at solving this problem. Main policy responses were the designation of Nitrate Vulnerable and Sensitive Zones, according to European Union (EU directives. Nitrate Vulnerable Zone comprise approximately one third of both territories. On the contrary, Sensitive Zones are more extended in Spain, attaining 60% of the watershed, against only 30% in Portugal. Technical measures comprised advanced urban and industrial wastewater treatment that was designed to remove N compounds before discharge in the water bodies. Given this assessment, Tagus River Basin sustainability can only be guaranteed through load inputs reductions and effective transnational management processes of water flows.

Modeling water flow, depth and inundation extent over the rivers of the Contiguous US within a Catchment-based Land Surface Modeling Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Z.; David, C. H.; Famiglietti, J. S.

2013-12-01

With population growth and increasing demand of water supply, the need for integrated continental and global scale surface water dynamics simulation systems relying on both observations and models is ever increasing. In this study we characterize how accurately we can estimate river discharge, river depth and the corresponding inundation extent over the contiguous U.S. by combining observations and models. We present a continental-scale implementation of the Catchment-based Hydrological And Routing Modeling System (CHARMS) that includes an explicit representation of the river networks from a Geographic Information System (GIS) dataset. The river networks and contributing catchment boundaries of the Contiguous U.S are upscaled from the NHDPlus dataset. The average upscaled catchment size is 2773 km2 and the unique main river channel contained in each catchment consists of several river reaches of average length 1.6 km. We derive 18 sets of empirical relationship between channel dimension (bankfull depth and bankfull width) and drainage area based on USGS gauge observations to describe river dynamics for the 18 water resource regions of the NHDPlus representation of the United States. These relationships are used to separate the main river channel and floodplain. Modeled monthly and daily streamflow show reasonable agreement with gauge observations and initial results show that basins with fewer anthropogenic modifications are more accurately simulated. Modeled monthly and daily river depth and floodplain extent associated with each river reach are also explicitly estimated over the U.S., although such simulations are more challenging to validate. Our results have implications for capturing the seasonal-to-interannual dynamics of surface water in climate models. Such a continental-scale modeling framework development would, by design, facilitate the use of existing in situ observations and be suitable for integrating the upcoming NASA Surface Water and Ocean

The European Nuclear Science network touches base at CERN

CERN Multimedia

Antonella Del Rosso

2012-01-01

ENSAR (European Nuclear Science and Applications Research) is an EU-supported project, which aims at fostering cooperation within the European low-energy nuclear physics community through the active sharing of expertise and best practices. The project also includes a transnational access programme to allow a large community of users to access the participating facilities, which include CERN’s ISOLDE. In the last week of April, CERN hosted the General Assembly and Programme Coordination Committee meetings, about 18 months after the project’s kick-off.   Participants in the ENSAR project. ENSAR involves 30 partner institutes, which include the seven large nuclear physics facilities in Europe. A large part of the European nuclear physics community is represented in ENSAR, in particular scientists who are performing research related to nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics and applications of nuclear science. In 2010, the project was awarded 8 million euros from the Europe...

Application of water quality models to rivers in Johor

Science.gov (United States)

Chii, Puah Lih; Rahman, Haliza Abd.

2017-08-01

River pollution is one the most common hazard in many countries in the world, which includes Malaysia. Many rivers have been polluted because of the rapid growth in industrialization to support the country's growing population and economy. Domestic and industrial sewage, agricultural wastes have polluted the rivers and will affect the water quality. Based on the Malaysia Environment Quality Report 2007, the Department of Environment (DOE) has described that one of the major pollutants is Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). Data from DOE in 2004, based on BOD, 18 river basins were classified polluted, 37 river basins were slightly polluted and 65 river basins were in clean condition. In this paper, two models are fitted the data of rivers in Johor state namely Streeter-Phelps model and nonlinear regression (NLR) model. The BOD concentration data for the two rivers in Johor state from year 1981 to year 1990 is analyzed. To estimate the parameters for the Streeter-Phelps model and NLR model, this study focuses on the weighted least squares and Gauss-Newton method respectively. Based on the value of Mean Square Error, NLR model is a better model compared to Streeter-Phelps model.

Diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. European consensus-based interdisciplinary guideline - Update 2016

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garbe, Claus; Peris, Ketty; Hauschild, Axel

2016-01-01

Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is potentially the most dangerous form of skin tumour and causes 90% of skin cancer mortality. A unique collaboration of multi-disciplinary experts from the European Dermatology Forum, the European Association of Dermato-Oncology and the European Organisation of Research a...

Analysis of the European Food Industry

OpenAIRE

Banse, Martin; McDonald, Scott; Joint Research Centre; Institute for Prospective Technological Studies; Kaditi, Eleni

2008-01-01

This report is based on a study assigned to the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) by the European Commission¿s Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) to investigate recent developments in the European food industry and the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade flows on the food industry in the EU-25. The report illustrates trends in and the structure of the European food industry. Past and possible future developments are ana...

Balancing hydropower production and river bed incision in operating a run-of-river hydropower scheme along the River Po

Science.gov (United States)

Denaro, Simona; Dinh, Quang; Bizzi, Simone; Bernardi, Dario; Pavan, Sara; Castelletti, Andrea; Schippa, Leonardo; Soncini-Sessa, Rodolfo

2013-04-01

Water management through dams and reservoirs is worldwide necessary to support key human-related activities ranging from hydropower production to water allocation, and flood risk mitigation. Reservoir operations are commonly planned in order to maximize these objectives. However reservoirs strongly influence river geomorphic processes causing sediment deficit downstream, altering the flow regime, leading, often, to process of river bed incision: for instance the variations of river cross sections over few years can notably affect hydropower production, flood mitigation, water supply strategies and eco-hydrological processes of the freshwater ecosystem. The river Po (a major Italian river) has experienced severe bed incision in the last decades. For this reason infrastructure stability has been negatively affected, and capacity to derive water decreased, navigation, fishing and tourism are suffering economic damages, not to mention the impact on the environment. Our case study analyzes the management of Isola Serafini hydropower plant located on the main Po river course. The plant has a major impact to the geomorphic river processes downstream, affecting sediment supply, connectivity (stopping sediment upstream the dam) and transport capacity (altering the flow regime). Current operation policy aims at maximizing hydropower production neglecting the effects in term of geomorphic processes. A new improved policy should also consider controlling downstream river bed incision. The aim of this research is to find suitable modeling framework to identify an operating policy for Isola Serafini reservoir able to provide an optimal trade-off between these two conflicting objectives: hydropower production and river bed incision downstream. A multi-objective simulation-based optimization framework is adopted. The operating policy is parameterized as a piecewise linear function and the parameters optimized using an interactive response surface approach. Global and local

Remote-Sensing Hydraulic Characterization of Channel Habitat Units in a Tropical Montane River: Bladen River, Belize

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Praskievicz

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The physical characteristics of river systems exert significant control on the habitat for aquatic species, including the distribution of in-stream channel habitat units. Most previous studies on channel habitat units have focused on midlatitude rivers, which differ in several substantive ways from tropical rivers. Field delineation of channel habitat units is especially challenging in tropical rivers, many of which are remote and difficult to access. Here, we developed an approach for delineating channel habitat units based on a combination of field measurements, remote sensing, and hydraulic modeling, and applied it to a 4.1-km segment of the Bladen River in southern Belize. We found that the most prevalent channel habitat unit on the study segment was runs, followed by pools and riffles. Average spacing of channel habitat units was up to twice as high on the study segment than the typical values reported for midlatitude rivers, possibly because of high erosion rates in the tropical environment. The approach developed here can be applied to other rivers to build understanding of the controls on and spatial distribution of channel habitat units on tropical rivers and to support river management and conservation goals.

Opportunities to Learn about Europe at School. A Comparative Analysis among European Adolescents in 21 European Member States

Science.gov (United States)

Verhaegen, Soetkin; Hooghe, Marc; Meeusen, Cecil

2013-01-01

In this article, we investigate the relationship between different learning methods and the formation of European identity among adolescents. The analysis is based on the European module of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (2009), with 70,502 respondents in 21 European member states. The results show that offering…

Contrasting the roles of section length and instream habitat enhancement for river restoration success: a field study on 20 European restoration projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hering, D.; Aroviita, J.; Baattrup-Pedersen, A.; Brabec, K.; Buijse, T.; Ecke, F.; Friberg, N.; Gielczewski, Marek; Januschke, K.; Köhler, J.; Kupilas, Benjamin; Lorenz, A.W.; Muhar, S.; Paillex, Amael; Poppe, Michaela; Schmidt, T.; Schmutz, S.; Vermaat, J.; Verdonschot, R.C.M.; Verdonschot, P.F.M.; Wolter, Christian; Kail, J.

2015-01-01

1. Restoration of river hydromorphology often has limited detected effects on river biota. One frequently discussed reason is that the restored river length is insufficient to allow populations to develop and give the room for geomorphologic processes to occur. 2. We investigated ten pairs of

Monitoring of fish species in the Lamone river: distribution and morphometric measures of the populations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riccardo Bozzi

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Fish samplings were carried out monthly from spring to autumn during 2008, on the Lamone river and the Campigno stream by an electrofishing, in order to verify the presence of fish populations and the most common species represented. Barb, Barbus plebejus, Blageon, Leuciscus muticellus, Chub, Leuciscus cephalus, South European Nase, Chondrostoma genei were identified. A small population of Brown trout, Salmo trutta fario was also recognized. Barb is the most represented species in all the sites. The samplings highlight that Lamone river presented conditions suitable to fully guarantee the life of the fish populations.

Weak Learner Method for Estimating River Discharges using Remotely Sensed Data: Central Congo River as a Testbed

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, D.; Lee, H.; Yu, H.; Beighley, E.; Durand, M. T.; Alsdorf, D. E.; Hwang, E.

2017-12-01

River discharge is a prerequisite for an understanding of flood hazard and water resource management, yet we have poor knowledge of it, especially over remote basins. Previous studies have successfully used a classic hydraulic geometry, at-many-stations hydraulic geometry (AMHG), and Manning's equation to estimate the river discharge. Theoretical bases of these empirical methods were introduced by Leopold and Maddock (1953) and Manning (1889), and those have been long used in the field of hydrology, water resources, and geomorphology. However, the methods to estimate the river discharge from remotely sensed data essentially require bathymetric information of the river or are not applicable to braided rivers. Furthermore, the methods used in the previous studies adopted assumptions of river conditions to be steady and uniform. Consequently, those methods have limitations in estimating the river discharge in complex and unsteady flow in nature. In this study, we developed a novel approach to estimating river discharges by applying the weak learner method (here termed WLQ), which is one of the ensemble methods using multiple classifiers, to the remotely sensed measurements of water levels from Envisat altimetry, effective river widths from PALSAR images, and multi-temporal surface water slopes over a part of the mainstem Congo. Compared with the methods used in the previous studies, the root mean square error (RMSE) decreased from 5,089 m3s-1 to 3,701 m3s-1, and the relative RMSE (RRMSE) improved from 12% to 8%. It is expected that our method can provide improved estimates of river discharges in complex and unsteady flow conditions based on the data-driven prediction model by machine learning (i.e. WLQ), even when the bathymetric data is not available or in case of the braided rivers. Moreover, it is also expected that the WLQ can be applied to the measurements of river levels, slopes and widths from the future Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission to be

33 CFR 334.560 - Banana River at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.; restricted area.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Banana River at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.; restricted area. 334.560 Section 334.560 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DANGER ZONE AND RESTRICTED AREA REGULATIONS § 334.560 Banana...

Nonproliferation impacts assessment for the management of the Savannah River Site aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-12-01

On May 13, 1996, the US established a new, 10-year policy to accept and manage foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel containing uranium enriched in the US. The goal of this policy is to reduce civilian commerce in weapons-usable highly enriched uranium (HEU), thereby reducing the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation. Two key disposition options under consideration for managing this fuel include conventional reprocessing and new treatment and packaging technologies. The Record of Decision specified that, while evaluating the reprocessing option, ''DOE will commission or conduct an independent study of the nonproliferation and other (e.g., cost and timing) implications of chemical separation of spent nuclear fuel from foreign research reactors.'' DOE's Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation conducted this study consistent with the aforementioned Record of Decision. This report addresses the nonproliferation implications of the technologies under consideration for managing aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at the Savannah River Site. Because the same technology options are being considered for the foreign research reactor and the other aluminum-based spent nuclear fuels discussed in Section ES.1, this report addresses the nonproliferation implications of managing all the Savannah River Site aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel, not just the foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel. The combination of the environmental impact information contained in the draft EIS, public comment in response to the draft EIS, and the nonproliferation information contained in this report will enable the Department to make a sound decision regarding how to manage all aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at the Savannah River Site

On geo-basis of river regulation——A case study for the middle reaches of the Yangtze River

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2008-01-01

From the point of view that people have to obey the river’s geo-attributes in the river regulation, the definition and the meaning of the geo-attributes of a river are discussed. The geo-basis of the river regulation of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is expounded in five aspects, including the structural geomorphology environment of flood storage and discharge, the distribution characteristics of subsidence and the sedimentation areas of Dongting Basin, the history evolution of Jianghan Basin, the function of Jianghan Basin and Dongting Basin as the flood water detention areas of Jingjiang River reach in ancient time, and the geological characteristic of Jingjiang River reach. Based on the geo-attributes of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, some ideas about the middle reach regulation of the Yangtze River are put forward: to process the interchange between the lakes and diked marsh areas in Dongting Basin, to canal the new river route as the flood diversion channel of Jingjiang River reach with the paleo river, to recover the function of Jianghan Basin as flood detention area of the middle reaches. And we should take into consideration the geo-environment of the whole Yangtze River in the river regulation of middle reaches.

The Planform Mobility of Large River Channel Confluences

Science.gov (United States)

Sambrook Smith, Greg; Dixon, Simon; Nicholas, Andrew; Bull, Jon; Vardy, Mark; Best, James; Goodbred, Steven; Sarker, Maminul

2017-04-01

Large river confluences are widely acknowledged as exerting a controlling influence upon both upstream and downstream morphology and thus channel planform evolution. Despite their importance, little is known concerning their longer-term evolution and planform morphodynamics, with much of the literature focusing on confluences as representing fixed, nodal points in the fluvial network. In contrast, some studies of large sand bed rivers in India and Bangladesh have shown large river confluences can be highly mobile, although the extent to which this is representative of large confluences around the world is unknown. Confluences have also been shown to generate substantial bed scours, and if the confluence location is mobile these scours could 'comb' across wide areas. This paper presents field data of large confluences morphologies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basin, illustrating the spatial extent of large river bed scours and showing scour depth can extend below base level, enhancing long term preservation potential. Based on a global review of the planform of large river confluences using Landsat imagery from 1972 to 2014 this study demonstrates such scour features can be highly mobile and there is an array of confluence morphodynamic types: from freely migrating confluences, through confluences migrating on decadal timescales to fixed confluences. Based on this analysis, a conceptual model of large river confluence types is proposed, which shows large river confluences can be sites of extensive bank erosion and avulsion, creating substantial management challenges. We quantify the abundance of mobile confluence types by classifying all large confluences in both the Amazon and Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basins, showing these two large rivers have contrasting confluence morphodynamics. We show large river confluences have multiple scales of planform adjustment with important implications for river management, infrastructure and interpretation of the rock

RESEARCH ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IN THE OLT RIVER, DRĂGĂŞANI CITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alina – Mihaela Truţă

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The Olt River is an important component of the Danube Hydrographic Basin, with a total area of 24 050 square kilometers. At EU level, concern for the quality of the aquatic environment has always been a very topical issue. Implementation of strategies and policies related to water management were materialized through the adoption of the Framework Directive "Water" 2000/60 / EC by the European Parliament. The aim of these strategies is the balanced management of water resources and the protection of aquatic ecosystems, with the main objective to achieve a "good condition" of surface and groundwater water. Following the objectives of the Directive 2000/60/EC, the present study aims at assessing the environmental quality in the Olt River, Drăgăşani city, thus highlighting the influence of the city's wastewater discharge on the river water quality.

A generic access to shot-based data for European Tokamaks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Signoret, J.; Imbeaux, F. [Association EURATOM-CEA, CEA / DSM / Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnetique, CEA-Cadarache, 13 - ST-Paul-Lez-Durance (France)

2009-07-01

The EFDA Integrated Tokamak Modeling Task Force has defined a data structure offering a generic representation of the properties of physics problems and tokamak subsystem characteristics. It gathers the hardware description, modeling results and data measured during experiments, structured in terms of Consistent Physical Objects (CPOs). A generic tool has been developed to retrieve shot-based data from the various European tokamak databases: Exp2ITM. A tokamak specific XML 'mapping file' is used to map the local data formats to the ITM (Integrated Tokamak Modeling) data format. Exp2ITM is then dynamically generated from the ITM data structure and uses generic procedures to import the shot-based data. Successful tests show we have managed to import into the ITM DB experimental data from Jet and Tore-Supra. This document is a poster. (authors)

Bar and channel evolution in meandering and braiding rivers using physics-based modeling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuurman, F.

2015-01-01

Rivers are among the most dynamic earth surface systems. Some rivers meander, forming bends that migrate, reshape and have inner-bend bars. Other rivers form a complicated braided pattern of branches, islands and mid-channel bars. Thorough understanding of their morphodynamics is important for

Medieval European medicine and Asian spices.

Science.gov (United States)

Nam, Jong Kuk

2014-08-01

This article aimed to explain the reasons why Asian spices including pepper, ginger, and cinnamon were considered as special and valuable drugs with curative powers in the Medieval Europe. Among these spices, pepper was most widely and frequently used as medicine according to medieval medical textbooks. We analyzed three main pharmacology books written during the Middle Ages. One of the main reasons that oriental spices were widely used as medicine was due to the particular medieval medical system fundamentally based on the humoral theory invented by Hippocrates and Galen. This theory was modified by Arab physicians and imported to Europe during the Middle Ages. According to this theory, health is determined by the balance of the following four humors which compose the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Each humor has its own qualities such as cold, hot, wet, and dry. Humoral imbalance was one of the main causes of disease, so it was important to have humoral equilibrium. Asian spices with hot and dry qualities were used to balance the cold and wet European diet. The analysis of several major medical textbooks of the Middle Ages proves that most of the oriental spices with hot and dry qualities were employed to cure diverse diseases, particularly those caused by coldness and humidity. However, it should be noted that the oriental spices were considered to be much more valuable and effective as medicines than the local medicinal ingredients, which were not only easily procured but also were relatively cheap. Europeans mystified oriental spices, with the belief that they have marvelous and mysterious healing powers. Such mystification was related to the terrestrial Paradise. They believed that the oriental spices were grown in Paradise which was located in the Far East and were brought to the Earthly world along the four rivers flowing from the Paradise.

Alien freshwater polychaetes Hypania invalida (Grube 1860 and Laonome calida Capa 2007 in the Upper Odra River (Baltic Sea catchment area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pabis Krzysztof

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Two polychaete species, Hypania invalida and Laonome calida, were found in the Upper Odra River in 2016. Both species were recorded close to a natural river bank down to 1 m depths. They inhabited sandy-gravelly and sandy-muddy sediments. H. invalida is an alien invasive Ponto-Caspian species, previously known in Poland from the Odra River estuary only. Our results may indicate a further rapid dispersal of H. invalida upstream the Odra River or an accidental introduction. This study is the first record of L. calida in the Baltic Sea catchment. This Australian species has been recently introduced into Europe. Prior to this study, it had been reported from Dutch rivers only. The present data suggest accidental introduction of the species to European rivers; however, our findings show an urgent need for a close monitoring of the polychaete in Europe.

GRACE-based estimates of water discharge over the Yellow River basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiong Li

2016-05-01

Full Text Available As critical component of hydrologic cycle, basin discharge is a key issue for understanding the hydrological and climatologic related to water and energy cycles. Combining GRACE gravity field models with ET from GLDAS models and precipitation from GPCP, discharge of the Yellow River basin are estimated from the water balance equation. While comparing the results with discharge from GLDAS model and in situ measurements, the results reveal that discharge from Mosaic and CLM GLDAS model can partially represent the river discharge and the discharge estimation from water balance equation could reflect the discharge from precipitation over the Yellow River basin.

River channel morphology and hydraulics properties due to introduction of plant basket hydraulic structures for river channel management

Science.gov (United States)

Kałuża, Tomasz; Radecki-Pawlik, Artur; Plesiński, Karol; Walczak, Natalia; Szoszkiewicz, Krzysztof; Radecki-Pawlik, Bartosz

2016-04-01

In the present time integrated water management is directly connected with management and direct works in river channels themselves which are taking into account morphological processes in rivers and improve flow conditions. Our work focused on the hydraulic and hydrodynamic consequences upon the introduction of the concept of the improvement of the hydromorphological conditions of the Flinta River in a given reach following river channel management concept. Based on a comprehensive study of the hydromorphological state of the river, four sections were selected where restoration measures can efficiently improve river habitat conditions in the river. For each section a set of technical and biological measures were proposed and implemented in practice. One of the proposed solutions was to construct plant basket hydraulic structures (PBHS) within the river channel, which are essentially plant barriers working as sediment traps, changing river channel morphology and are in line with concepts of Water Framework Directive. These relatively small structures work as crested weirs and unquestionably change the channel morphology. Along our work we show the results of three-year long (2013-2015) systematic measurements that provided information on the morphological consequences of introducing such structures into a river channel. Our main conclusions are as follows: 1. Plant basket hydraulic structures cause changes in hydrodynamic conditions and result in sediment accumulation and the formation of river backwaters upstream and downstream the obstacle; 2. The introduced plant basket hydraulic structures cause plant debris accumulation which influences the hydrodynamic flow conditions; 3. The installation of plant basket hydraulic structures on the river bed changes flow pattern as well as flow hydrodynamic conditions causing river braiding process; 4. The erosion rate below the plant basket hydraulic structures is due to the hydraulic work conditions of the PBHS and its

The spatial turn and the scenario approach in flood risk management : Implementing the European Floods Directive in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Ruiten, Leon; Hartmann, T.

2016-01-01

The European Floods Directive requires member states to prepare flood risk management plans for their river catchments. The first generation of those plans was just developed at the end of 2015; the next revision is due in 2021. The new instrument institutionalizes an ongoing paradigm shift from

Evaluation of Heavy Metal Contamination Levels of Balok River Sediments in Pahang, Malaysia Based on Geo accumulation Index and Supported with Enrichment Factor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohd Zahari Abdullah; Nur Rashidah Abd Manap; Ahmad Saat; Zaini Hamzah; Mohd Tahir Abas

2015-01-01

This study was conducted in order to assess the level of metal pollution in river sediment samples, which indirectly representing the general quality of the Balok River. The samples of river sediment have been collected at nine sampling stations from the particular river. The total content of Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn were measured using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) after an acid extraction. The mean concentrations (mg/kg) were found at 0.49, 16.16, 42.93, 24.31, 2734.69, 155.61, 16.04, 29.31, 50.71 and 159.40 for the respective metals. The assessment of the river quality was done based on the information showed by the enrichment factor (EF) and geo accumulation index (I geo ). Analysis of the I geo indexes clearly indicate that most of the sediment samples analyzed in this study contained the selected heavy metals in the levels of unpolluted to moderately pollute. Based on the low EF values recorded in this study, it can be concluded that the Balok River sediments is not significantly contaminated with the studied heavy metals. (author)

Characterizing fish responses to a river restoration over 21 years based on species' traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Höckendorff, Stefanie; Tonkin, Jonathan D; Haase, Peter; Bunzel-Drüke, Margret; Zimball, Olaf; Scharf, Matthias; Stoll, Stefan

2017-10-01

Understanding restoration effectiveness is often impaired by a lack of high-quality, long-term monitoring data and, to date, few researchers have used species' trait information to gain insight into the processes that drive the reaction of fish communities to restoration. We examined fish-community responses with a highly resolved data set from 21 consecutive years of electrofishing (4 years prerestoration and 17 years postrestoration) at multiple restored and unrestored reaches from a river restoration project on the Lippe River, Germany. Fish abundance peaked in the third year after the restoration; abundance was 6 times higher than before the restoration. After 5-7 years, species richness and abundance stabilized at 2 and 3.5 times higher levels relative to the prerestoration level, respectively. However, interannual variability of species richness and abundance remained considerable, illustrating the challenge of reliably assessing restoration outcomes based on data from individual samplings, especially in the first years following restoration. Life-history and reproduction-related traits best explained differences in species' responses to restoration. Opportunistic short-lived species with early female maturity and multiple spawning runs per year exhibited the strongest increase in abundance, which reflected their ability to rapidly colonize new habitats. These often small-bodied and fusiform fishes typically live in dynamic and ephemeral instream and floodplain areas that river-habitat restorations often aim to create, and in this case their increases in abundance indicated successful restoration. Our results suggest that a greater consideration of species' traits may enhance the causal understanding of community processes and the coupling of restoration to functional ecology. Trait-based assessments of restoration outcomes would furthermore allow for easier transfer of knowledge across biogeographic borders than studies based on taxonomy. © 2017 Society for

RCP8.5-Based Future Flood Hazard Analysis for the Lower Mekong River Basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edangodage Duminda Pradeep Perera

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Climatic variations caused by the excessive emission of greenhouse gases are likely to change the patterns of precipitation, runoff processes, and water storage of river basins. Various studies have been conducted based on precipitation outputs of the global scale climatic models under different emission scenarios. However, there is a limitation in regional- and local-scale hydrological analysis on extreme floods with the combined application of high-resolution atmospheric general circulation models’ (AGCM outputs and physically-based hydrological models (PBHM. This study has taken an effort to overcome that limitation in hydrological analysis. The present and future precipitation, river runoff, and inundation distributions for the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB were analyzed to understand hydrological changes in the LMB under the RCP8.5 scenario. The downstream area beyond the Kratie gauging station, located in the Cambodia and Vietnam flood plains was considered as the LMB in this study. The bias-corrected precipitation outputs of the Japan Meteorological Research Institute atmospheric general circulation model (MRI-AGCM3.2S with 20 km horizontal resolution were utilized as the precipitation inputs for basin-scale hydrological simulations. The present climate (1979–2003 was represented by the AMIP-type simulations while the future (2075–2099 climatic conditions were obtained based on the RCP8.5 greenhouse gas scenario. The entire hydrological system of the Mekong basin was modelled by the block-wise TOPMODEL (BTOP hydrological model with 20 km resolution, while the LMB area was modelled by the rainfall-runoff-inundation (RRI model with 2 km resolution, specifically to analyze floods under the aforementioned climatic conditions. The comparison of present and future river runoffs, inundation distributions and inundation volume changes were the outcomes of the study, which can be supportive information for the LMB flood management, water policy

Simulating stakeholder support in a policy process: An application to river management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Valkering, Pieter; Rotmans, Jan; Krywkow, Jorg; van der Veen, A.

2005-01-01

The authors present an agent-based model representing a policy process among stakeholders of river management. For evaluating the different river management alternatives, the agent-based model is coupled to an integrated river model that describes the impacts of river management, such as flood risk,

European Utility Requirements: European nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komsi, M.; Patrakka, E.

1997-01-01

The work procedure and the content of the European Utility Requirements (EUR) concerning the future LWRs is described in the article. European Utility Requirements, produced by utilities in a number of European countries, is a document specifying the details relating to engineered safety, operating performance, reliability and economics of the reactors to be built by manufacturers for the European market

The radionuclide migration model in river system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhukova, O.M.; Shiryaeva, N.M.; Myshkina, M.K.; Shagalova, Eh.D.; Denisova, V.V.; Skurat, V.V.

2001-01-01

It was propose the model of radionuclide migration in river system based on principle of the compartmental model at hydraulically stationary and chemically equilibrium conditions of interaction of radionuclides in system water-dredge, water-sediments. Different conditions of radioactive contamination entry in river system were considered. The model was verified on the data of radiation monitoring of Iput' river

Spatial Misfit in Participatory River Basin Management: Effects on Social Learning, a Comparative Analysis of German and French Case Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilke Borowski

2008-06-01

Full Text Available With the introduction of river basin management, as prescribed by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD, participatory structures are frequently introduced at the hydrological scale without fully adapting them to the decision-making structure. This results in parallel structures and spatial misfits within the institutional settings of river basin governance systems. By analyzing French and German case studies, we show how social learning (SL is impeded by such misfits. We also demonstrate that river basin-scale institutions or actors that link parallel structures are essential for promoting river basins as management entities, and for encouraging SL between actors at the river basin scale. In the multi-scale, multi-level settings of river basin governance, it is difficult to fully exclude spatial misfits. Thus, it is important to take our insights into account in the current transition of water management from the administrative to the hydrological scale to get the greatest benefit from SL processes.

River Basin Standards Interoperability Pilot

Science.gov (United States)

Pesquer, Lluís; Masó, Joan; Stasch, Christoph

2016-04-01

There is a lot of water information and tools in Europe to be applied in the river basin management but fragmentation and a lack of coordination between countries still exists. The European Commission and the member states have financed several research and innovation projects in support of the Water Framework Directive. Only a few of them are using the recently emerging hydrological standards, such as the OGC WaterML 2.0. WaterInnEU is a Horizon 2020 project focused on creating a marketplace to enhance the exploitation of EU funded ICT models, tools, protocols and policy briefs related to water and to establish suitable conditions for new market opportunities based on these offerings. One of WaterInnEU's main goals is to assess the level of standardization and interoperability of these outcomes as a mechanism to integrate ICT-based tools, incorporate open data platforms and generate a palette of interchangeable components that are able to use the water data emerging from the recently proposed open data sharing processes and data models stimulated by initiatives such as the INSPIRE directive. As part of the standardization and interoperability activities in the project, the authors are designing an experiment (RIBASE, the present work) to demonstrate how current ICT-based tools and water data can work in combination with geospatial web services in the Scheldt river basin. The main structure of this experiment, that is the core of the present work, is composed by the following steps: - Extraction of information from river gauges data in OGC WaterML 2.0 format using SOS services (preferably compliant to the OGC SOS 2.0 Hydrology Profile Best Practice). - Model floods using a WPS 2.0, WaterML 2.0 data and weather forecast models as input. - Evaluation of the applicability of Sensor Notification Services in water emergencies. - Open distribution of the input and output data as OGC web services WaterML, / WCS / WFS and with visualization utilities: WMS. The architecture

River-corridor habitat dynamics, Lower Missouri River

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobson, Robert B.

2010-01-01

Intensive management of the Missouri River for navigation, flood control, and power generation has resulted in substantial physical changes to the river corridor. Historically, the Missouri River was characterized by a shifting, multithread channel and abundant unvegetated sandbars. The shifting channel provided a wide variety of hydraulic environments and large areas of connected and unconnected off-channel water bodies.Beginning in the early 1800s and continuing to the present, the channel of the Lower Missouri River (downstream from Sioux City, Iowa) has been trained into a fast, deep, single-thread channel to stabilize banks and maintain commercial navigation. Wing dikes now concentrate the flow, and revetments and levees keep the channel in place and disconnect it from the flood plain. In addition, reservoir regulation of the Missouri River upstream of Yankton, South Dakota, has substantially changed the annual hydrograph, sediment loads, temperature regime, and nutrient budgets.While changes to the Missouri River have resulted in broad social and economic benefits, they have also been associated with loss of river-corridor habitats and diminished populations of native fish and wildlife species. Today, Missouri River stakeholders are seeking ways to restore some natural ecosystem benefits of the Lower Missouri River without compromising traditional economic uses of the river and flood plain.

Solution of AntiSeepage for Mengxi River Based on Numerical Simulation of Unsaturated Seepage

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Youjun; Zhang, Linzhi; Yue, Jiannan

2014-01-01

Lessening the leakage of surface water can reduce the waste of water resources and ground water pollution. To solve the problem that Mengxi River could not store water enduringly, geology investigation, theoretical analysis, experiment research, and numerical simulation analysis were carried out. Firstly, the seepage mathematical model was established based on unsaturated seepage theory; secondly, the experimental equipment for testing hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil was developed to obtain the curve of two-phase flow. The numerical simulation of leakage in natural conditions proves the previous inference and leakage mechanism of river. At last, the seepage control capacities of different impervious materials were compared by numerical simulations. According to the engineering actuality, the impervious material was selected. The impervious measure in this paper has been proved to be effectible by hydrogeological research today. PMID:24707199

Spectral network based on component cells under the SOPHIA European project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Núñez, Rubén, E-mail: ruben.nunez@ies-def.upm.es; Antón, Ignacio; Askins, Steve; Sala, Gabriel [Instituto de Energía Solar - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Domínguez, César; Voarino, Philippe [CEA-INES, 50 avenue du Lac Léman, 73375 Le Bourget-du-Lac (France); Steiner, Marc; Siefer, Gerald [Fraunhofer ISE, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110 Freiburg (Germany); Fucci, Rafaelle; Roca, Franco [ENEA, P.le E.Fermi 1, Località Granatello, 80055 Portici (Italy); Minuto, Alessandro; Morabito, Paolo [RSE, Via Rubattino 54, 20134 Milan (Italy)

2015-09-28

In the frame of the European project SOPHIA, a spectral network based on component (also called isotypes) cells has been created. Among the members of this project, several spectral sensors based on component cells and collimating tubes, so-called spectroheliometers, were installed in the last years, allowing the collection of minute-resolution spectral data useful for CPV systems characterization across Europe. The use of spectroheliometers has been proved useful to establish the necessary spectral conditions to perform power rating of CPV modules and systems. If enough data in a given period of time is collected, ideally a year, it is possible to characterize spectrally the place where measurements are taken, in the same way that hours of annual irradiation can be estimated using a pyrheliometer.

Ethics and European security

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paskins, B.

1986-01-01

The alliance between the United States and her NATO partners has been strained severely in the last few years. American perceptions of European disloyalty and European impressions of American assertiveness and lack of judgment have played a large part in generating tensions between the allies and emphasising the new peace movements. This book is an attempt to develop a broader understanding of the problem of European security based on Christian ethics. There are disagreements and differences of emphasis among the contributors but they have in common the view that an exclusive preoccupation with the military dimension is damagingly one-sided. Instead the contributors argue that moral and theological concerns are a vital part of the politics and mechanics of European security and must be incorporated in any effort to devise new policies for security in Europe and the West.

FLOODPLAIN PLANNING BASED ON STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF TILPARA BARRAGE DISCHARGE: A CASE STUDY ON MAYURAKSHI RIVER BASIN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vibhash Chandra Jha

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Floods in the West Bengal are responsible for colossal loss of human life, crops, and property. In recent years, various measures of flood control and management have been adopted. However, flooding in such rivers like Brahmani profoundly challenges flood-hazard management, because of the inadequacy of conventional data and high spatio-temporal variability of floods. To understand flood hazards and environmental change it is imperative that engineers and hydrologists utilize historical and paleoflood records to improve risk analyses as well as to estimate probable maximum flood on rivers such as these in a highly flood-prone region(Parkar,2000. The flood frequency analysis, probable peak discharge analysis, its return period analysis and floodplain zoning based on ancillary data will help better management of flood in the Mayurakshi River basin situated in the districts of Birbhum and Murshidabad.

Graph Theory-Based Technique for Isolating Corrupted Boundary Conditions in Continental-Scale River Network Hydrodynamic Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, C. W.; Hodges, B. R.; Liu, F.

2017-12-01

Development of continental-scale river network models creates challenges where the massive amount of boundary condition data encounters the sensitivity of a dynamic nu- merical model. The topographic data sets used to define the river channel characteristics may include either corrupt data or complex configurations that cause instabilities in a numerical solution of the Saint-Venant equations. For local-scale river models (e.g. HEC- RAS), modelers typically rely on past experience to make ad hoc boundary condition adjustments that ensure a stable solution - the proof of the adjustment is merely the sta- bility of the solution. To date, there do not exist any formal methodologies or automated procedures for a priori detecting/fixing boundary conditions that cause instabilities in a dynamic model. Formal methodologies for data screening and adjustment are a critical need for simulations with a large number of river reaches that draw their boundary con- dition data from a wide variety of sources. At the continental scale, we simply cannot assume that we will have access to river-channel cross-section data that has been ade- quately analyzed and processed. Herein, we argue that problematic boundary condition data for unsteady dynamic modeling can be identified through numerical modeling with the steady-state Saint-Venant equations. The fragility of numerical stability increases with the complexity of branching in river network system and instabilities (even in an unsteady solution) are typically triggered by the nonlinear advection term in Saint-Venant equations. It follows that the behavior of the simpler steady-state equations (which retain the nonlin- ear term) can be used to screen the boundary condition data for problematic regions. In this research, we propose a graph-theory based method to isolate the location of corrupted boundary condition data in a continental-scale river network and demonstrate its utility with a network of O(10^4) elements. Acknowledgement

The European Crisis Management: An Organizational Narrative

OpenAIRE

Patrícia Kaplánová

2016-01-01

The debate of scholars in the field of international relations in last years has put the European Union’s role into the consideration. The European Foreign and Security Policy has positioned itself through its development to the constructive and normative line of research of world politics. With this respect, this article examines a character of crisis management of the European Common Foreign Policy based on the institutional development. Besides the European Union does not po...

Active overbank deposition during the last century, South River, Virginia

Science.gov (United States)

Pizzuto, Jim; Skalak, Katherine; Pearson, Adam; Benthem, Adam

2016-03-01

We quantify rates of overbank deposition over decadal to centennial timescales along the South River in Virginia using four independent methods. Detailed mercury profiles sampled adjacent to the stream channel preserve the peak historic mercury concentration on suspended sediment dating from 1955 to 1961 and suggest sedimentation rates of 8 to 50 cm/100 years. Sediment accumulation over the roots of trees suggest rates of 0 to 100 cm/100 years, with significantly higher values on levees and lower values on floodplains farther from the channel. Profiles of 137Cs and 210Pb from two eroding streambanks are fit with an advection-diffusion model calibrated at an upland reference site; these methods suggest sedimentation rates of 44 to 73 cm/100 years. Mercury inventories from 107 floodplain cores, combined with a previously published reconstruction of the history of mercury concentration on suspended sediment, provide spatially comprehensive estimates of floodplain sedimentation: median sedimentation rates are 3.8 cm/100 years for the HEC-RAS) modeling demonstrates that the floodplain of the South River remains hydraulically connected to the channel: 56% of the 100-year floodplain is inundated every two years, and 83% of the floodplain is inundated every five years. These results, combined with previously published data, provide the basis for a regional synthesis of floodplain deposition rates since European settlement. Floodplain sedimentation rates were high following European settlement, with published estimates ranging from 50 to 200 cm/100 years. Sedimentation rates decreased by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; but despite these lower sedimentation rates, floodplains continue to store a significant fraction of total suspended sediment load. Many floodplains of the mid-Atlantic region are active landforms fully connected to the rivers that flow within them and should not be considered terraces isolated from contemporary

Climatic control of Mississippi River flood hazard amplified by river engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Munoz, Samuel E.; Giosan, Liviu; Therrell, Matthew D.; Remo, Jonathan W. F.; Shen, Zhixiong; Sullivan, Richard M.; Wiman, Charlotte; O’Donnell, Michelle; Donnelly, Jeffrey P.

2018-04-01

Over the past century, many of the world’s major rivers have been modified for the purposes of flood mitigation, power generation and commercial navigation. Engineering modifications to the Mississippi River system have altered the river’s sediment levels and channel morphology, but the influence of these modifications on flood hazard is debated. Detecting and attributing changes in river discharge is challenging because instrumental streamflow records are often too short to evaluate the range of natural hydrological variability before the establishment of flood mitigation infrastructure. Here we show that multi-decadal trends of flood hazard on the lower Mississippi River are strongly modulated by dynamical modes of climate variability, particularly the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, but that the artificial channelization (confinement to a straightened channel) has greatly amplified flood magnitudes over the past century. Our results, based on a multi-proxy reconstruction of flood frequency and magnitude spanning the past 500 years, reveal that the magnitude of the 100-year flood (a flood with a 1 per cent chance of being exceeded in any year) has increased by 20 per cent over those five centuries, with about 75 per cent of this increase attributed to river engineering. We conclude that the interaction of human alterations to the Mississippi River system with dynamical modes of climate variability has elevated the current flood hazard to levels that are unprecedented within the past five centuries.

Sexual and gender-based violence in the European asylum and reception sector: a perpetuum mobile?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keygnaert, I.; Dias, S.F.; Degomme, O.; Devillé, W.; Kennedy, P.; Kovats, A.; Meyer, S. de; Vettenburg, N.; Roelens, K.; Temmerman, M.

2015-01-01

Background: Refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and subsequent ill-health in Europe; yet, European minimum reception standards do not address SGBV. Hence, this paper explores the nature of SGBV occurring in this sector and

Sexual and gender-based violence in the European asylum and reception sector: a perpetuum mobile?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keygnaert, I.; Dias, S.F.; Degomme, O.; Devillé, W.; Kennedy, P.; Kováts, A.; De Meyer, S.; Vettenburg, N.; Roelens, K.; Temmerman, M.

2014-01-01

Background: Refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and subsequent ill-health in Europe; yet, European minimum reception standards do not address SGBV. Hence, this paper explores the nature of SGBV occurring in this sector and

Sexual and gender-based violence in the European asylum and reception sector : A perpetuum mobile?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keygnaert, Ines; Dias, Sonia F.; Degomme, Olivier; Devillé, Walter; Kennedy, Patricia; Kováts, András; De Meyer, Sara; Vettenburg, Nicole; Roelens, Kristien; Temmerman, Marleen

2015-01-01

Background: Refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and subsequent ill-health in Europe; yet, European minimum reception standards do not address SGBV. Hence, this paper explores the nature of SGBV occurring in this sector and

Determination of metal-based nanoparticles in the river Dommel in the Netherlands via ultrafiltration, HR-ICP-MS and SEM.

Science.gov (United States)

Markus, A A; Krystek, P; Tromp, P C; Parsons, J R; Roex, E W M; Voogt, P de; Laane, R W P M

2018-08-01

We investigated the occurrence of metal-based nanoparticles in a natural system, the river Dommel in the Netherlands. The river itself is well-studied as far as hydrology and water quality is concerned, easily accessible and contains one major wastewater treatment plant discharging onto this river. We sampled water from various locations along the river and collected samples of influent, effluent and sewage sludge from the wastewater treatment plant. The sampling campaign was carried out in June 2015 and these samples were analysed for seven elements using high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS), ultrafiltration with a sequence of mesh sizes and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). From the results we conclude that there are indeed nanoparticles present in the treatment plant we studied, as we found titanium and gold particles in the influent and effluent. In the river water only 10 to 20% of the mass concentration of titanium, cerium and other elements we examined is made up of free, i.e. unattached, particles with a size smaller than 20 nm or of dissolved material. The rest is attached to natural colloids or is present as individual particles or clusters of smaller particles, as it could be filtered out with 450 nm ultrafilters. We found evidence that there is no appreciable anthropogenic emission of cerium into the river, based on the geochemical relationship between cerium and lanthanum. Besides, the effluent of the treatment plant has lower concentrations of some examined elements than the surface water upstream. The treatment plant discharges much less of these elements than estimated using previous publications. However, a potential diffuse source of titanium dioxide in the form of nanoparticles or of larger particles is their use in paints and coatings, as the concentration of titanium increased considerably in the urbanised area of the river Dommel. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hydrological River Drought Analysis (Case Study: Lake Urmia Basin Rivers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Nazeri Tahrudi

2017-02-01

year and n is number of period years. After the extraction the 1 to ndays drought duration, the years with no data were complete with Regression or interpolation methods. After the extraction, data initial evaluation (Trend, Independence and Stationarity and completed the drought volume data, these data were fitted by the common distribution functions and select the best function based on Kolmogorov-Sminnov test. To read more information about the data initial evaluations see the NazeriTahroudi et al (15. Log Pearson type 3 distribution Log Pearson type 3 distribution and its parameters is (7 & 12: (2 After selectingthe best distribution function based on Kolmogorov - Smirnov test, estimated the selected function parameter to evaluate the return period. For this purpose, there are many methods such as moments, Sundry Average method (SAM, Logarithm of applied moments observations and maximum likelihood that in this study were compared. Results and Discussion: In this study, using daily flow data fromstations studied; the drought volume of days 1 to 60 was extracted, corrected, and completed. Before fitting the extraction drought volume river data with distribution function, the mentioned data were investigated with Wald-Wolfowitz (Independence and Stationary, Kendall (Trend and Wilcoxon (Homogeneity tests and the results of these tests were accepted in two significant levels of 1 and 5 percentages. Before estimatingthe Log Pearson type III parameters, first the drought volume river data were modeled by the Easy Fit software and common distribution functions and Log Pearson type III was selected by the Kolmogorov – Smirnov test as the best function. Results of two Anderson Darling and Chi Squared tests foraccurate evaluation were added. After initial evaluation of data and statistic tests, the time series of drought Volume River data of the studyarea were fitted by log Pearson type III. To estimatethe Log Pearson type III parameters used the sundry average method and

Developing New Modelling Tools for Environmental Flow Assessment in Regulated Salmon Rivers

Science.gov (United States)

Geris, Josie; Soulsby, Chris; Tetzlaff, Doerthe

2013-04-01

There is a strong political drive in Scotland to meet all electricity demands from renewable sources by 2020. In Scotland, hydropower generation has a long history and is a key component of this strategy. However, many rivers sustain freshwater communities that have both high conservation status and support economically important Atlantic salmon fisheries. Both new and existing hydropower schemes must be managed in accordance with the European Union's Water Framework Directive (WFD), which requires that all surface water bodies achieve good ecological status or maintain good ecological potential. Unfortunately, long-term river flow monitoring is sparse in the Scottish Highlands and there are limited data for defining environmental flows. The River Tay is the most heavily regulated catchment in the UK. To support hydropower generation, it has an extensive network of inter- and intra- catchment transfers, in addition to a large number of regulating reservoirs for which abstraction legislation often only requires minimum compensation flows. The Tay is also considered as one of Scotland's most important rivers for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and there is considerable uncertainty as to how best change reservoir operations to improve the ecological potential of the river system. It is now usually considered that environmental flows require more than a minimum compensation flow, and instead should cover a range of hydrological flow aspects that represent ecologically relevant streamflow attributes, including magnitude, timing, duration, frequency and rate of change. For salmon, these hydrological indices are of particular interest, with requirements varying at different stages of their life cycle. To meet the WFD requirements, rationally alter current abstraction licences and provide an evidence base for regulating new hydropower schemes, advanced definitions for abstraction limits and ecologically appropriate flow releases are desirable. However, a good understanding

Estimating Total Discharge in the Yangtze River Basin Using Satellite-Based Observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel A. Andam‑Akorful

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The measurement of total basin discharge along coastal regions is necessary for understanding the hydrological and oceanographic issues related to the water and energy cycles. However, only the observed streamflow (gauge-based observation is used to estimate the total fluxes from the river basin to the ocean, neglecting the portion of discharge that infiltrates to underground and directly discharges into the ocean. Hence, the aim of this study is to assess the total discharge of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang basin. In this study, we explore the potential response of total discharge to changes in precipitation (from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission—TRMM, evaporation (from four versions of the Global Land Data Assimilation—GLDAS, namely, CLM, Mosaic, Noah and VIC, and water-storage changes (from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment—GRACE by using the terrestrial water budget method. This method has been validated by comparison with the observed streamflow, and shows an agreement with a root mean square error (RMSE of 14.30 mm/month for GRACE-based discharge and 20.98 mm/month for that derived from precipitation minus evaporation (P − E. This improvement of approximately 32% indicates that monthly terrestrial water-storage changes, as estimated by GRACE, cannot be considered negligible over Yangtze basin. The results for the proposed method are more accurate than the results previously reported in the literature.

Catalogue of European earthquakes and an atlas of European seismic maps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Gils, J.M.

1988-01-01

The Catalogue of European earthquakes and an atlas of European seismic maps has been prepared in the framework of the activities of the CEC Working Group on the safety of ligh-water reactors. Seismic hazards are considered to be an important element of possible external accidents to be taken into account in the design, construction, and operation of nuclear power plants. The report relies on the data base available, the historical as well as the present-day data. After a short historical review, actually-used intensity scales are discussed. The scale applied in European countries and the one proposed in the United States of America are compared. The different seismic maps of interest are explained and a mathematical procedure presented which allows, under certain conditions, to draw seismic maps by computer facilities

An index-based framework for assessing patterns and trends in river fragmentation and flow regulation by global dams at multiple scales

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grill, Günther; Lehner, Bernhard; Lumsdon, Alexander E; Zarfl, Christiane; MacDonald, Graham K; Reidy Liermann, Catherine

2015-01-01

The global number of dam constructions has increased dramatically over the past six decades and is forecast to continue to rise, particularly in less industrialized regions. Identifying development pathways that can deliver the benefits of new infrastructure while also maintaining healthy and productive river systems is a great challenge that requires understanding the multifaceted impacts of dams at a range of scales. New approaches and advanced methodologies are needed to improve predictions of how future dam construction will affect biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and fluvial geomorphology worldwide, helping to frame a global strategy to achieve sustainable dam development. Here, we respond to this need by applying a graph-based river routing model to simultaneously assess flow regulation and fragmentation by dams at multiple scales using data at high spatial resolution. We calculated the cumulative impact of a set of 6374 large existing dams and 3377 planned or proposed dams on river connectivity and river flow at basin and subbasin scales by fusing two novel indicators to create a holistic dam impact matrix for the period 1930–2030. Static network descriptors such as basin area or channel length are of limited use in hierarchically nested and dynamic river systems, so we developed the river fragmentation index and the river regulation index, which are based on river volume. These indicators are less sensitive to the effects of network configuration, offering increased comparability among studies with disparate hydrographies as well as across scales. Our results indicate that, on a global basis, 48% of river volume is moderately to severely impacted by either flow regulation, fragmentation, or both. Assuming completion of all dams planned and under construction in our future scenario, this number would nearly double to 93%, largely due to major dam construction in the Amazon Basin. We provide evidence for the importance of considering small to medium

FLOOD MODELING OF THE VUKA RIVER SECTION UPSTREAM OF ITS CONFLUENCE WITH THE DANUBE RIVER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario Marić

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a section of the Vuka River from its confluence with the Danube River in Vukovar to 3 + 630 rkm was modeled. The possibility and size of floods in the surrounding area were analyzed for different return periods (2, 5, 10, 50, and 100 yrs. Although the high-water levels of the Danube River are lower than the terrain elevation of Vukovar, they cause backwater in the Vuka River and in its tributary, the Bobotski canal. In that indirect way, the surrounding area is endangered and the efficiency of drainage systems is reduced. The existing riverbed of the analyzed Vuka River section was digitalized based on a digital terrain model using the geographic information system (GIS software ArcGIS and the HEC-GeoRAS toolbar. A mathematical model of the steady-state flow of the Vuka river section using the digitized riverbed was executed in the HEC-RAS software using different return periods. The obtained velocities and water levels were analyzed using HEC-RAS, and the sizes of the flooded areas were calculated and observed in ArcGIS.

Potential effects of elevated base flow and midsummer spike flow experiments on riparian vegetation along the Green River

Science.gov (United States)

Friedman, Jonathan M.

2018-01-01

The Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program has requested experimental flow releases from Flaming Gorge Dam for (1) elevated summer base flows to promote larval endangered Colorado pikeminnow, and (2) midsummer spike flows to disadvantage spawning invasive smallmouth bass. This white paper explores the effects of these proposed flow modifications on riparian vegetation and sediment deposition downstream along the Green River. Although modest in magnitude, the elevated base flows and possible associated reductions in magnitude or duration of peak flows would exacerbate a long-term trend of flow stabilization on the Green River that is already leading to proliferation of vegetation including invasive tamarisk along the channel and associated sediment deposition, channel narrowing and channel simplification. Midsummer spike flows could promote establishment of late-flowering plants like tamarisk. Because channel narrowing and simplification threaten persistence and quality of backwater and side channel features needed by endangered fish, the proposed flow modifications could lead to degradation of fish habitat. Channel narrowing and vegetation encroachment could be countered by increases in peak flows or reductions in base flows in some years and by prescription of rapid flow declines following midsummer spike flows. These strategies for reducing vegetation encroachment would need to be balanced with flow

Public support for river restoration. A mixed-method study into local residents' support for and framing of river management and ecological restoration in the Dutch floodplains.

Science.gov (United States)

Buijs, Arjen E

2009-06-01

In many European countries, accommodating water has become the dominant paradigm in river management. In the Netherlands, extensive river restoration projects are being implemented, many of which draw serious opposition from the public. To investigate the causes of such opposition, a comprehensive study of public attitudes towards river restoration was conducted in three floodplains, both before and after river restoration. The study combined quantitative questionnaires (N=562) with open interviews (N=29). This paper describes how local residents perceive the effects of river restoration on landscape quality and how residents and protest groups use landscape quality in combination with other arguments to strategically frame river management policies. Results show that measurement of the perceived outcomes of nature restoration needs to be complemented by a more dynamic type of research, focusing on the social processes of the framing of restoration plans. Theoretically, the paper aims to contribute to the development of a rigorous research strategy to study framing processes in environmental management, using a mixed-methods approach. In general, local residents are supportive of river restoration projects. Although restoration may diminish feelings of attachment to an area, for most people this negative effect is compensated by the positive effects on scenic beauty and perceived protection from flooding. However, these positive effects may become contested because of the active framing of river restoration by protest groups. Residents use three distinct frames to give meaning to river restoration projects: (i) an attachment frame, focusing on cultural heritage and place attachment (ii) an attractive nature frame, focusing on nature as attractive living space and the intrinsic value of nature (iii) a rurality frame, focusing on rural values, agriculture and cultural heritage. Resistance to river restoration plans stems from the attachment and rurality frames

The science and practice of river restoration

Science.gov (United States)

Wohl, Ellen; Lane, Stuart N.; Wilcox, Andrew C.

2015-08-01

River restoration is one of the most prominent areas of applied water-resources science. From an initial focus on enhancing fish habitat or river appearance, primarily through structural modification of channel form, restoration has expanded to incorporate a wide variety of management activities designed to enhance river process and form. Restoration is conducted on headwater streams, large lowland rivers, and entire river networks in urban, agricultural, and less intensively human-altered environments. We critically examine how contemporary practitioners approach river restoration and challenges for implementing restoration, which include clearly identified objectives, holistic understanding of rivers as ecosystems, and the role of restoration as a social process. We also examine challenges for scientific understanding in river restoration. These include: how physical complexity supports biogeochemical function, stream metabolism, and stream ecosystem productivity; characterizing response curves of different river components; understanding sediment dynamics; and increasing appreciation of the importance of incorporating climate change considerations and resiliency into restoration planning. Finally, we examine changes in river restoration within the past decade, such as increasing use of stream mitigation banking; development of new tools and technologies; different types of process-based restoration; growing recognition of the importance of biological-physical feedbacks in rivers; increasing expectations of water quality improvements from restoration; and more effective communication between practitioners and river scientists.

European Consulting Survey 2012 : The Future of European Management Consulting Firms' Business Models

OpenAIRE

Kreutzer, Markus; Menz, Markus

2012-01-01

This study report provides European management consulting firms' assessment of trends and currently prevailing business models in the industry. It depicts the different threats and opportunities that consulting firms with different business models, consulting foci, sizes, leverage ratios, international orientations, and geographical footprints face; it also reveals these firms' adaptation strategies. Based on an analysis of a survey of 311 consulting firms from 26 European countries, the repo...

The hydrological modeling in terms of determining the potential European beaver effect

Science.gov (United States)

Szostak, Marta; Jagodzińska, Jadwiga

2017-06-01

The objective of the paper was the hydrological analysis, in terms of categorizing main watercourses (based on coupled catchments) and marking areas covered by potential impact of the occurrence and activities of the European beaver Castor fiber. At the analysed area - the Forest District Głogów Małopolski there is a population of about 200 beavers in that Forest District. Damage inflicted by beavers was detected on 33.0 ha of the Forest District, while in the area of 13.9 ha the damage was small (below 10%). The monitoring of the beavers' behaviour and the analysis of their influence on hydrology of the area became an important element of using geoinformationtools in the management of forest areas. ArcHydro ArcGIS Esri module was applied, as an integrated set of tools for hydrographical analysis and modelling. Further steps of the procedure are hydrologic analyses such as: marking river networks on the DTM, filling holes, making maps of the flow direction, making the map of the accumulation flow, defining and segmentation of streams, marking elementary basins, marking coupled basins, making dams in the places, where beavers occur and localization of the area with a visible impact of damming. The result of the study includes maps prepared for the Forest District: the map of main rivers and their basins, categories of watercourses and compartments particularly threatened by beaver's foraging.

CONFIRMATION OF OCCURRENCE OF THE NARROW-CLAWED CRAYFISH ? STACUS LEPTODACTYLUS ESCHSCHOLTZ, 1823 IN THE RIVER EVROS IN GREECE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

PERDIKARIS C.

2007-04-01

Full Text Available The narrow-clawed crayfish Astacus leptodactylus Eschscholtz, 1823, is widely distributed in eastern European and western Asian countries. However, species presence in Greece was documented only by limited museum conserved specimens dating back to 1893. Recently (May 2005 several crayfish were captured in the Evros River (close to city of Didimotiho and these were identified as A. leptodactylus. The present work confirms the presence of A. leptodactylus in the Evros River still hundred and twelve years later and introduces the possibility of A. leptodactylus being indigenous to Greece.

Analysis of Prognosis of Lowland River Bed Erosion Based on Geotechnical Parameters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Smaga Agnieszka

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The river erosion is a complex process, the dynamics of which is very difficult to predict. Its intensity largely depends on hydraulic conditions of the river channel. However, it is also thought that natural resistance of the subsoil has a great influence on the scale of the erosion process. Predicting the effects of this process is extremely important in the case of constructing a piling structure (for example, artificial reservoirs. The partition of the river channel causes significant lowering of the river channel bed downstream the dam which threatens the stability of hydro technical and engineering (bridges buildings. To stop this unwanted phenomenon, stabilizing thresholds are built. However, random location of thresholds significantly reduces their effectiveness. Therefore, taking under consideration natural geotechnical conditions of the subsoil appears to be extremely important.

A European Master's Programme in Public Health Nutrition.

Science.gov (United States)

Yngve, A; Warm, D; Landman, J; Sjöström, M

2001-12-01

Effective population-based strategies require people trained and competent in the discipline of Public Health Nutrition. Since 1997, a European Master's Programme in Public Health Nutrition has been undergoing planning and implementation, by establishing initial quality assurance systems with the aid of funding from the European Commission (DG SANCO/F3). Partners from 17 European countries have been involved in the process. A European Network of Public Health Nutrition has been developed and accredited by the European Commission.

Lithogenic sources, composition and intra-annual variability of suspended particulate matter supplied from rivers to the Northern Galician Rias (Bay of Biscay)

Science.gov (United States)

Bernárdez, Patricia; Prego, Ricardo; Filgueiras, Ana Virginia; Ospina-Álvarez, Natalia; Santos-Echeandía, Juan; Álvarez-Vázquez, Miguel Angel; Caetano, Miguel

2017-12-01

Scarce research about small European rivers from non-human impacted areas to determine their natural background state has been undertaken. During the annual hydrological cycle of 2008-9 the patterns of particulate supply (SPM, POC, PON, Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, V, Zn) from the rivers Sor, Mera Landro, Lourido and Landoi to the Northern Galician Rias (SW Bay of Biscay) were tackled. No differences in the composition of the SPM were detected for the studied rivers regarding Al, Fe and POC but the relative percentage of particulate trace elements (PTE) discriminate the rivers. So, Cr, Co and Ni in the Lourido, and Landoi rivers, and Cu in the Mera River, are controlled by watershed minerals of Ortegal Geological Complex while for the rest rivers PTE are by granitic and Ollo de Sapo bedrock watershed. Therefore, the imprint of PTE in the parental rocks of the river basins is reflected on the coastal sediments of the Rias. The main process controlling the dynamics and variations of chemical elements in the particulate form is the river discharge. This fact exemplifies that these rivers presents a natural behavior not being highly influenced by anthropogenic activities.

Development of method for evaluating estimated inundation area by using river flood analysis based on multiple flood scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Ono, T.; Takahashi, T.

2017-12-01

Non-structural mitigation measures such as flood hazard map based on estimated inundation area have been more important because heavy rains exceeding the design rainfall frequently occur in recent years. However, conventional method may lead to an underestimation of the area because assumed locations of dike breach in river flood analysis are limited to the cases exceeding the high-water level. The objective of this study is to consider the uncertainty of estimated inundation area with difference of the location of dike breach in river flood analysis. This study proposed multiple flood scenarios which can set automatically multiple locations of dike breach in river flood analysis. The major premise of adopting this method is not to be able to predict the location of dike breach correctly. The proposed method utilized interval of dike breach which is distance of dike breaches placed next to each other. That is, multiple locations of dike breach were set every interval of dike breach. The 2D shallow water equations was adopted as the governing equation of river flood analysis, and the leap-frog scheme with staggered grid was used. The river flood analysis was verified by applying for the 2015 Kinugawa river flooding, and the proposed multiple flood scenarios was applied for the Akutagawa river in Takatsuki city. As the result of computation in the Akutagawa river, a comparison with each computed maximum inundation depth of dike breaches placed next to each other proved that the proposed method enabled to prevent underestimation of estimated inundation area. Further, the analyses on spatial distribution of inundation class and maximum inundation depth in each of the measurement points also proved that the optimum interval of dike breach which can evaluate the maximum inundation area using the minimum assumed locations of dike breach. In brief, this study found the optimum interval of dike breach in the Akutagawa river, which enabled estimated maximum inundation area

European Identity through Space Space Activities and Programmes as a Tool to Reinvigorate the European Identity

CERN Document Server

Baranes, Blandina

2013-01-01

Space activities are one particularly visible area, where Europe can shape its identity. This publication investigates the effect space activities have already had on building a European “spirit” (e.g. through European missions or European astronauts). It also looks into the effects that activities labelled “national” have on the emergence of a European identity. Based on this analysis, the book's intention is to identify creative ways and means for how to further use space for shaping the European identity. For this purpose the focus is not only on policy analysis but also on expertise from the fields of cultural science and the arts in order to tap their creative potential and also their theoretical approaches to the topic. Selecting this theme provides ESPI with another opportunity to develop its trans-disciplinary approach.

Population structure and genetic diversity of Sinibrama macrops from Ou River and Ling River based on mtDNA D-loop region analysis, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Liangjie; Chenoweth, Erica L; Liu, Qigen

2018-03-01

In order to understand the influence of human activities such as habitat fragmentation on freshwater fish population evolution, we investigated and compared the genetic diversity and phylogeography of Sinibrama macrops populations in the Oujiang River and Ling River. Mitochondrial control region sequences (D-loop region) of 131 specimens from six populations were obtained and analyzed. The diversity of main stream in the Ou River was lower than that in Ling River. Changtan population showed the lowest diversity (H = 0.646 ± 0.077; π = 0.00060 ± 0.00820). Pairwise F ST , gene flow (Nm), and genetic distance (Da) indicated that Longquan and Changtan significantly differentiate from other populations. Nested clade phylogeographical analysis (NCPA) showed some clades and total cladogram experienced isolation by distance. In conclusion, the populations from severely fragmented Ou River have the lower diversity and more intense differentiation than that from the mainstream of Ling River, Changtan population present the lowest diversity and were isolated by the dam construction.

Remote Sensing and River Discharge Forecasting for Major Rivers in South Asia (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, P. J.; Hopson, T. M.; Hirpa, F. A.; Brakenridge, G. R.; De-Groeve, T.; Shrestha, K.; Gebremichael, M.; Restrepo, P. J.

2013-12-01

The South Asia is a flashpoint for natural disasters particularly flooding of the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra has profound societal impacts for the region and globally. The 2007 Brahmaputra floods affecting India and Bangladesh, the 2008 avulsion of the Kosi River in India, the 2010 flooding of the Indus River in Pakistan and the 2013 Uttarakhand exemplify disasters on scales almost inconceivable elsewhere. Their frequent occurrence of floods combined with large and rapidly growing populations, high levels of poverty and low resilience, exacerbate the impact of the hazards. Mitigation of these devastating hazards are compounded by limited flood forecast capability, lack of rain/gauge measuring stations and forecast use within and outside the country, and transboundary data sharing on natural hazards. Here, we demonstrate the utility of remotely-derived hydrologic and weather products in producing skillful flood forecasting information without reliance on vulnerable in situ data sources. Over the last decade a forecast system has been providing operational probabilistic forecasts of severe flooding of the Brahmaputra and Ganges Rivers in Bangldesh was developed (Hopson and Webster 2010). The system utilizes ECMWF weather forecast uncertainty information and ensemble weather forecasts, rain gauge and satellite-derived precipitation estimates, together with the limited near-real-time river stage observations from Bangladesh. This system has been expanded to Pakistan and has successfully forecast the 2010-2012 flooding (Shrestha and Webster 2013). To overcome the in situ hydrological data problem, recent efforts in parallel with the numerical modeling have utilized microwave satellite remote sensing of river widths to generate operational discharge advective-based forecasts for the Ganges and Brahmaputra. More than twenty remotely locations upstream of Bangldesh were used to produce stand-alone river flow nowcasts and forecasts at 1-15 days lead time. showing that

Solution of AntiSeepage for Mengxi River Based on Numerical Simulation of Unsaturated Seepage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Youjun Ji

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Lessening the leakage of surface water can reduce the waste of water resources and ground water pollution. To solve the problem that Mengxi River could not store water enduringly, geology investigation, theoretical analysis, experiment research, and numerical simulation analysis were carried out. Firstly, the seepage mathematical model was established based on unsaturated seepage theory; secondly, the experimental equipment for testing hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil was developed to obtain the curve of two-phase flow. The numerical simulation of leakage in natural conditions proves the previous inference and leakage mechanism of river. At last, the seepage control capacities of different impervious materials were compared by numerical simulations. According to the engineering actuality, the impervious material was selected. The impervious measure in this paper has been proved to be effectible by hydrogeological research today.

The European Union's Africa Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Gorm Rye

2013-01-01

For a number of years, there has been an international debate on whether and to what extent small member states can influence the common external policies of the European Union. Recent research on the role of small EU states concludes that these states are neither per se political dwarfs nor power...... including North–South and specifically Africa policies. Five separate analyses are carried out addressing the question of Nordicization and Europeanization. Based on the empirical analyses, it is not possible to confirm the hypothesis that a Nordicization of the European Union's Africa policy has taken...... place. Rather, it appears adequate to talk about convergence of policies between the Nordics and the EU and therefore, the Africa policies of both actors are basically the result of Europeanization....

Community involvement works where enforcement fails: conservation success through community-based management of Amazon river turtle nests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Darren Norris

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Law enforcement is widely regarded as a cornerstone to effective natural resource management. Practical guidelines for the optimal use of enforcement measures are lacking particularly in areas protected under sustainable and/or mixed use management regimes and where legal institution are weak. Focusing on the yellow-spotted river turtles (Podocnemis unifilis along 33 km of river that runs between two sustainable–use reserves in the Brazilian Amazon as an illustrative example, we show that two years of patrols to enforce lawful protection regulations had no effect on nest harvesting. In contrast, during one year when community-based management approaches were enacted harvest levels dropped nearly threefold to a rate (26% that is likely sufficient for river turtle population recovery. Our findings support previous studies that show how community participation, if appropriately implemented, can facilitate effective natural resource management where law enforcement is limited or ineffective.

Modeling of Regionalized Emissions (MoRE into Water Bodies: An Open-Source River Basin Management System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephan Fuchs

2017-03-01

Full Text Available An accurate budget of substance emissions is fundamental for protecting freshwater resources. In this context, the European Union asks all member states to report an emission inventory of substances for river basins. The river basin management system MoRE (Modeling of Regionalized Emissions was developed as a flexible open-source instrument which is able to model pathway-specific emissions and river loads on a catchment scale. As the reporting tool for the Federal Republic of Germany, MoRE is used to model annual emissions of nutrients, heavy metals, micropollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH, Bis(2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP, and certain pharmaceuticals. Observed loads at gauging stations are used to validate the calculated emissions. In addition to its balancing capabilities, MoRE can consider different variants of input data and quantification approaches, in order to improve the robustness of different modeling approaches and to evaluate the quality of different input data. No programming skills are required to set up and run the model. Due to its flexible modeling base, the effect of reduction measures can be assessed. Within strategic planning processes, this is relevant for the allocation of investments or the implementation of specific measures to reduce the overall pollutant emissions into surface water bodies and therefore to meet the requirements of water policy.

Water quality assessment of the rivers in bauxite mining area at ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Water quality assessment of the rivers in bauxite mining area at Kuantan Pahang. ... mining area. Water samples were collected at Kuantan River, Riau River, Pinang River and Pandan Rivers. ... All these rivvers were classified into class II based on INWQS and required conventional treatment for water supply purposes.

River reach classification for the Greater Mekong Region at high spatial resolution

Science.gov (United States)

Ouellet Dallaire, C.; Lehner, B.

2014-12-01

River classifications have been used in river health and ecological assessments as coarse proxies to represent aquatic biodiversity when comprehensive biological and/or species data is unavailable. Currently there are no river classifications or biological data available in a consistent format for the extent of the Greater Mekong Region (GMR; including the Irrawaddy, the Salween, the Chao Praya, the Mekong and the Red River basins). The current project proposes a new river habitat classification for the region, facilitated by the HydroSHEDS (HYDROlogical SHuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales) database at 500m pixel resolution. The classification project is based on the Global River Classification framework relying on the creation of multiple sub-classifications based on different disciplines. The resulting classes from the sub-classification are later combined into final classes to create a holistic river reach classification. For the GMR, a final habitat classification was created based on three sub-classifications: a hydrological sub-classification based only on discharge indices (river size and flow variability); a physio-climatic sub-classification based on large scale indices of climate and elevation (biomes, ecoregions and elevation); and a geomorphological sub-classification based on local morphology (presence of floodplains, reach gradient and sand transport). Key variables and thresholds were identified in collaboration with local experts to ensure that regional knowledge was included. The final classification is composed 54 unique final classes based on 3 sub-classifications with less than 15 classes each. The resulting classifications are driven by abiotic variables and do not include biological data, but they represent a state-of-the art product based on best available data (mostly global data). The most common river habitat type is the "dry broadleaf, low gradient, very small river". These classifications could be applied in a wide range of

Floodplain methylmercury biomagnification factor higher than that of the contiguous river (South River, Virginia USA)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Newman, Michael C., E-mail: newman@vims.edu [College of William and Mary - VIMS, P.O. Box 1346, Rt. 1208 Greate Rd., Gloucester Point, VA 23062 (United States); Xu Xiaoyu, E-mail: xiaoyu@vims.edu [College of William and Mary - VIMS, P.O. Box 1346, Rt. 1208 Greate Rd., Gloucester Point, VA 23062 (United States); Condon, Anne, E-mail: anne_condon@fws.gov [U.S. Fish and Wildlife, 6669 Short Lane, Gloucester, VA 23061 (United States); Liang Lian, E-mail: liang@cebam.net [Cebam Analytical, Inc., 18804 North Creek Parkway, Suite 110, Bothell, WA 98011 (United States)

2011-10-15

Mercury biomagnification on the South River floodplain (Virginia, USA) was modeled at two locations along a river reach previously modeled for methylmercury movement through the aquatic trophic web. This provided an opportunity to compare biomagnification in adjoining trophic webs. Like the aquatic modeling results, methylmercury-based models provided better prediction than those for total mercury. Total mercury Food Web Magnification Factors (FWMF, fold per trophic level) for the two locations were 4.9 and 9.5. Methylmercury FWMF for the floodplain locations were higher (9.3 and 25.1) than that of the adjacent river (4.6). Previous speculation was not resolved regarding whether the high mercury concentrations observed in floodplain birds was materially influenced by river prey consumption by riparian spiders and subsequent spider movement into the trophic web of the adjacent floodplains. Results were consistent with a gradual methylmercury concentration increase from contaminated floodplain soil, to arthropod prey, and finally, to avian predators. - Highlights: > First comparison of methylmercury biomagnification in adjacent river/land food webs. > Methylmercury increased more rapidly in the terrestrial, than the aquatic, food web. > Methylmercury increased gradually from soil, to prey, and, to avian predators. - Higher methylmercury biomagnification on South River floodplain than the associated river likely explain high mercury in floodplain birds.

Mapping the temporary and perennial character of whole river networks

Science.gov (United States)

González-Ferreras, A. M.; Barquín, J.

2017-08-01

Knowledge of the spatial distribution of temporary and perennial river channels in a whole catchment is important for effective integrated basin management and river biodiversity conservation. However, this information is usually not available or is incomplete. In this study, we present a statistically based methodology to classify river segments from a whole river network (Deva-Cares catchment, Northern Spain) as temporary or perennial. This method is based on an a priori classification of a subset of river segments as temporary or perennial, using field surveys and aerial images, and then running Random Forest models to predict classification membership for the rest of the river network. The independent variables and the river network were derived following a computer-based geospatial simulation of riverine landscapes. The model results show high values of overall accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for the evaluation of the fitted model to the training and testing data set (≥0.9). The most important independent variables were catchment area, area occupied by broadleaf forest, minimum monthly precipitation in August, and average catchment elevation. The final map shows 7525 temporary river segments (1012.5 km) and 3731 perennial river segments (662.5 km). A subsequent validation of the mapping results using River Habitat Survey data and expert knowledge supported the validity of the proposed maps. We conclude that the proposed methodology is a valid method for mapping the limits of flow permanence that could substantially increase our understanding of the spatial links between terrestrial and aquatic interfaces, improving the research, management, and conservation of river biodiversity and functioning.

Alcohol attributable burden of incidence of cancer in eight European countries based on results from prospective cohort study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuetze, Madlen; Boeing, Heiner; Pischon, Tobias; Rehm, Juergen; Kehoe, Tara; Gmel, Gerrit; Olsen, Anja; Tjonneland, Anne M.; Dahm, Christina C.; Overvad, Kim; Clavel-Chapelon, Francoise; Boutron-Ruault, Marie-Christine; Trichopoulou, Antonia; Benetou, Vasiliki; Zylis, Dimosthenis; Kaaks, Rudolf; Rohrmann, Sabine; Palli, Domenico; Berrino, Franco; Tumino, Rosario; Vineis, Paolo; Rodriguez, Laudina; Agudo, Antonio; Sanchez, Maria-Jose; Dorronsoro, Miren; Chirlaque, Maria-Dolores; Barricarte, Aurelio; Peeters, Petra H.; van Gils, Carla H.; Khaw, Kay-Tee; Wareham, Nick; Allen, Naomi E.; Key, Timothy J.; Boffetta, Paolo; Slimani, Nadia; Jenab, Mazda; Romaguera, Dora; Wark, Petra A.; Riboli, Elio; Bergmann, Manuela M.

2011-01-01

Objective To compute the burden of cancer attributable to current and former alcohol consumption in eight European countries based on direct relative risk estimates from a cohort study. Design Combination of prospective cohort study with representative population based data on alcohol exposure.

Strategies for the implementation of a European Volcano Observations Research Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Puglisi, Giuseppe

2015-04-01

Active volcanic areas in Europe constitute a direct threat to millions of people on both the continent and adjacent islands. Furthermore, eruptions of "European" volcanoes in overseas territories, such as in the West Indies, an in the Indian and Pacific oceans, can have a much broader impacts, outside Europe. Volcano Observatories (VO), which undertake volcano monitoring under governmental mandate and Volcanological Research Institutions (VRI; such as university departments, laboratories, etc.) manage networks on European volcanoes consisting of thousands of stations or sites where volcanological parameters are either continuously or periodically measured. These sites are equipped with instruments for geophysical (seismic, geodetic, gravimetric, electromagnetic), geochemical (volcanic plumes, fumaroles, groundwater, rivers, soils), environmental observations (e.g. meteorological and air quality parameters), including prototype deployment. VOs and VRIs also operate laboratories for sample analysis (rocks, gases, isotopes, etc.), near-real time analysis of space-borne data (SAR, thermal imagery, SO2 and ash), as well as high-performance computing centres; all providing high-quality information on the current status of European volcanoes and the geodynamic background of the surrounding areas. This large and high-quality deployment of monitoring systems, focused on a specific geophysical target (volcanoes), together with the wide volcanological phenomena of European volcanoes (which cover all the known volcano types) represent a unique opportunity to fundamentally improve the knowledge base of volcano behaviour. The existing arrangement of national infrastructures (i.e. VO and VRI) appears to be too fragmented to be considered as a unique distributed infrastructure. Therefore, the main effort planned in the framework of the EPOS-PP proposal is focused on the creation of services aimed at providing an improved and more efficient access to the volcanological facilities

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ASSESSMENT IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

OpenAIRE

Serrao, Amilcar

2001-01-01

This research work examines levels and trends in global agricultural productivity in fifteen European Union countries and four Eastern European countries that have already applied for European Union membership. The study makes use of data collected from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and covers the period 1980-1998. An approach based on Data Envelopment Analysis is used to provide information on the peers of the (inefficient) i-th country and to derive the Malmqui...

European PV industry -- The future beckons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, D.J.

1994-01-01

The author believes that there are reasons to believe that the solar industry is poised on the brink of rapid commercial growth, leading to broadly-based industry viability. The author discusses the role that the European solar industry has to play in helping to bring about a better future. He begins his discussion with the current state of the European industry and follows with recommendations of what the European industry should be doing to encourage the solar industry growth

Comprehensive European dietary exposure model (CEDEM) for food additives.

Science.gov (United States)

Tennant, David R

2016-05-01

European methods for assessing dietary exposures to nutrients, additives and other substances in food are limited by the availability of detailed food consumption data for all member states. A proposed comprehensive European dietary exposure model (CEDEM) applies summary data published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in a deterministic model based on an algorithm from the EFSA intake method for food additives. The proposed approach can predict estimates of food additive exposure provided in previous EFSA scientific opinions that were based on the full European food consumption database.

Simulating Water Resource Disputes of Transboundary River: A Case Study of the Zhanghe River Basin, China

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Liang; He, Weijun; Liao, Zaiyi; Mulugeta Degefu, Dagmawi; An, Min; Zhang, Zhaofang

2018-01-01

Water resource disputes within transboundary river basin has been hindering the sustainable use of water resources and efficient management of environment. The problem is characterized by a complex information feedback loop that involves socio-economic and environmental systems. This paper presents a system dynamics based model that can simulate the dynamics of water demand, water supply, water adequacy and water allocation instability within a river basin. It was used for a case study in the Zhanghe River basin of China. The base scenario has been investigated for the time period between 2000 and 2050. The result shows that the Chinese national government should change the water allocation scheme of downstream Zhanghe River established in 1989, more water need to be allocated to the downstream cities and the actual allocation should be adjusted to reflect the need associated with the socio-economic and environmental changes within the region, and system dynamics improves the understanding of concepts and system interactions by offering a comprehensive and integrated view of the physical, social, economic, environmental, and political systems.

Suitability Evaluation of River Bank Filtration along the Second Songhua River, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lixue Wang

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The Second Songhua River is the biggest river system in Jilin Province, China. In recent years, the rapid economic development in this area has increased the prominence of water resources and water-related environmental problems; these include surface water pollution and the overexploitation of groundwater resources. Bank infiltration on the floodplains of the Second Songhua River is an important process of groundwater-surface water exchange under exploitation conditions. Understanding this process can help in the development of water resource management plans and strategies for the region. In this research, a multi-criteria evaluation index system was developed with which to evaluate the suitability of bank filtration along the Second Songhua River. The system was comprised of main suitability indexes for water quantity, water quality, the interaction intensity between surface water and groundwater, and the exploitation condition of groundwater resources. The index system was integrated into GIS (Geographic Information System to complete the evaluation of the various indicators. According to the weighted sum of each index, the suitability of river bank filtration (RBF in the study area was divided into five grades. Although the evaluation index system and evaluation method are applicable only to the Second Songhua River basin, the underlying principle and techniques it embodies can be applied elsewhere. For future generalization of the evaluation index system, the specific evaluation index and its scoring criteria should be modified appropriately based on local conditions.

The European XFEL project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Floettmann, K.

2005-01-01

The European XFEL project is a 4th generation synchrotron radiation facility based on the SASE FEL concept and the superconducting TESLA technology for a linear accelerator. In February 2003 the German government decided that the XFEL should be realized as a European project and be located at DESY in Hamburg. The paper will give an overview of the overall layout and parameters of the facility, with emphasis on the accelerator design, technology and physics. (author)

Comprehensive model-based prediction of micropollutants from diffuse sources in the Swiss river network

Science.gov (United States)

Strahm, Ivo; Munz, Nicole; Braun, Christian; Gälli, René; Leu, Christian; Stamm, Christian

2014-05-01

Water quality in the Swiss river network is affected by many micropollutants from a variety of diffuse sources. This study compares, for the first time, in a comprehensive manner the diffuse sources and the substance groups that contribute the most to water contamination in Swiss streams and highlights the major regions for water pollution. For this a simple but comprehensive model was developed to estimate emission from diffuse sources for the entire Swiss river network of 65 000 km. Based on emission factors the model calculates catchment specific losses to streams for more than 15 diffuse sources (such as crop lands, grassland, vineyards, fruit orchards, roads, railways, facades, roofs, green space in urban areas, landfills, etc.) and more than 130 different substances from 5 different substance groups (pesticides, biocides, heavy metals, human drugs, animal drugs). For more than 180 000 stream sections estimates of mean annual pollutant loads and mean annual concentration levels were modeled. This data was validated with a set of monitoring data and evaluated based on annual average environmental quality standards (AA-EQS). Model validation showed that the estimated mean annual concentration levels are within the range of measured data. Therefore simulations were considered as adequately robust for identifying the major sources of diffuse pollution. The analysis depicted that in Switzerland widespread pollution of streams can be expected. Along more than 18 000 km of the river network one or more simulated substances has a concentration exceeding the AA-EQS. In single stream sections it could be more than 50 different substances. Moreover, the simulations showed that in two-thirds of small streams (Strahler order 1 and 2) at least one AA-EQS is always exceeded. The highest number of substances exceeding the AA-EQS are in areas with large fractions of arable cropping, vineyards and fruit orchards. Urban areas are also of concern even without considering

United European Gastroenterology evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis and therapy of chronic pancreatitis (HaPanEU).

Science.gov (United States)

Löhr, J Matthias; Dominguez-Munoz, Enrique; Rosendahl, Jonas; Besselink, Marc; Mayerle, Julia; Lerch, Markus M; Haas, Stephan; Akisik, Fatih; Kartalis, Nikolaos; Iglesias-Garcia, Julio; Keller, Jutta; Boermeester, Marja; Werner, Jens; Dumonceau, Jean-Marc; Fockens, Paul; Drewes, Asbjorn; Ceyhan, Gürlap; Lindkvist, Björn; Drenth, Joost; Ewald, Nils; Hardt, Philip; de Madaria, Enrique; Witt, Heiko; Schneider, Alexander; Manfredi, Riccardo; Brøndum, Frøkjer J; Rudolf, Sasa; Bollen, Thomas; Bruno, Marco

2017-03-01

There have been substantial improvements in the management of chronic pancreatitis, leading to the publication of several national guidelines during recent years. In collaboration with United European Gastroenterology, the working group on 'Harmonizing diagnosis and treatment of chronic pancreatitis across Europe' (HaPanEU) developed these European guidelines using an evidence-based approach. Twelve multidisciplinary review groups performed systematic literature reviews to answer 101 predefined clinical questions. Recommendations were graded using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system and the answers were assessed by the entire group in a Delphi process online. The review groups presented their recommendations during the 2015 annual meeting of United European Gastroenterology. At this one-day, interactive conference, relevant remarks were voiced and overall agreement on each recommendation was quantified using plenary voting (Test and Evaluation Directorate). After a final round of adjustments based on these comments, a draft version was sent out to external reviewers. The 101 recommendations covered 12 topics related to the clinical management of chronic pancreatitis: aetiology (working party (WP)1), diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis with imaging (WP2 and WP3), diagnosis of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (WP4), surgery in chronic pancreatitis (WP5), medical therapy (WP6), endoscopic therapy (WP7), treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts (WP8), pancreatic pain (WP9), nutrition and malnutrition (WP10), diabetes mellitus (WP11) and the natural course of the disease and quality of life (WP12). Using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system, 70 of the 101 (70%) recommendations were rated as 'strong' and plenary voting revealed 'strong agreement' for 99 (98%) recommendations. The 2016 HaPanEU/United European Gastroenterology guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations concerning key aspects

Screening Mississippi River Levees Using Texture-Based and Polarimetric-Based Features from Synthetic Aperture Radar Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lalitha Dabbiru

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This article reviews the use of synthetic aperture radar remote sensing data for earthen levee mapping with an emphasis on finding the slump slides on the levees. Earthen levees built on the natural levees parallel to the river channel are designed to protect large areas of populated and cultivated land in the Unites States from flooding. One of the signs of potential impending levee failure is the appearance of slump slides. On-site inspection of levees is expensive and time-consuming; therefore, a need to develop efficient techniques based on remote sensing technologies is mandatory to prevent failures under flood loading. Analysis of multi-polarized radar data is one of the viable tools for detecting the problem areas on the levees. In this study, we develop methods to detect anomalies on the levee, such as slump slides and give levee managers new tools to prioritize their tasks. This paper presents results of applying the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR quad-polarized L-band data to detect slump slides on earthen levees. The study area encompasses a portion of levees of the lower Mississippi River in the United States. In this paper, we investigate the performance of polarimetric and texture features for efficient levee classification. Texture features derived from the gray level co-occurrence (GLCM matrix and discrete wavelet transform were computed and analyzed for efficient levee classification. The pixel-based polarimetric decomposition features, such as entropy, anisotropy, and scattering angle were also computed and applied to the support vector machine classifier to characterize the radar imagery and compared the results with texture-based classification. Our experimental results showed that inclusion of textural features derived from the SAR data using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT features and GLCM features provided

A High-resolution Reanalysis for the European CORDEX Region

Science.gov (United States)

Bentzien, Sabrina; Bollmeyer, Christoph; Crewell, Susanne; Friederichs, Petra; Hense, Andreas; Keller, Jan; Keune, Jessica; Kneifel, Stefan; Ohlwein, Christian; Pscheidt, Ieda; Redl, Stephanie; Steinke, Sandra

2014-05-01

A High-resolution Reanalysis for the European CORDEX Region Within the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research (HErZ), the climate monitoring branch concentrates efforts on the assessment and analysis of regional climate in Germany and Europe. In joint cooperation with DWD (German Meteorological Service), a high-resolution reanalysis system based on the COSMO model has been developed. Reanalyses gain more and more importance as a source of meteorological information for many purposes and applications. Several global reanalyses projects (e.g., ERA, MERRA, CSFR, JMA9) produce and verify these data sets to provide time series as long as possible combined with a high data quality. Due to a spatial resolution down to 50-70km and 3-hourly temporal output, they are not suitable for small scale problems (e.g., regional climate assessment, meso-scale NWP verification, input for subsequent models such as river runoff simulations). The implementation of regional reanalyses based on a limited area model along with a data assimilation scheme is able to generate reanalysis data sets with high spatio-temporal resolution. The work presented here focuses on the regional reanalysis for Europe with a domain matching the CORDEX-EURO-11 specifications, albeit at a higher spatial resolution, i.e., 0.055° (6km) instead of 0.11° (12km). The COSMO reanalysis system comprises the assimilation of observational data using the existing nudging scheme of COSMO and is complemented by a special soil moisture analysis and boundary conditions given by ERA-interim data. The reanalysis data set currently covers 6 years (2007-2012). The evaluation of the reanalyses is done using independent observations with special emphasis on precipitation and high-impact weather situations. The development and evaluation of the COSMO-based reanalysis for the CORDEX-Euro domain can be seen as a preparation for joint European activities on the development of an ensemble system of regional reanalyses for Europe.

River and river-related drainage area parameters for site investigation program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blomqvist, P.; Brunberg, A.K. [Uppsala Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Limnology; Brydsten, L. [Umeaa Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Ecology and Environmental Science

2001-05-01

In this paper, a number of parameters of importance to a determination of the function of running waters as transport channels for material from the continents to the sea are presented. We have assumed that retention mechanisms of material in the river and in the riparian zone will be covered by special investigations but tried to create a platform for such investigations by quantification of the extension of different main habitats. The choice of parameters has been made so that also the nature conservation value of the river can be preliminary established, and includes a general description of the river type and the inherent ecosystem. The material links directly to that presented in a previous report concerning site investigation programmes for lakes. The parameters have been divided into five groups: 1) The location of the object relative important gradients in the surrounding nature; 2) The river catchment area and its major constituents; 3) The river morphometry; 4) The river ecosystem; 5) Human-induced damages to the river ecosystem. The first two groups, principally based on the climate, hydrology, geology and vegetation of the catchment area, represent parameters that can be used to establish the rarity and representativity of the system, and will in the context of site investigation program be used as a basis for generalisation of the results. The third group, the river morphometry parameters, are standard parameters for the outline of sampling programmes and for calculations of the physical extension of key habitats in the system. The fourth group, the ecosystem of the river, includes physical, chemical and biological parameters required for determination of the influence from the terrestrial ecosystem of the catchment area, nutrient status, distribution of different habitats, and presence of fish in the system. In the context of site investigation program, the parameters in these two groups will be used for budget calculations of the flow of energy and

River and river-related drainage area parameters for site investigation program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blomqvist, P.; Brunberg, A.K.; Brydsten, L.

2001-05-01

In this paper, a number of parameters of importance to a determination of the function of running waters as transport channels for material from the continents to the sea are presented. We have assumed that retention mechanisms of material in the river and in the riparian zone will be covered by special investigations but tried to create a platform for such investigations by quantification of the extension of different main habitats. The choice of parameters has been made so that also the nature conservation value of the river can be preliminary established, and includes a general description of the river type and the inherent ecosystem. The material links directly to that presented in a previous report concerning site investigation programmes for lakes. The parameters have been divided into five groups: 1) The location of the object relative important gradients in the surrounding nature; 2) The river catchment area and its major constituents; 3) The river morphometry; 4) The river ecosystem; 5) Human-induced damages to the river ecosystem. The first two groups, principally based on the climate, hydrology, geology and vegetation of the catchment area, represent parameters that can be used to establish the rarity and representativity of the system, and will in the context of site investigation program be used as a basis for generalisation of the results. The third group, the river morphometry parameters, are standard parameters for the outline of sampling programmes and for calculations of the physical extension of key habitats in the system. The fourth group, the ecosystem of the river, includes physical, chemical and biological parameters required for determination of the influence from the terrestrial ecosystem of the catchment area, nutrient status, distribution of different habitats, and presence of fish in the system. In the context of site investigation program, the parameters in these two groups will be used for budget calculations of the flow of energy and

A field reciprocal transplant experiment reveals asymmetric costs of migration between lake and river ecotypes of three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Science.gov (United States)

Kaufmann, J; Lenz, T L; Kalbe, M; Milinski, M; Eizaguirre, C

2017-05-01

Theory of local adaptation predicts that nonadapted migrants will suffer increased costs compared to local residents. Ultimately this process can result in the reduction of gene flow and culminate in speciation. Here, we experimentally investigated the relative fitness of migrants in foreign habitats, focusing on diverging lake and river ecotypes of three-spined sticklebacks. A reciprocal transplant experiment performed in the field revealed asymmetric costs of migration: whereas mortality of river fish was increased under lake conditions, lake migrants suffered from reduced growth relative to river residents. Selection against migrants thus involved different traits in each habitat but generally contributed to bidirectional reduction in gene flow. Focusing particularly on the parasitic environments, migrant fish differed from resident fish in the parasite community they harboured. This pattern correlated with both cellular phenotypes of innate immunity as well as with allelic variation at the genes of the major histocompatibility complex. In addition to showing the costs of migration in three-spined sticklebacks, this study highlights the role of asymmetric selection particularly from parasitism in genotype sorting and in the emergence of local adaptation. © 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Towards improved instrumentation for assessing river-groundwater interactions in a restored river corridor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Schneider

2011-08-01

Full Text Available River restoration projects have been launched over the last two decades to improve the ecological status and water quality of regulated rivers. As most restored rivers are not monitored at all, it is difficult to predict consequences of restoration projects or analyze why restorations fail or are successful. It is thus necessary to implement efficient field assessment strategies, for example by employing sensor networks that continuously measure physical parameters at high spatial and temporal resolution. This paper focuses on the design and implementation of an instrumentation strategy for monitoring changes in bank filtration, hydrological connectivity, groundwater travel time and quality due to river restoration. We specifically designed and instrumented a network of monitoring wells at the Thur River (NE Switzerland, which is partly restored and has been mainly channelized for more than 100 years. Our results show that bank filtration – especially in a restored section with alternating riverbed morphology – is variable in time and space. Consequently, our monitoring network has been adapted in response to that variability. Although not available at our test site, we consider long-term measurements – ideally initiated before and continued after restoration – as a fundamental step towards predicting consequences of river restoration for groundwater quality. As a result, process-based models could be adapted and evaluated using these types of high-resolution data sets.

Rate estimates for lateral bedrock erosion based on radiocarbon ages, Duck River, Tennessee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brakenridge, G.R.

1985-01-01

Rates of bedrock erosion in ingrown meandering rivers can be inferred from the location of buried relict flood-plain and river-bank surfaces, associated paleosols, and radiocarbon dates. Two independent methods are used to evaluate the long-term rates of limestone bedrock erosion by the Duck River. Radiocarbon dates on samples retrieved from buried Holocene flood-plain and bank surfaces indicate lateral migration of the river bank at average rates of 0.6-1.9 m/100 yr. Such rates agree with lateral bedrock cliff erosion rates of 0.5-1.4 m/100 yr, as determined from a comparison of late Pleistocene and modern bedrock cliff and terrace scarp positions. These results show that lateral bedrock erosion by this river could have occurred coevally with flood-plain and terrace formation and that the resulting evolution of valley meander bends carved into bedrock is similar in many respects to that of channel meanders cut into alluvium. 11 references, 5 figures

Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network-Based Message Forwarding for a River Pollution Monitoring Wireless Sensor Network Application

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Carlos Velásquez-Villada

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Communications from remote areas that may be of interest is still a problem. Many innovative projects applied to remote sites face communications difficulties. The GOLDFISH project was an EU-funded project for river pollution monitoring in developing countries. It had several sensor clusters, with floating WiFi antennas, deployed along a downstream river’s course. Sensor clusters sent messages to a Gateway installed on the riverbank. This gateway sent the messages, through a backhaul technology, to an Internet server where data was aggregated over a map. The communication challenge in this scenario was produced by the antennas’ movement and network backhaul availability. Since the antennas were floating on the river, communications could be disrupted at any time. Also, 2G/3G availability near the river was not constant. For non-real-time applications, we propose a Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN-based solution where all nodes have persistent storage capabilities and DTN protocols to be able to wait minutes or hours to transmit. A mechanical backhaul will periodically visit the river bank where the gateway is installed and it will automatically collect sensor data to be carried to an Internet-covered spot. The proposed forwarding protocol delivers around 98% of the messages for this scenario, performing better than other well-known DTN routing protocols.

Characterizing temporary hydrological regimes at a European scale

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kirkby, M.J.; Gallart, F.; Kjeldsen, T.R.; Irvine, B.J.; Froebrich, J.; Porto, Lo A.

2011-01-01

Monthly duration curves have been constructed from climate data across Europe to help address the relative frequency of ecologically critical low flow stages in temporary rivers, when flow persists only in disconnected pools in the river bed. The hydrological model is 5 based on a partitioning of

Purus River suspended sediment variability and contributions to the Amazon River from satellite data (2000-2015)

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Andre Luis Martinelli Real dos; Martinez, Jean Michel; Filizola, Naziano Pantoja; Armijos, Elisa; Alves, Luna Gripp Simões

2018-01-01

The Purus River is one of the major tributaries of Solimões River in Brazil, draining an area of 370,091 km2 and stretching over 2765 km. Unlike those of the other main tributaries of the Amazon River, the Purus River's sediment discharge is poorly characterized. In this study, as an alternative to the logistic difficulties and considering high monitoring costs, we report an experiment where field measurement data and 2700 satellite (MODIS) images are combined to retrieve both seasonal and interannual dynamics in terms of the Purus river sediment discharge near its confluence with the Solimões River. Field radiometric and hydrologic measurements were acquired during 18 sampling trips, including 115 surface water samples and 61 river discharge measurements. Remote sensing reflectance gave important results in the red and infrared levels. They were very well correlated with suspended sediment concentration. The values of R2 are greater than 0.8 (red band) and 0.9 (NIR band). A retrieval algorithm based on the reflectance in both the red and the infrared was calibrated using the water samples collected for the determination of the surface-suspended sediment concentration (SSS). The algorithm was used to calculate 16 years of SSS time series with MODIS images at the Purus River near its confluence with the Solimões River. Results from satellite data correlated with in situ SSS values validate the use of satellite data to be used as a tool to monitor SSS in the Purus River. We evidenced a very short and intense sediment discharge pulse with 55% of the annual sediment budget discharged during the months of January and February. Using river discharge records, we calculated the mean annual sediment discharge of the Purus River at about of 17 Mt·yr-1.

The impact of bioturbation by small mammals on heavy metal redistribution in an embanked floodplain of the River Rhine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijnhoven, S.; Thonon, I.; Velde, G.D.; Leuven, R.; Zorn, M.; Eijsackers, H.J.P.; Smits, T.

2006-01-01

Floodplains along large European rivers are diffusely polluted with heavy metals due to emissions in the past. Because of low mobility of heavy metals in floodplain soils and improvements of water quality, these pollutants will remain in place, and can gradually become covered with less contaminated

The European Utility Requirement Document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roche, I.I.

1999-01-01

The major European electricity producers work on a common requirement document for future LWR plants since 1992. They aim at requirements acceptable together by the owners, the public and the authorities. Thus the designers can develop standard LWR designs acceptable everywhere in Europe and the utilities can open their consultations to vendors on common bases. Such a standardisation promotes an improvement of generation costs and of safety : public and authorities acceptance should be improved as well ; significant savings are expected in development and construction costs. Since the early stages of the project, the EUR group has grown significantly. It now includes utilities from nine European countries. Utilities from two other European countries are joining the group. Specific cooperation agreements are also in progress with a few extra-European partners

TRENDS IN AUTHORITARIANISM: EVIDENCE FROM 31 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabrina de Regt

2011-01-01

Full Text Available To date, few studies have been conducted on trendsin authoritarian attitudes,despite the importance of this research in our understanding of undemocraticmovements in society. Studies that have surveyed trends in authoritarianism arealready rather outdated, often based on student samples and conducted in only alimited number of countries. Furthermore, until now, no study had tested whetherthe meaning of authoritarianism is invariant acrosstime. Using theEuropeanValues Study,we examined trends in authoritarianism in 31 European countriesover the last decade (1999-2008, based on representative samples. It was foundthat in many Western European countries, with the exception of the Netherlands,authoritarianism declined significantly over the last decade. However, in some,mostly Eastern European countries, levels of authoritarianism actually increasedsignificantly during the last decade. Changing levels of authoritarianism werelinked to extreme-right and anti-democratic sentiment in European societies.

An economic analysis of the European commission’s proposal for a European account

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolas Kyriakides

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper performs an economic analysis of the European Commission’s proposal for a European-wide preservation order. Bentham’s utilitarianism theory suggests that legislators must take into mind the pleasures and pains associated with any legislation and to form laws in order to create the greatest good for the greatest number. These ideas are reflected in the modern economic theories of welfare economics. But are these principles sufficient to create effective legal rules and achieve justice? Section 2 of this work analyzes the difficulties in obtaining a provisional measure to preserve another party’s assets in another Member State of the European Union (“EU”. Section 3 sets out the Commission’s proposal for a European Account Preservation Order (“EAPO”. Section 4 applies welfare economics principles in order to identify the effect of legal rules related to this proposal, while it proposes an alternative approach to these principles. Lastly, section 4 makes suggestions on the proposal based on this alternative approach.

Gene-Based Genome-Wide Association Analysis in European and Asian Populations Identified Novel Genes for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Zhu

Full Text Available Rheumatoid arthritis (RA is a complex autoimmune disease. Using a gene-based association research strategy, the present study aims to detect unknown susceptibility to RA and to address the ethnic differences in genetic susceptibility to RA between European and Asian populations.Gene-based association analyses were performed with KGG 2.5 by using publicly available large RA datasets (14,361 RA cases and 43,923 controls of European subjects, 4,873 RA cases and 17,642 controls of Asian Subjects. For the newly identified RA-associated genes, gene set enrichment analyses and protein-protein interactions analyses were carried out with DAVID and STRING version 10.0, respectively. Differential expression verification was conducted using 4 GEO datasets. The expression levels of three selected 'highly verified' genes were measured by ELISA among our in-house RA cases and controls.A total of 221 RA-associated genes were newly identified by gene-based association study, including 71'overlapped', 76 'European-specific' and 74 'Asian-specific' genes. Among them, 105 genes had significant differential expressions between RA patients and health controls at least in one dataset, especially for 20 genes including 11 'overlapped' (ABCF1, FLOT1, HLA-F, IER3, TUBB, ZKSCAN4, BTN3A3, HSP90AB1, CUTA, BRD2, HLA-DMA, 5 'European-specific' (PHTF1, RPS18, BAK1, TNFRSF14, SUOX and 4 'Asian-specific' (RNASET2, HFE, BTN2A2, MAPK13 genes whose differential expressions were significant at least in three datasets. The protein expressions of two selected genes FLOT1 (P value = 1.70E-02 and HLA-DMA (P value = 4.70E-02 in plasma were significantly different in our in-house samples.Our study identified 221 novel RA-associated genes and especially highlighted the importance of 20 candidate genes on RA. The results addressed ethnic genetic background differences for RA susceptibility between European and Asian populations and detected a long list of overlapped or ethnic specific RA

Mitterrand and the Great European Design—From the Cold War to the European Union

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Troitiño David Ramiro

2017-10-01

Full Text Available François Mitterrand had a leading role in directing the course for the European integration process. While he orchestrated the economic integration of Europe, he remained deeply opposed to further political integration within the Communities. This article researches Mitterrand’s rationale for his clear focus on economic affairs and develops his vision for the institutional setting of the European Union (EU. The focus of the article is allocated to four different perspectives that reflect the four pillars of Mitterrand’s European policy: the common currency, the establishment of a closely integrated and small Western European based EU, the development of the Social Europe and of a free trade area between Europe and Africa. It is argued that although EU institutions have been established based on Mitterrand’s design, today’s reality deviates from the conditions on which his plan was based. For Mitterrand, the ideal EU involved a deep-rooted Western Europe with France at its core and a loose association with Central and Eastern Europe. His perception resembles the current discussions of multi-speed Europe and the determination of France and Germany to proceed to the next stage of the integration process. Importantly, Mitterrand’s print can still be recognised in the EU’s social policy included in the treaties, yet still far from being implemented. Notably, like all of the French Presidents, Mitterrand developed a design for Africa in which an extensive free trade area between Europe and former French colonies were to be established. In this proposal, Germany was to be assigned the part of the economic engine behind the actualisation of the proposal, while France was to carry out the role of a required middle man of the transactions. To further assure France’s political predominance over the Communities, Mitterrand designed a common currency for a small number of homogenous Western-European states.

The power outage of November 4, 2006: a plea for a genuine European energy policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merlin, Andre

2006-01-01

As a power outage affected several millions European people in November 2006, this article identifies and discusses actions to be implemented at the European level to avoid such a situation and thus strengthen energy security for all European citizen. It proposes a detailed analysis of the situation of electricity transport grids before the incident, of what happened in terms of overloads for some very high voltage lines: the de-energizing of a line over the Ems River resulted in a domino triggering off of very high voltage lines connected to different areas of Europe; a decrease of current frequency resulted in the disconnection of power plants and grid managers had to reduce consumption in emergency. The article draws some early lessons of the incident before the UCTE (Power Transport Coordination Union) inquiry, and recommends some actions regarding grid coordination, harmonisation of abilities and decisions, and performance of provisional assessments of the electricity supply/demand balance

Integrated waste load allocation for river water pollution control under uncertainty: a case study of Tuojiang River, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jiuping; Hou, Shuhua; Yao, Liming; Li, Chaozhi

2017-07-01

This paper presents a bi-level optimization waste load allocation programming model under a fuzzy random environment to assist integrated river pollution control. Taking account of the leader-follower decision-making in the water function zones framework, the proposed approach examines the decision making feedback relationships and conflict coordination between the river basin authority and the regional Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based on the Stackelberg-Nash equilibrium strategy. In the pollution control system, the river basin authority, as the leader, allocates equitable emissions rights to different subareas, and the then subarea EPA, as the followers, reallocates the limited resources to various functional zones to minimize pollution costs. This research also considers the uncertainty in the water pollution management, and the uncertain input information is expressed as fuzzy random variables. The proposed methodological approach is then applied to Tuojiang River in China and the bi-level linear programming model solutions are achieved using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition. Based on the waste load allocation scheme results and various scenario analyses and discussion, some operational policies are proposed to assist decision makers (DMs) cope with waste load allocation problem for integrated river pollution control for the overall benefits.

Knickpoint retreat and transient bedrock channel morphology triggered by base-level fall in small bedrock river catchments: The case of the Isle of Jura, Scotland

Science.gov (United States)

Castillo, Miguel; Bishop, Paul; Jansen, John D.

2013-01-01

A sudden drop in river base-level can trigger a knickpoint that propagates throughout the fluvial network causing a transient state in the landscape. Knickpoint retreat has been confirmed in large fluvial settings (drainage areas > 100 km2) and field data suggest that the same applies to the case of small bedrock river catchments (drainage areas UK), where rivers incise into dipping quartzite. The mapping of raised beach deposits and strath terraces, and the analysis of stream long profiles, were used to identify knickpoints that had been triggered by base-level fall. Our results indicate that the distance of knickpoint retreat scales to the drainage area in a power law function irrespective of structural setting. On the other hand, local channel slope and basin size influence the vertical distribution of knickpoints. As well, at low drainage areas (~ 4 km2) rivers are unable to absorb the full amount of base-level fall and channel reach morphology downstream of the knickpoint tends towards convexity. The results obtained here confirm that knickpoint retreat is mostly controlled by stream discharge, as has been observed for other transient landscapes. Local controls, reflecting basin size and channel slope, have an effect on the vertical distribution of knickpoints; such controls are also related to the ability of rivers to absorb the base-level fall.

Bioavailability and export of dissolved organic matter from a tropical river during base- and stormflow conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Tracy N. Wiegner; Randee L. Tubal; Richard A. MacKenzie

2009-01-01

Concentrations, bioavailability, and export of dissolved organic matter (DOM), particulate organic matter (POM), and nutrients from the Wailuku River, Hawai'i, U.S.A., were examined under base- and stormflow conditions. During storms, DOM and POM concentrations increased approximately by factors of 2 and 11, respectively, whereas NO3...

Geomorphic and vegetation changes in a meandering dryland river regulated by a large dam, Sauce Grande River, Argentina

Science.gov (United States)

Casado, Ana; Peiry, Jean-Luc; Campo, Alicia M.

2016-09-01

This paper investigates post-dam geomorphic and vegetation changes in the Sauce Grande River, a meandering dryland river impounded by a large water-conservation dam. As the dam impounds a river section with scarce influence of tributaries, sources for fresh water and sediment downstream are limited. Changes were inspected based on (i) analysis of historical photographs/imagery spanning pre- (1961) and post-dam (1981, 2004) channel conditions for two river segments located above and below the dam, and (ii) field survey of present channel conditions for a set of eight reference reaches along the river segments. Whilst the unregulated river exhibited active lateral migration with consequent adjustments of the channel shape and size, the river section below the dam was characterized by (i) marked planform stability (93 to 97%), and by (ii) vegetation encroachment leading to alternating yet localized contraction of the channel width (up to 30%). The present river displays a moribund, stable channel where (i) redistribution of sediment along the river course no longer occurs and (ii) channel forms constitute a remnant of a fluvial environment created before closing the dam, under conditions of higher energy. In addition to providing new information on the complex geomorphic response of dryland rivers to impoundment, this paper represents the very first geomorphic assessment of the regulated Sauce Grande and therefore provides an important platform to underpin further research assessing the geomorphic state of this highly regulated dryland river.

Sediment Size Distribution at Three Rivers with Different Types of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ADOWIE PERE

sediment size distribution based on land use is very crucial in river maintenance. ... a basis for river catchment management study and can be used by river management .... small. In this case, the difference between upstream and downstream ...

The european flood alert system EFAS – Part 2: Statistical skill assessment of probabilistic and deterministic operational forecasts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. C. Bartholmes

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Since 2005 the European Flood Alert System (EFAS has been producing probabilistic hydrological forecasts in pre-operational mode at the Joint Research Centre (JRC of the European Commission. EFAS aims at increasing preparedness for floods in trans-national European river basins by providing medium-range deterministic and probabilistic flood forecasting information, from 3 to 10 days in advance, to national hydro-meteorological services.

This paper is Part 2 of a study presenting the development and skill assessment of EFAS. In Part 1, the scientific approach adopted in the development of the system has been presented, as well as its basic principles and forecast products. In the present article, two years of existing operational EFAS forecasts are statistically assessed and the skill of EFAS forecasts is analysed with several skill scores. The analysis is based on the comparison of threshold exceedances between proxy-observed and forecasted discharges. Skill is assessed both with and without taking into account the persistence of the forecasted signal during consecutive forecasts.

Skill assessment approaches are mostly adopted from meteorology and the analysis also compares probabilistic and deterministic aspects of EFAS. Furthermore, the utility of different skill scores is discussed and their strengths and shortcomings illustrated. The analysis shows the benefit of incorporating past forecasts in the probability analysis, for medium-range forecasts, which effectively increases the skill of the forecasts.

Using Pressure and Alteration Indicators to Assess River Morphological Quality: Case Study of the Prahova River (Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Ioana-Toroimac

2015-06-01

Full Text Available River morphological quality assessment, derived from quantification of human pressures as well as river channel alteration, is a demand of the Water Framework Directive (WFD in terms of integrating hydromorphological elements in defining ecological status. Our study’s aim is to contribute to the hydromorphological evaluation by proposing indicators and separating classes, based on a revisited Morphological Quality Index (rMQI protocol. The rMQI is based on 12 indicators of human pressures, 10 indicators of channel form adjustments, and 11 indicators of functionality. The rMQI scoring system allows for the quantification of changes when compared to reference conditions, be they undisturbed or nearly undisturbed by human interventions, with absent channel adjustments and a functioning natural river style. We used the lower, meandering sector of the Prahova River to demonstrate our assessment methodology. The Lower Prahova River suffers from a minor local intervention and a diminishing intensity of fluvial processes specific to a meandering style. Meanders geometry was affected by significant changes that included a decrease in the radius of curvature, width and width–to–mean–depth ratio. We concluded that the Lower Prahova River has a good morphological quality, which is rated as second class on a scale of five levels, from natural to severely modified. We recommend an improvement in the hydromorphological evaluation protocol in Romania by additional indicators for morphological alterations specific to each channel pattern.

Risk-based modelling of surface water quality: a case study of the Charles River, Massachusetts

Science.gov (United States)

McIntyre, Neil R.; Wagener, Thorsten; Wheater, Howard S.; Chapra, Steven C.

2003-04-01

A model of phytoplankton, dissolved oxygen and nutrients is presented and applied to the Charles River, Massachusetts within a framework of Monte Carlo simulation. The model parameters are conditioned using data from eight sampling stations along a 40 km stretch of the Charles River, during a (supposed) steady-state period in the summer of 1996, and the conditioned model is evaluated using data from later in the same year. Regional multi-objective sensitivity analysis is used to identify the parameters and pollution sources most affecting the various model outputs under the conditions observed during that summer. The effects of Monte Carlo sampling error are included in this analysis, and the observations which have least contributed to model conditioning are indicated. It is shown that the sensitivity analysis can be used to speculate about the factors responsible for undesirable levels of eutrophication, and to speculate about the risk of failure of nutrient reduction interventions at a number of strategic control sections. The analysis indicates that phosphorus stripping at the CRPCD wastewater treatment plant on the Charles River would be a high-risk intervention, especially for controlling eutrophication at the control sections further downstream. However, as the risk reflects the perceived scope for model error, it can only be recommended that more resources are invested in data collection and model evaluation. Furthermore, as the risk is based solely on water quality criteria, rather than broader environmental and economic objectives, the results need to be supported by detailed and extensive knowledge of the Charles River problem.

Floodplain Condition and Water Framework Directive River Classification in England: Evidence of a Disconnect.

Science.gov (United States)

Bentley, S.

2017-12-01

The European Union Water Framework Directive came into force in October 2000 committing European Union member states to achieve Good Ecological Status for all water bodies. By 2015 29% of rivers across England had achieved this level suggesting that these watercourse units are now functioning well. This study utilises recently published land cover data for England clipped to the floodplain boundary as defined by the 100 year return period discharge to examine the state of valley bottom vegetation and function for these Good Status rivers. Agricultural use of floodplain areas is high with cereal and horticulture covering an average of 24% and pasture accounting for some 37% of the area. Maximum values increase to 77% and 92% respectively. In all cases wetland accounts for less than 2% of the floodplain and rough grassland averages 7%. Such significant and widespread alteration to floodplain vegetation character suggests that the ecological functioning of this component of the fluvial system has been severely negatively impacted calling into question the Water Framework Directive status level. This is a fault of the Water Framework Directive process which only explicitly evaluates the hydromorphological component of the fluvial system for high status rivers preferring to infer functioning from biological indicators that are focused on in-channel assessments. The fundamental omission of floodplain condition in the Water Framework Directive process will result in only partial achievement of the original goals of the Directive with the majority of Europe's floodplains remaining in a highly degraded, non-functional state.

[Health assessment of river ecosystem in Haihe River Basin, China].

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Li-Xia; Sun, Ran-Hao; Chen, Li-Ding

2014-10-01

With the development of economy, the health of river ecosystem is severely threatened because of the increasing effects of human activities on river ecosystem. In this paper, the authors assessed the river ecosystem health in aspects of chemical integrity and biological integrity, using the criterion in water quality, nutrient, and benthic macroinvertebrates of 73 samples in Haihe River Basin. The research showed that the health condition of river ecosystem in Haihe River Basin was bad overall since the health situation of 72. 6% of the samples was "extremely bad". At the same time, the health situation in Haihe River Basin exhibited obvious regional gathering effect. We also found that the river water quality was closely related to human activities, and the eutrophication trend of water body was evident in Haihe River Basin. The biodiversity of the benthic animal was low and lack of clean species in the basin. The indicators such as ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were the key factors that affected the river ecosystem health in Haihe River Basin, so the government should start to curb the deterioration of river ecosystem health by controlling these nutrients indicators. For river ecosystem health assessment, the multi-factors comprehensive evaluation method was superior to single-factor method.

The European Social Survey and European research policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kropp, Kristoffer

2017-01-01

This article analyses the history of the European Social Survey (ESS) and its relationship to changes in European research policy, using Bourdieu’s field-analytical approach. It argues that the success of the ESS relied on three interwoven processes that we can understand theoretically in terms...... of the establishment of homological structures and the formation of conjunctural alliances between the field of European social-scientific research and the field of European policy. The three interwoven processes that I depict are: first, the production of a European field of social research, connected to both...... European and national scientific institutions; second, the establishment of European Union (EU) institutions and organisations that were able to identify and link up with social researchers; and third, the formation of conjunctural alliances between the two fields (social science and EU research policy...

Large-scale hydrological model river storage and discharge correction using a satellite altimetry-based discharge product

Science.gov (United States)

Emery, Charlotte Marie; Paris, Adrien; Biancamaria, Sylvain; Boone, Aaron; Calmant, Stéphane; Garambois, Pierre-André; Santos da Silva, Joecila

2018-04-01

Land surface models (LSMs) are widely used to study the continental part of the water cycle. However, even though their accuracy is increasing, inherent model uncertainties can not be avoided. In the meantime, remotely sensed observations of the continental water cycle variables such as soil moisture, lakes and river elevations are more frequent and accurate. Therefore, those two different types of information can be combined, using data assimilation techniques to reduce a model's uncertainties in its state variables or/and in its input parameters. The objective of this study is to present a data assimilation platform that assimilates into the large-scale ISBA-CTRIP LSM a punctual river discharge product, derived from ENVISAT nadir altimeter water elevation measurements and rating curves, over the whole Amazon basin. To deal with the scale difference between the model and the observation, the study also presents an initial development for a localization treatment that allows one to limit the impact of observations to areas close to the observation and in the same hydrological network. This assimilation platform is based on the ensemble Kalman filter and can correct either the CTRIP river water storage or the discharge. Root mean square error (RMSE) compared to gauge discharges is globally reduced until 21 % and at Óbidos, near the outlet, RMSE is reduced by up to 52 % compared to ENVISAT-based discharge. Finally, it is shown that localization improves results along the main tributaries.

Assessment of hydrochemical trends in the highly anthropised Guadalhorce River basin (southern Spain) in terms of compliance with the European groundwater directive for 2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Urresti-Estala, Begoña; Gavilán, Pablo Jiménez; Pérez, Iñaki Vadillo; Cantos, Francisco Carrasco

2016-08-01

One of the key aspects introduced by the European Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) and developed by Groundwater Directive 2006/118/EC was the need to analyse pollution trends in groundwater bodies in order to meet the environmental objectives set in Article 4 WFD. According to this Directive, the main goal of "good status" should be achieved by the year 2015, and having reached this horizon, now is a suitable time to assess the changes that have taken place with the progressive implementation of the WFD. An extensive database is available for the Guadalhorce River basin, and this was used not only to identify in groundwater but also to draw real conclusions with respect to the degree of success in meeting the targets established for this main deadline (2015) The geographic and climate context of the Guadalhorce basin has facilitated the development of a variety of economic activities, but the one affecting the largest surface area is agriculture (which is practised on over 50 % of the river basin). The main environmental impacts identified in the basin aquifers arise from the widespread use of fertilisers and manures, together with the input of sewage from population centres. In consequence, some of the groundwater bodies located in the basin have historically had very high nitrate concentrations, often exceeding 200 mg/L. In addition, return flows, the use of fertilisers and other pressures promote the entry of other pollutants into the groundwater, as well as the salinisation of the main aquifers in the basin. In order to assess the hydrochemical changes that have taken place since the entry into force of the WFD, we performed a detailed trends analysis, based on data from the official sampling networks. In some cases, over 35 years of water quality data are available, but these statistics also present significant limitations, due to some deficiencies in the design or management; thus, data are missing for many years, the results are subject to

ESTIMATION CODMN IN GUANGZHOU SECTION OF PEARL RIVER BASED ON GF-1 IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. B. Feng

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Due to the way that remote sensing works, it has natural advantage to detect optical constituents in waters. And many kinds of inversion models were constructed based on the three main optical constituents, namely chlorophyll-a (Chl-a, suspended particulate matter (SPM, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM. Except Chl-a used as an indicator of eutrophication, however, the public generally cares less about other two parameters and is more familiar with Grade I ~ V scheme for utilization and protection purposes. Notice the three main optical constituents are also organic-related to some extent. It offers a possible way to estimate CODMn via remote sensing. According to field measurement conducted along the Guangzhou section of Pearl River (GPR for short, the spatial variation of CODMn in GPR shows some kinds of geographical feature, so does the correlation between CODMn and water color constituents. It indicated the complicated contribution of CODMn in GPR or some other urban rivers. Based on the band setting of GF-1 satellite, two kinds of inversion model of CODMn in GPR were finally constructed. One directly achieved CODMn from regression models of which predictors were different band combinations in different channels of GPR. To make the study more practical, the other one first provided empirical models of the three optical constituents, and then estimated CODMn of GPR based on its relationship with optical constituents. After all, Chl-a, SPM and CDOM could be distinguished optically, and remote sensing models of these three constituents in other studies may also be available.

Face to face with the Muslim “other”: European cinematic responses to Al-Qaeda

OpenAIRE

Caoduro, Elena

2011-01-01

The bombings on March 11, 2004 in Madrid and on July 7, 2005 in London brought terror to the heart of Europe and amplified the feelings of fear, disbelief and suspicion developed as a consequence of 9/11 trauma. This article departs from Hollywood discourses on international terrorism to investigate how European cinema reflected upon these tragedies. Focusing on the films Fremder Freund (The Friend, Elmar Fischer, 2003)and London River (Rachid Bouchareb, 2009), it outlines the peculiarities o...

Study of Determination of Reference Area in Sub of the Stream Area of Ciliwung River's Upstream Based on Macro invertebrata Composition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sri-Unon-Purwati; Ignasius-DA-Sutapa

2001-01-01

The upper Ciliwung Sub River Basin has specific structure of biota community can used as indicator for the ecosystem stability value or the waters pollution level where the aquatic biota exist. Reference site determination is very necessary for test site executing base assess. In this research done studied for 30 branches of rivers in the upper Ciliwung Sub River Basin, Bogor region. The grouping and calculation result from seven variables: diversity index (H'); % EPT, family number, species richness, COD value, DO value and total N showed 7 criteria of water quality as reference site. This criteria is used to determine water quality level from 30 branches of rivers in upper Ciliwung Sub River Basin. The biotic index calculation for ASPT (Average Score Per Taxon) is used to assess water quality based on macro invertebrate composition indicator. The water quality level is described as fellow: station number 4; 10 is assume as true reference site, station number 7; 11; 13; 14; 15; 16; 28; 30 are the first alternative reference site, station number 3; 5; 8; 9; 18; 19; 20; 23; 24; 27; 29 are the second alternative reference site and station number {2; 12; 17; 25; 26;}; station {1; 21; 22} are the site which relatively good water quality, but is not recommended as reference site (test site). Station number 6 is site with lot of pollution from human activities (test site). (author)

River habitat assessment for ecological restoration of Wei River Basin, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Tao; Wang, Shuo; Li, Xiaoping; Wu, Ting; Li, Li; Chen, Jia

2018-04-11

As an important composition component of river ecosystems, river habitats must undergo quality assessment to potentially provide scientific basis for river ecological restoration. Substrate composition, habitat complexity, bank erosion degree, river meandering degree, human activity intensity, vegetation buffer width, water quality, and water condition were determined as indicators for river habitat assessment. The comprehensive habitat quality index (CHQI) was established for the Wei River Basin. In addition, the indicator values were determined on the basis of a field investigation at 12 national hydrological stations distributed across the Wei, Jing, and Beiluo Rivers. The analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the indicator weights and thus distinguish the relative importance of the assessment indicator system. Results indicated that the average CHQIs for the Wei, Jing, and Beiluo Rivers were 0.417, 0.508, and 0.304, respectively. The river habitat quality for the three rivers was well. As for the whole river basin, the river habitat quality for 25% of the cross section was very well, the other 25% was well, and the 50% remaining was in critical state. The river habitat quality of the Jing River was better than that of the Wei and Beiluo Rivers.

Preliminary assessment of current radiation doses to the population of Brodokalmak from contamination of the Techa River

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cabianca, T.; Bexon, A.P.; Pozolotina, V.; Trapeznikov, A.; Simmonds, J.

2000-01-01

Significant quantities of liquid radioactive waste were discharged to the Techa River in the southern Urals region of Russia in the early years of operation of the Mayak PA plant (1948-1951). A collaborative project is underway under contract to the European Commission to consider the radiological impact of radioactive contamination in the Southern Urals. Part of this project involves the calculation of radiation doses currently received by the population of Brodokalmak on the Techa river. The assessment made use of local data on the habits of the population and measurements of radionuclide activity concentrations in food and water. Exposure pathways included in the assessment were ingestion of foods and external exposure to gamma radiation from radionuclides deposited on the banks of the river. A range of doses was calculated for different age groups, firstly, assuming that the restrictions in place are retained and, secondly, assuming that there are no restrictions. These restrictions include bans on drinking river water, fishing and bathing in the river and the prohibition of use of the river and surrounding flood plains by humans and cattle. With restrictions the highest dose estimated was 0.56 mSv y -1 for the most exposed adults and without restrictions this increased to 3.4 mSv y -1

Parameters of measuring of european political consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. M. Pikula

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In the article the author analyzes the parameters of European political consciousness, i.e. European research field of political consciousness in qualitative and quantitative terms, which may be based on different indicators. The issue of emergence and development of European political consciousness becomes topical because firstly, its formation as the subjective dimension of European integration policy is not a spontaneous process and, secondly, European integration is carried out not only from the top but from the bottom, requiring deliberate interference of the public with the process; the public possesses the formed European political consciousness. Since the latter is a specific mental construct, the author offers to apply the triad «criteria ­ parameters – indicators». The characteristic that makes it possible to evaluate certain processes or phenomena in the system of Europeanness / Europeanism and specifies the quality system of views and opinions, which are realized in European behavior, is considered to be the criterion of European political consciousness. The European political consciousness parameters are seen to include the relevant historical memory, trends of public opinion and awareness regarding the European Union and position of its members in the European integration process, including the assessment of the existence and development of the EU; knowledge and views on the main EU institutions, assessing the importance of the main institutions of the EU and trust in them; a positive vision for the future of the European Union etc. The author considers the performance and objective characteristics and dimensions, including positive correlation of national and European levels of identity (European identity and European behavior to be the indicatiors of European political awareness. On the basis of these indicators the control of the condition and trends of European political consciousness development will be carried out.