Ecological quality assessment of rivers and integrated catchment management in England and Wales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul LOGAN

2001-09-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the ecological assessment of river quality and its relationship to integrated catchment management. The concept of catchment or river basin management has been a basic management tool in England and Wales since 1990; it is now being enshrined in the Water Framework Directive. Historically the statutory and operational drivers in the UK have lead to the development of distinctly different approaches to the management of water quality, water resources (quantity and physical river structure. More recently a proactive approach to the sustainable use of water promulgated in the Local Environment Agency Plans has also dealt with the three management aspects in some isolation although greater effort has been made to present the issues in an integrated manner. The Water Framework Directive calls for further integration in river basin plans and associated programmes of measures. In the paper the three approaches are described and considered in light of the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. Water Quality classification and objective setting has been based on information from the survey of benthic macro-invertebrates. The Biological Monitoring Working Party Score and the predictive software River Invertebrate Prediction and Classification System (RIVPACS have been used to set site-specific targets for management purposes. RIVPACS includes a reference database of minimally impacted sites for comparison with the observed data. This approach is in line with the requirements of the directive. Physical river structure work has been based on monitoring of in-river and river corridor characteristics. The River Habitat System (RHS has also developed a reference database but is less well developed in terms of its predictive ability. The use of ecological information in Water Resource management has taken a different approach based on the concept of differential ecological sensitivity to the hydrological regime within the river. In

Integrated approach for prioritizing watersheds for management: a study of lidder catchment of kashmir himalayas.

Science.gov (United States)

Malik, Mohammad Imran; Bhat, M Sultan

2014-12-01

The Himalayan watersheds are susceptible to various forms of degradation due to their sensitive and fragile ecological disposition coupled with increasing anthropogenic disturbances. Owing to the paucity of appropriate technology and financial resources, the prioritization of watersheds has become an inevitable process for effective planning and management of natural resources. Lidder catchment constitutes a segment of the western Himalayas with an area of 1,159.38 km(2). The study is based on integrated analysis of remote sensing, geographic information system, field study, and socioeconomic data. Multicriteria evaluation of geophysical, land-use and land-cover (LULC) change, and socioeconomic indicators is carried out to prioritize watersheds for natural resource conservation and management. Knowledge-based weights and ranks are normalized, and weighted linear combination technique is adopted to determine final priority value. The watersheds are classified into four priority zones (very high priority, high priority, medium priority, and low priority) on the basis of quartiles of the priority value, thus indicating their ecological status in terms of degradation caused by anthropogenic disturbances. The correlation between priority ranks of individual indicators and integrated indicators is drawn. The results reveal that socioeconomic indicators are the most important drivers of LULC change and environmental degradation in the catchment. Moreover, the magnitude and intensity of anthropogenic impact is not uniform in different watersheds of Lidder catchment. Therefore, any conservation and management strategy must be formulated on the basis of watershed prioritization.

Guidelines for integrated catchments monitoring: ICM mind map development and demonstration

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Jovanovic, Nebojsa

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Advances have been made in recent years in developing networks and databases for monitoring water systems in South Africa. However, these monitoring systems need to be consolidated and integrated amongst various components of catchment systems...

Framework for measuring sustainable development in catchment systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Walmsley, Jay J

2002-02-01

Integrated catchment management represents an approach to managing the resources of a catchment by integrating environmental, economic, and social issues. It is aimed at deriving sustainable benefits for future generations, while protecting natural resources, particularly water, and minimizing possible adverse social, economic, and environmental consequences. Indicators of sustainable development, which summarize information for use in decision-making, are invaluable when trying to assess the diverse, interacting components of catchment processes and resource management actions. The Driving-Forces--Pressure--State--Impact--Response (DPSIR) indicator framework is useful for identifying and developing indicators of sustainable development for catchment management. Driving forces have been identified as the natural conditions occurring in a catchment and the level of development and economic activity. Pressures include the natural and anthropogenic supply of water, water demand, and water pollution. State indicators can be split into those of quantity and those of quality. Impacts include those that affect the ecosystems directly and those that impact the use value of the resource. It core indicators are identified within each of the categories given in the framework, most major catchment-based management issues can be evaluated. This framework is applied to identify key issues in catchment management in South Africa, and develop a set of indicators for evaluating catchments throughout the country.

Collaborative Catchment-Scale Water Quality Management using Integrated Wireless Sensor Networks

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Zia, Huma; Harris, Nick; Merrett, Geoff

2013-04-01

Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, United Kingdom Summary The challenge of improving water quality (WQ) is a growing global concern [1]. Poor WQ is mainly attributed to poor water management and outdated agricultural activities. We propose that collaborative sensor networks spread across an entire catchment can allow cooperation among individual activities for integrated WQ monitoring and management. We show that sharing information on critical parameters among networks of water bodies and farms can enable identification and quantification of the contaminant sources, enabling better decision making for agricultural practices and thereby reducing contaminants fluxes. Motivation and results Nutrient losses from land to water have accelerated due to agricultural and urban pursuits [2]. In many cases, the application of fertiliser can be reduced by 30-50% without any loss of yield [3]. Thus information about nutrient levels and trends around the farm can improve agricultural practices and thereby reduce water contamination. The use of sensor networks for monitoring WQ in a catchment is in its infancy, but more applications are being tested [4]. However, these are focussed on local requirements and are mostly limited to water bodies. They have yet to explore the use of this technology for catchment-scale monitoring and management decisions, in an autonomous and dynamic manner. For effective and integrated WQ management, we propose a system that utilises local monitoring networks across a catchment, with provision for collaborative information sharing. This system of networks shares information about critical events, such as rain or flooding. Higher-level applications make use of this information to inform decisions about nutrient management, improving the quality of monitoring through the provision of richer datasets of catchment information to local networks. In the full paper, we present example scenarios and analyse how the benefits of

GIS-based Approaches to Catchment Area Analyses of Mass Transit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jonas Lohmann Elkjær; Landex, Alex

2009-01-01

Catchment area analyses of stops or stations are used to investigate potential number of travelers to public transportation. These analyses are considered a strong decision tool in the planning process of mass transit especially railroads. Catchment area analyses are GIS-based buffer and overlay...... analyses with different approaches depending on the desired level of detail. A simple but straightforward approach to implement is the Circular Buffer Approach where catchment areas are circular. A more detailed approach is the Service Area Approach where catchment areas are determined by a street network...... search to simulate the actual walking distances. A refinement of the Service Area Approach is to implement additional time resistance in the network search to simulate obstacles in the walking environment. This paper reviews and compares the different GIS-based catchment area approaches, their level...

Integration of two-phase solid fluid equations in a catchment model for flashfloods, debris flows and shallow slope failures

KAUST Repository

Bout, B.

2018-04-09

An integrated, modeling method for shallow landslides, debris flows and catchment hydrology is developed and presented in this paper. Existing two-phase debris flow equations and an adaptation on the infinite slope method are coupled with a full hydrological catchment model. We test the approach on the 4 km2 Scaletta catchment, North-Eastern Sicily, where the 1-10-2009 convective storm caused debris flooding after 395 shallow landslides. Validation is done based on the landslide inventory and photographic evidence from the days after the event. Results show that the model can recreate the impact of both shallow landslides, debris flow runout, and debris floods with acceptable accuracy (91 percent inventory overlap with a 0.22 Cohens Kappa). General patterns in slope failure and runout are well-predicted, leading to a fully physically based prediction of rainfall induced debris flood behavior in the downstream areas, such as the creation of a debris fan at the coastal outlet.

Use of spatially distributed time-integrated sediment sampling networks and distributed fine sediment modelling to inform catchment management.

Science.gov (United States)

Perks, M T; Warburton, J; Bracken, L J; Reaney, S M; Emery, S B; Hirst, S

2017-11-01

Under the EU Water Framework Directive, suspended sediment is omitted from environmental quality standards and compliance targets. This omission is partly explained by difficulties in assessing the complex dose-response of ecological communities. But equally, it is hindered by a lack of spatially distributed estimates of suspended sediment variability across catchments. In this paper, we demonstrate the inability of traditional, discrete sampling campaigns for assessing exposure to fine sediment. Sampling frequencies based on Environmental Quality Standard protocols, whilst reflecting typical manual sampling constraints, are unable to determine the magnitude of sediment exposure with an acceptable level of precision. Deviations from actual concentrations range between -35 and +20% based on the interquartile range of simulations. As an alternative, we assess the value of low-cost, suspended sediment sampling networks for quantifying suspended sediment transfer (SST). In this study of the 362 km 2 upland Esk catchment we observe that spatial patterns of sediment flux are consistent over the two year monitoring period across a network of 17 monitoring sites. This enables the key contributing sub-catchments of Butter Beck (SST: 1141 t km 2 yr -1 ) and Glaisdale Beck (SST: 841 t km 2 yr -1 ) to be identified. The time-integrated samplers offer a feasible alternative to traditional infrequent and discrete sampling approaches for assessing spatio-temporal changes in contamination. In conjunction with a spatially distributed diffuse pollution model (SCIMAP), time-integrated sediment sampling is an effective means of identifying critical sediment source areas in the catchment, which can better inform sediment management strategies for pollution prevention and control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of spatiotemporal characteristics of rainfall inputs on integrated catchment dissolved oxygen simulations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moreno Rodenas, A.M.; Cecinati, Francesca; Langeveld, J.G.; Clemens, F.H.L.R.

2017-01-01

Integrated Catchment Modelling aims to simulate jointly urban drainage systems, wastewater treatment plant and rivers. The effect of rainfall input uncertainties in the modelling of individual urban drainage systems has been discussed in several studies already. However, this influence changes

Integrated catchment modelling within a strategic planning and decision making process: Werra case study

Science.gov (United States)

Dietrich, Jörg; Funke, Markus

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) redefines conventional water management approaches through a closer cross-linkage between environment and society. The role of public participation and socio-economic considerations becomes more important within the planning and decision making process. In this paper we address aspects of the integration of catchment models into such a process taking the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) as an example. Within a case study situated in the Werra river basin (Central Germany), a systems analytic decision process model was developed. This model uses the semantics of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) activity model. As an example application, the catchment model SWAT and the water quality model RWQM1 were applied to simulate the effect of phosphorus emissions from non-point and point sources on water quality. The decision process model was able to guide the participants of the case study through the interdisciplinary planning and negotiation of actions. Further improvements of the integration framework include tools for quantitative uncertainty analyses, which are crucial for real life application of models within an IWRM decision making toolbox. For the case study, the multi-criteria assessment of actions indicates that the polluter pays principle can be met at larger scales (sub-catchment or river basin) without significantly compromising cost efficiency for the local situation.

Integration of rainfall/runoff and geomorphological analyses flood hazard in small catchments: case studies from the southern Apennines (Italy)

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Palumbo, Manuela; Ascione, Alessandra; Santangelo, Nicoletta; Santo, Antonio

2017-04-01

We present the first results of an analysis of flood hazard in ungauged mountain catchments that are associated with intensely urbanized alluvial fans. Assessment of hydrological hazard has been based on the integration of rainfall/runoff modelling of drainage basins with geomorphological analysis and mapping. Some small and steep, ungauged mountain catchments located in various areas of the southern Apennines, in southern Italy, have been chosen as test sites. In the last centuries, the selected basins have been subject to heavy and intense precipitation events, which have caused flash floods with serious damages in the correlated alluvial fan areas. Available spatial information (regional technical maps, DEMs, land use maps, geological/lithological maps, orthophotos) and an automated GIS-based procedure (ArcGis tools and ArcHydro tools) have been used to extract morphological, hydrological and hydraulic parameters. Such parameters have been used to run the HEC (Hydrologic Engineering Center of the US Army Corps of Engineers) software (GeoHMS, GeoRAS, HMS and RAS) based on rainfall-runoff models, which have allowed the hydrological and hydraulic simulations. As the floods occurred in the studied catchments have been debris flows dominated, the solid load simulation has been also performed. In order to validate the simulations, we have compared results of the modelling with the effects produced by past floods. Such effects have been quantified through estimations of both the sediment volumes within each catchment that have the potential to be mobilised (pre-event) during a sediment transfer event, and the volume of sediments delivered by the debris flows at basins' outlets (post-event). The post-event sediment volume has been quantified through post-event surveys and Lidar data. Evaluation of the pre-event sediment volumes in single catchments has been based on mapping of sediment storages that may constitute source zones of bed load transport and debris flows. For

Process-based interpretation of conceptual hydrological model performance using a multinational catchment set

Science.gov (United States)

Poncelet, Carine; Merz, Ralf; Merz, Bruno; Parajka, Juraj; Oudin, Ludovic; Andréassian, Vazken; Perrin, Charles

2017-08-01

Most of previous assessments of hydrologic model performance are fragmented, based on small number of catchments, different methods or time periods and do not link the results to landscape or climate characteristics. This study uses large-sample hydrology to identify major catchment controls on daily runoff simulations. It is based on a conceptual lumped hydrological model (GR6J), a collection of 29 catchment characteristics, a multinational set of 1103 catchments located in Austria, France, and Germany and four runoff model efficiency criteria. Two analyses are conducted to assess how features and criteria are linked: (i) a one-dimensional analysis based on the Kruskal-Wallis test and (ii) a multidimensional analysis based on regression trees and investigating the interplay between features. The catchment features most affecting model performance are the flashiness of precipitation and streamflow (computed as the ratio of absolute day-to-day fluctuations by the total amount in a year), the seasonality of evaporation, the catchment area, and the catchment aridity. Nonflashy, nonseasonal, large, and nonarid catchments show the best performance for all the tested criteria. We argue that this higher performance is due to fewer nonlinear responses (higher correlation between precipitation and streamflow) and lower input and output variability for such catchments. Finally, we show that, compared to national sets, multinational sets increase results transferability because they explore a wider range of hydroclimatic conditions.

Human-Systems Integration (HSI) and the Network Integration Evaluations (NIEs), Part 3: Mitigating Cognitive Load in Network-Enabled Mission Command

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-01

require higher levels of mental ability as well as higher levels of education , training, and experience for effective use . In short, ICT insertions such...the people using the gizmos” (Wallace 2005, p. 20). Personnel, training, and organization are important aspects of overall mission command system...organizational learning is important with respect to how well a test unit will use new equipment suites during an exercise such as the NIEs (Alberts

Ecohydrological modelling and integrated management planning in the catchment of the river Dommel

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verkroost, A.W.M.; Olde Venterink, H.; Pieterse, N.M.; Schot, P.P.; Wassen, M.J.

1998-01-01

The EU-LIFE Dommel project aims at the development of methods for the combined use of landscape ecological models and socio-economic knowledge in the drawing up of integrated management plans for catchment areas of small trans-border rivers. These methods were developed and tested in the

Probability based hydrologic catchments of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

Hudson, B. D.

2015-12-01

Greenland Ice Sheet melt water impacts ice sheet flow dynamics, fjord and coastal circulation, and sediment and biogeochemical fluxes. Melt water exiting the ice sheet also is a key term in its mass balance. Because of this, knowledge of the area of the ice sheet that contributes melt water to a given outlet (its hydrologic catchment) is important to many ice sheet studies and is especially critical to methods using river runoff to assess ice sheet mass balance. Yet uncertainty in delineating ice sheet hydrologic catchments is a problem that is rarely acknowledged. Ice sheet catchments are delineated as a function of both basal and surface topography. While surface topography is well known, basal topography is less certain because it is dependent on radar surveys. Here, I a present a Monte Carlo based approach to delineating ice sheet catchments that quantifies the impact of uncertain basal topography. In this scheme, over many iterations I randomly vary the ice sheet bed elevation within published error bounds (using Morlighem et al., 2014 bed and bed error datasets). For each iteration of ice sheet bed elevation, I calculate the hydraulic potentiometric surface and route water over its path of 'steepest' descent to delineate the catchment. I then use all realizations of the catchment to arrive at a probability map of all major melt water outlets in Greenland. I often find that catchment size is uncertain, with small, random perturbations in basal topography leading to large variations in catchments size. While some catchments are well defined, others can double or halve in size within published basal topography error bars. While some uncertainty will likely always remain, this work points to locations where studies of ice sheet hydrology would be the most successful, allows reinterpretation of past results, and points to where future radar surveys would be most advantageous.

Salting our landscape: An integrated catchment model using readily accessible data to assess emerging road salt contamination to streams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin Li; Whitehead, Paul; Siegel, Donald I.; Findlay, Stuart

2011-01-01

A new integrated catchment model for salinity has been developed to assess the transport of road salt from upland areas in watersheds to streams using readily accessible landscape, hydrologic, and meteorological data together with reported salt applications. We used Fishkill Creek (NY) as a representative watershed to test the model. Results showed good agreement between modeled and measured stream water chloride concentrations. These results suggest that a dominant mode of catchment simulation that does not entail complex deterministic modeling is an appropriate method to model salinization and to assess effects of future applications of road salt to streams. We heuristically increased and decreased salt applications by 100% and results showed that stream chloride concentrations increased by 13% and decreased by 7%, respectively. The model suggests that future management of salt application can reduce environmental concentrations, albeit over some time. - Highlights: → A new Integrated Catchment Model (INCA-Cl) is developed to simulate salinity. → Road salt application is important in controlling stream chloride concentration. → INCA-Cl can be used to manage and forecast the input and transport of chloride to the rivers. - A newly developed integrated catchment model for salinity can be used to manage and forecast the inputs and transport of chloride to streams.

Salting our landscape: An integrated catchment model using readily accessible data to assess emerging road salt contamination to streams

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jin Li, E-mail: li.jin@ouce.ox.ac.uk [Earth Sciences Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13210 (United States); School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY (United Kingdom); Whitehead, Paul [School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY (United Kingdom); Siegel, Donald I. [Earth Sciences Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13210 (United States); Findlay, Stuart [Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, 2801 Sharon Turnpike, Millbrook, NY 12545 (United States)

2011-05-15

A new integrated catchment model for salinity has been developed to assess the transport of road salt from upland areas in watersheds to streams using readily accessible landscape, hydrologic, and meteorological data together with reported salt applications. We used Fishkill Creek (NY) as a representative watershed to test the model. Results showed good agreement between modeled and measured stream water chloride concentrations. These results suggest that a dominant mode of catchment simulation that does not entail complex deterministic modeling is an appropriate method to model salinization and to assess effects of future applications of road salt to streams. We heuristically increased and decreased salt applications by 100% and results showed that stream chloride concentrations increased by 13% and decreased by 7%, respectively. The model suggests that future management of salt application can reduce environmental concentrations, albeit over some time. - Highlights: > A new Integrated Catchment Model (INCA-Cl) is developed to simulate salinity. > Road salt application is important in controlling stream chloride concentration. > INCA-Cl can be used to manage and forecast the input and transport of chloride to the rivers. - A newly developed integrated catchment model for salinity can be used to manage and forecast the inputs and transport of chloride to streams.

Accelerator mass spectrometry researches at NIES-TERRA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shibata, Yasuyuki; Yoneda, Minoru; Tanaka, Atsushi; Uehiro, Takashi; Morita, Masatoshi; Uchida, Masao; Yoshinaga, Jun

2003-01-01

In the AMS facility at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES-TERRA; Tandem accelerator for Environmental Research and Radiocarbon Analysis), several research programs have been proceeded, including a program, called GC-AMS, for the compound-specific 14 C analysis in environmental samples

Interdisciplinary methods and practices for integrating social sciences into studies on catchment evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, G.

2017-12-01

Real world problems rarely regard disciplinary boundaries. This is particularly apparent in catchments, where knowledge and understanding from many different research disciplines is essential to address the water resource challenges facing society. People are an integral part of any catchment. Therefore a comprehensive understanding of catchment evolution needs to include the social system. Socio-hydrological models that can simulate the co-evolution of human-water systems, for example, with regards to floods and droughts, show great promise in their capacity to capture and understand such systems. Yet, to develop socio-hydrological models into more comprehensive analysis tools that adequately capture the social components of the system, researchers need to embrace interdisciplinary working and multi-disciplinary research teams. By exploring the development of interdisciplinary research in a water programme, several key practices have been identified that support interdisciplinary collaboration. These include clarification where researchers discuss and re-explain their research or position to expose all the assumptions being made until all involved understand it; harnessing differences where different opinions and types of knowledge are treated respectfully to minimise tensions and disputes; and boundary setting where defensible limits to the research enquiry are set with consideration for the restrictions (funds, skills, resources) through negotiation and discussion between the research team members. Focussing on these research practices while conducting interdisciplinary collaborative research into the human-water system, is anticipated to support the development of more integrated approaches and models.

Effect of spatiotemporal variation of rainfall on dissolved oxygen depletion in integrated catchment studies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moreno Rodenas, A.M.; Cecinati, F.; ten Veldhuis, J.A.E.; Langeveld, J.G.; Clemens, F.H.L.R.

2016-01-01

This study addresses the effect of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall fields on the performance of a simplified integrated catchment model for predicting dissolved oxygen concentrations in a river. For that purpose we propose a procedure to generate rainfall products with increasing spatial

East African wetland-catchment data base for sustainable wetland management

Science.gov (United States)

Leemhuis, Constanze; Amler, Esther; Diekkrüger, Bernd; Gabiri, Geofrey; Näschen, Kristian

2016-10-01

Wetlands cover an area of approx. 18 Mio ha in the East African countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, with still a relative small share being used for food production. Current upland agricultural use intensification in these countries due to demographic growth, climate change and globalization effects are leading to an over-exploitation of the resource base, followed by an intensification of agricultural wetland use. We aim on translating, transferring and upscaling knowledge on experimental test-site wetland properties, small-scale hydrological processes, and water related ecosystem services under different types of management from local to national scale. This information gained at the experimental wetland/catchment scale will be embedded as reference data within an East African wetland-catchment data base including catchment physical properties and a regional wetland inventory serving as a base for policy advice and the development of sustainable wetland management strategies.

East African wetland-catchment data base for sustainable wetland management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Leemhuis

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Wetlands cover an area of approx. 18 Mio ha in the East African countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, with still a relative small share being used for food production. Current upland agricultural use intensification in these countries due to demographic growth, climate change and globalization effects are leading to an over-exploitation of the resource base, followed by an intensification of agricultural wetland use. We aim on translating, transferring and upscaling knowledge on experimental test-site wetland properties, small-scale hydrological processes, and water related ecosystem services under different types of management from local to national scale. This information gained at the experimental wetland/catchment scale will be embedded as reference data within an East African wetland-catchment data base including catchment physical properties and a regional wetland inventory serving as a base for policy advice and the development of sustainable wetland management strategies.

Recovery of soil water, groundwater, and streamwater from acidification at the Swedish integrated monitoring catchments.

Science.gov (United States)

Löfgren, Stefan; Aastrup, Mats; Bringmark, Lage; Hultberg, Hans; Lewin-Pihlblad, Lotta; Lundin, Lars; Karlsson, Gunilla Pihl; Thunholm, Bo

2011-12-01

Recovery from anthropogenic acidification in streams and lakes is well documented across the northern hemisphere. In this study, we use 1996-2009 data from the four Swedish Integrated Monitoring catchments to evaluate how the declining sulfur deposition has affected sulfate, pH, acid neutralizing capacity, ionic strength, aluminum, and dissolved organic carbon in soil water, groundwater and runoff. Differences in recovery rates between catchments, between recharge and discharge areas and between soil water and groundwater are assessed. At the IM sites, atmospheric deposition is the main human impact. The chemical trends were weakly correlated to the sulfur deposition decline. Other factors, such as marine influence and catchment features, seem to be as important. Except for pH and DOC, soil water and groundwater showed similar trends. Discharge areas acted as buffers, dampening the trends in streamwater. Further monitoring and modeling of these hydraulically active sites should be encouraged.

A data-model integration approach toward improved understanding on wetland functions and hydrological benefits at the catchment scale

Science.gov (United States)

Yeo, I. Y.; Lang, M.; Lee, S.; Huang, C.; Jin, H.; McCarty, G.; Sadeghi, A.

2017-12-01

The wetland ecosystem plays crucial roles in improving hydrological function and ecological integrity for the downstream water and the surrounding landscape. However, changing behaviours and functioning of wetland ecosystems are poorly understood and extremely difficult to characterize. Improved understanding on hydrological behaviours of wetlands, considering their interaction with surrounding landscapes and impacts on downstream waters, is an essential first step toward closing the knowledge gap. We present an integrated wetland-catchment modelling study that capitalizes on recently developed inundation maps and other geospatial data. The aim of the data-model integration is to improve spatial prediction of wetland inundation and evaluate cumulative hydrological benefits at the catchment scale. In this paper, we highlight problems arising from data preparation, parameterization, and process representation in simulating wetlands within a distributed catchment model, and report the recent progress on mapping of wetland dynamics (i.e., inundation) using multiple remotely sensed data. We demonstrate the value of spatially explicit inundation information to develop site-specific wetland parameters and to evaluate model prediction at multi-spatial and temporal scales. This spatial data-model integrated framework is tested using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) with improved wetland extension, and applied for an agricultural watershed in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, USA. This study illustrates necessity of spatially distributed information and a data integrated modelling approach to predict inundation of wetlands and hydrologic function at the local landscape scale, where monitoring and conservation decision making take place.

[The effects of an environmental education with newspaper in education (NIE) on the environmental concern and practice].

Science.gov (United States)

Sung, Ki-Wol

2008-12-01

The purpose of this study was to develop an environmental education program using newspaper articles in education (NIE) and to evaluate changes in concern and practice for environmental protection after NIE. The design was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were university students in nursing, of which 31 were assigned to the experimental group and 43 to the control group. The education was carried out for 2 hr, once a week for 7 weeks. Data were analyzed with SPSS WIN 14 program, and included chi2 test, independent t-test, and repeated measure ANOVA. NIE showed significant differences in the changes of attitude toward environment (F=4.461, p=.036). Findings suggest that this NIE in environmental education was effective in changing students' attitudes toward the environment. Therefore this NIE is recommended for inclusion in education for university students in nursing.

Thrombasthénie de Glanzmann: à propos de 11 cas

Science.gov (United States)

Mukendi, Jean-Louis Ntumba; Benkirane, Souad; Masrar, Azlarab

2015-01-01

Introduction La thrombasthénie de Glanzmann est une pathologie hémorragique héréditaire rare due à une déficience ou un dysfonctionnement du complexe glycoprotéique IIb/IIIa de la membrane plaquettaire. Le but de notre étude est de décrire les caractéristiques démographiques, cliniques et biologiques d'une série de patients atteints de thrombasthénie de Glanzmann. Méthodes C'est une étude portant sur tous les patients atteints de thrombasthénie de Glanzmann diagnostiqués au Laboratoire Central d'Hématologie du Centre Hospitalier Ibn Sina de Rabat au Maroc pendant la période allant du 1er mars 2011 au 31 mars 2013, soit 25 mois. Après avoir recueilli les données épidémiologiques et cliniques de nos patients, nous avons réalisé une étude biologique comportant une numération plaquettaire et une agrégométrie. Résultats 11 patients ont présenté des profils agrégométriques compatibles à une TG. La majorité de ces malades étaient issus de mariages consanguins (54,5%) et originaires de régions situées dans le nord du Maroc. Le syndrome hémorragique s'est révélé principalement cutanéo-muqueux, avec une prédominance des gingivorragies (72,7%), des épistaxis (63,6%) et des ecchymoses (45,5%). Conclusion Nos résultats ont montré que la thrombasthénie de Glanzmann est une pathologie relativement fréquente au Maroc. PMID:26587119

Comparison of physically based catchment models for estimating Phosphorus losses

OpenAIRE

Nasr, Ahmed Elssidig; Bruen, Michael

2003-01-01

As part of a large EPA-funded research project, coordinated by TEAGASC, the Centre for Water Resources Research at UCD reviewed the available distributed physically based catchment models with a potential for use in estimating phosphorous losses for use in implementing the Water Framework Directive. Three models, representative of different levels of approach and complexity, were chosen and were implemented for a number of Irish catchments. This paper reports on (i) the lessons and experience...

Detecting groundwater discharge dynamics from point-to-catchment scale in a lowland stream

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, J. R.; Sebök, Éva; Duque, C.

2015-01-01

was quantified using differential gauging with an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). At the catchment scale (26–114 km2), runoff sources during main rain events were investigated by hydrograph separations based on electrical conductivity (EC) and stable isotopes 2H/1H. Clear differences in runoff sources...... response to precipitation events. This shows a large variability in groundwater discharge to the stream, despite the similar lowland characteristics of sub-catchments indicating the usefulness of environmental tracers for obtaining information about integrated catchment functioning during precipitation...

Impact of Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Rainfall Inputs on Integrated Catchment Dissolved Oxygen Simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio M. Moreno-Rodenas

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Integrated Catchment Modelling aims to simulate jointly urban drainage systems, wastewater treatment plant and rivers. The effect of rainfall input uncertainties in the modelling of individual urban drainage systems has been discussed in several studies already. However, this influence changes when simultaneously simulating several urban drainage subsystems and their impact on receiving water quality. This study investigates the effect of the characteristics of rainfall inputs on a large-scale integrated catchment simulator for dissolved oxygen predictions in the River Dommel (The Netherlands. Rainfall products were generated with varying time-aggregation (10, 30 and 60 min deriving from different sources of data with increasing spatial information: (1 Homogeneous rainfall from a single rain gauge; (2 block kriging from 13 rain gauges; (3 averaged C-Band radar estimation and (4 kriging with external drift combining radar and rain gauge data with change of spatial support. The influence of the different rainfall inputs was observed at combined sewer overflows (CSO and dissolved oxygen (DO dynamics in the river. Comparison of the simulations with river monitoring data showed a low sensitivity to temporal aggregation of rainfall inputs and a relevant impact of the spatial scale with a link to the storm characteristics to CSO and DO concentration in the receiving water.

An integrative water balance model framework for a changing glaciated catchment in the Andes of Peru

Science.gov (United States)

Drenkhan, Fabian; Huggel, Christian; García Hernández, Javier; Fluixá-Sanmartín, Javier; Seidel, Jochen; Muñoz Asmat, Randy

2017-04-01

In the Santa River catchment [SRC] (Cordillera Blanca, Andes of Peru), human livelihoods strongly depend on year-round streamflow from glaciers and reservoirs, particularly in the dry season and in adjacent arid lowlands. Perennial glacial streamflow represents a buffer to water shortages, annual discharge variability and river contamination levels. However, climate change impacts, consecutive glacier shrinkage as well as new irrigated agriculture and hydropower schemes, population growth and thus water allocation might increase water scarcity in several areas of the SRC. This situation exerts further pressure and conflict potential over water resources and stresses the need to analyze both water supply and demand trends in a multidisciplinary and interlinked manner. In this context, an integrative glacio-hydrological framework was developed based on the Glacier and Snow Melt (GSM) and SOil CONTribution (SOCONT) models using the semi-distributed free software RS MINERVE. This water balance model incorporates hydroclimatic, socioeconomic and hydraulic objects and data at daily scale (with several gaps) for the last 50 years (1965-2015). A particular challenge in this context represents the poor data availability both in quantity and quality. Therefore, the hydroclimatic dataset to be used had to be carefully selected and data gaps were filled applying a statistical copula-based approach. The socioeconomic dataset of water demand was elaborated using several assumptions based on further census information and experiences from other projects in the region. Reservoirs and hydropower models were linked with additional hydraulic data. In order to increase model performance within a complex topography of the 11660 km2 SRC, the area was divided into 22 glaciated (GSM) and 42 non-glaciated (SOCONT) subcatchment models. Additionally, 382 elevation bands at 300 m interval were created and grouped into 22 different calibration zones for the whole SRC. The model was calibrated

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

Elucidating Critical Zone Process Interactions with an Integrated Hydrology Model in a Headwaters Research Catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Collins, C.; Maxwell, R. M.

2017-12-01

Providence Creek (P300) watershed is an alpine headwaters catchment located at the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (SSCZO). Evidence of groundwater-dependent vegetation and drought-induced tree mortality at P300 along with the effect of subsurface characterization on mountain ecohydrology motivates this study. A hyper resolution integrated hydrology model of this site, along with extensive instrumentation, provides an opportunity to study the effects of lateral groundwater flow on vegetation's tolerance to drought. ParFlow-CLM is a fully integrated surface-subsurface model that is driven with reconstructed meteorology, such as the North American Land Data Assimilation System project phase 2 (NLDAS-2) dataset. However, large-scale data products mute orographic effects on climate at smaller scales. Climate variables often do not behave uniformly in highly heterogeneous mountain regions. Therefore, forcing physically-based integrated hydrologic models—especially of mountain headwaters catchments—with a large-scale data product is a major challenge. Obtaining reliable observations in complex terrain is challenging and while climate data products introduce uncertainties likewise, documented discrepancies between several data products and P300 observations suggest these data products may suffice. To tackle these issues, a suite of simulations was run to parse out (1) the effects of climate data source (data products versus observations) and (2) the effects of climate data spatial variability. One tool for evaluating the effect of climate data on model outputs is the relationship between latent head flux (LH) and evapotranspiration (ET) partitioning with water table depth (WTD). This zone of LH sensitivity to WTD is referred to as the "critical zone." Preliminary results suggest that these critical zone relationships are preserved despite forcing albeit significant shifts in magnitude. These results demonstrate that integrated hydrology models are sensitive

Base cation depletion and potential long-term acidification of Norwegian catchments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirchner, J.W.; Lydersen, E.

1995-01-01

Long-term monitoring data from Norwegian catchments show that since the late 1970s, sulfate deposition and runoff sulfate concentrations have declined significantly. However, water quality has not significantly improved, because reductions in runoff sulfate have been matched by equal declines in calcium and magnesium concentrations. Long-term declines in runoff Ca and Mg are most pronounced at catchments subject to highly acidic deposition; the observed rates of decline are quantitatively consistent with depletion of exchangeable bases by accelerated leaching under high acid loading. Even though water quality has not recovered, reductions in acid deposition have been valuable because they have prevented significant acidification that would otherwise have occurred under constant acid deposition. Ongoing depletion of exchangeable bases from these catchments implies that continued deposition reductions will be needed to avoid further acidification and that recovery from acidification will be slow. 31 refs., 2 figs., 4 tabs

Towards integrated catchment management, Whaingaroa, New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

van Roon, M; Knight, S

2001-01-01

The paper examines progress towards integrated catchment management and sustainable agriculture at Whaingaroa (Raglan), New Zealand. Application of the Canadian "Atlantic Coastal Action Program" model (ACAP) has been only partially successful within New Zealand's bicultural setting. Even before the introduction of the ACAP process there existed strong motivation and leadership by various sectors of the community. A merging of resource management planning and implementation processes of the larger community and that of the Maori community has not occurred. Research carried out by Crown Research Institutes has clearly shown the actions required to make pastoral farming more sustainable. There are difficulties in the transference to, and uptake of, these techniques by farmers. An examination of the socio-economic context is required. There has been a requirement on local government bodies to tighten their focus as part of recent reform. This has occurred concurrently with a widening of vision towards integrated and sustainable forms of management. This (as well as a clear belief in empowerment of local communities) has lead to Council reliance on voluntary labour. There is a need to account for the dynamic interaction between social and political history and the geological and biophysical history of the area. As part of a re-examination of sustainable development, New Zealand needs to reconcile the earning of the bulk of its foreign income from primary production, with the accelerating ecological deficit that it creates. A sustainability strategy is required linking consumer demand, property rights and responsibilities.

Le khatchkar ou la construction de sa petite Arménie.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Blanche Fourcade

2007-03-01

Full Text Available « C’est une reproduction d’un khatchkar que mon fils m’a rapporté d’Arménie. Je l’ai mis dans un endroit choisi pour moi, c’est comme une communion avec l’Arménie » disait Vichen lors d’un entretien que je menais sur le patrimoine domestique de la diaspora arménienne au Québec. La plaque de tuff ornée d’une croix 1 , surmontée de motifs végétaux et géométriques est installée sur le manteau de sa cheminée, dans le sous-sol aménagé de sa maison. Elle ...

LANDSCAPE INFLUENCES ON IN-STREAM BIOTIC INTEGRITY: USE OF MACROINVERTEBRATE METRICS TO IDENTIFY LANDSCAPE STRESSORS IN HEADWATER CATCHMENTS

Science.gov (United States)

The biotic integrity of streams is profoundly influenced by quantitative and qualitative features in the landscape of the surrounding catchment. In this study, aquatic macroinvertebrate metrics (e.g., relative abundance of Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, and/or Plecoptera taxa, or t...

Observation of stratospheric ozone with NIES lidar system in Tsukuba, Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakane, H.; Hayashida, S.; Sasano, Y.; Sugimoto, N.; Matsui, I.; Minato, A.

1992-01-01

Lidars are expected to play important roles in an international monitoring network of the stratosphere such as the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC). The National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) in Tsukuba constructed an ozone lidar system in March 1988 and started observation in August 1988. The lidar system has a 2-m telescope and injection locked XeCl and XeF excimer lasers which can measure ozone profiles (15-45 km) and temperature profiles (30-80 km). From December 1991, lidar observations have been carried out in which the second Stokes line of the stimulated Raman scattering of a KrF laser has been used. Ozone profiles obtained with the NIES lidar system are compared with the data provided by the SAGE II satellite sensor. Results showed good agreement for the individual and the zonal mean profiles. Variations of ozone with various time scales at each altitude can be studied using the data obtained with the NIES ozone lidar system. Seasonal variations are easily found at 20 km, 30 km, and 35 km, which are qualitatively understood as a result of dynamical and photochemical effects. Systematic errors of ozone profiles due to the Pinatubo stratospheric aerosols have been detected using multi-wavelength observation

Inhibitory effects of sanguinarine against the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa NIES-843 and possible mechanisms of action

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shao, Jihai [College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128 (China); Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Farmland Pollution Control and Agricultural Resources Use, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128 (China); Liu, Deming [State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Crop Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128 (China); Gong, Daoxin; Zeng, Qingru; Yan, Zhiyong [College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128 (China); Gu, Ji-Dong, E-mail: jdgu@hku.hk [Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Farmland Pollution Control and Agricultural Resources Use, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128 (China); Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology and Toxicology, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR (China)

2013-10-15

Highlights: •Sanguinarine was found as a strong algicidal biologically derived substance. •Sanguinarine can induce oxidative stress in the cells of Microcystis aeruginosa. •Photosystem is a target of toxicity of sanguinarine on M. aeruginosa. •Sanguinarine can induce DNA damage and inhibit cell division. -- Abstract: Sanguinarine showed strong inhibitory effect against Microcystis aeruginosa, a typical water bloom-forming and microcystins-producing cyanobacterium. The EC50 of sanguinarine against the growth of M. aeruginosa NIES-843 was 34.54 ± 1.17 μg/L. Results of chlorophyll fluorescence transient analysis indicated that all the electron donating side, accepting side, and the reaction center of the Photosystem II (PS II) were the targets of sanguinarine against M. aeruginosa NIES-843. The elevation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in the cells of M. aeruginosa NIES-843 upon exposure indicated that sanguinarine induced oxidative stress in the active growing cells of M. aeruginosa NIES-843. Further results of gene expression analysis indicated that DNA damage and cell division inhibition were also involved in the inhibitory action mechanism of sanguinarine against M. aeruginosa NIES-843. The inhibitory characteristics of sanguinarine against M. aeruginosa suggest that the ecological- and public health-risks need to be evaluated before its application in cyanobacterial bloom control to avoid devastating events irreversibly.

A pilot Virtual Observatory (pVO) for integrated catchment science - Demonstration of national scale modelling of hydrology and biogeochemistry (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Freer, J. E.; Bloomfield, J. P.; Johnes, P. J.; MacLeod, C.; Reaney, S.

2010-12-01

There are many challenges in developing effective and integrated catchment management solutions for hydrology and water quality issues. Such solutions should ideally build on current scientific evidence to inform policy makers and regulators and additionally allow stakeholders to take ownership of local and/or national issues, in effect bringing together ‘communities of practice’. A strategy being piloted in the UK as the Pilot Virtual Observatory (pVO), funded by NERC, is to demonstrate the use of cyber-infrastructure and cloud computing resources to investigate better methods of linking data and models and to demonstrate scenario analysis for research, policy and operational needs. The research will provide new ways the scientific and stakeholder communities come together to exploit current environmental information, knowledge and experience in an open framework. This poster presents the project scope and methodologies for the pVO work dealing with national modelling of hydrology and macro-nutrient biogeochemistry. We evaluate the strategies needed to robustly benchmark our current predictive capability of these resources through ensemble modelling. We explore the use of catchment similarity concepts to understand if national monitoring programs can inform us about the behaviour of catchments. We discuss the challenges to applying these strategies in an open access and integrated framework and finally we consider the future for such virtual observatory platforms for improving the way we iteratively improve our understanding of catchment science.

Integrating 3D geological information with a national physically-based hydrological modelling system

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Elizabeth; Parkin, Geoff; Kessler, Holger; Whiteman, Mark

2016-04-01

Robust numerical models are an essential tool for informing flood and water management and policy around the world. Physically-based hydrological models have traditionally not been used for such applications due to prohibitively large data, time and computational resource requirements. Given recent advances in computing power and data availability, a robust, physically-based hydrological modelling system for Great Britain using the SHETRAN model and national datasets has been created. Such a model has several advantages over less complex systems. Firstly, compared with conceptual models, a national physically-based model is more readily applicable to ungauged catchments, in which hydrological predictions are also required. Secondly, the results of a physically-based system may be more robust under changing conditions such as climate and land cover, as physical processes and relationships are explicitly accounted for. Finally, a fully integrated surface and subsurface model such as SHETRAN offers a wider range of applications compared with simpler schemes, such as assessments of groundwater resources, sediment and nutrient transport and flooding from multiple sources. As such, SHETRAN provides a robust means of simulating numerous terrestrial system processes which will add physical realism when coupled to the JULES land surface model. 306 catchments spanning Great Britain have been modelled using this system. The standard configuration of this system performs satisfactorily (NSE > 0.5) for 72% of catchments and well (NSE > 0.7) for 48%. Many of the remaining 28% of catchments that performed relatively poorly (NSE land cover change studies and integrated assessments of groundwater and surface water resources.

A framework of integrated hydrological and hydrodynamic models using synthetic rainfall for flash flood hazard mapping of ungauged catchments in tropical zones

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Lohpaisankrit

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Flash flood hazard maps provide a scientific support to mitigate flash flood risk. The present study develops a practical framework with the help of integrated hydrological and hydrodynamic modelling in order to estimate the potential flash floods. We selected a small pilot catchment which has already suffered from flash floods in the past. This catchment is located in the Nan River basin, northern Thailand. Reliable meteorological and hydrometric data are missing in the catchment. Consequently, the entire upper basin of the main river was modelled with the help of the hydrological modelling system PANTA RHEI. In this basin, three monitoring stations are located along the main river. PANTA RHEI was calibrated and validated with the extreme flood events in June 2011 and July 2008, respectively. The results show a good agreement with the observed discharge data. In order to create potential flash flood scenarios, synthetic rainfall series were derived from temporal rainfall patterns based on the radar-rainfall observation and different rainfall depths from regional rainfall frequency analysis. The temporal rainfall patterns were characterized by catchment-averaged rainfall series selected from 13 rainstorms in 2008 and 2011 within the region. For regional rainfall frequency analysis, the well-known L-moments approach and related criteria were used to examine extremely climatic homogeneity of the region. According to the L-moments approach, Generalized Pareto distribution was recognized as the regional frequency distribution. The synthetic rainfall series were fed into the PANTA RHEI model. The simulated results from PANTA RHEI were provided to a 2-D hydrodynamic model (MEADFLOW, and various simulations were performed. Results from the integrated modelling framework are used in the ongoing study to regionalize and map the spatial distribution of flash flood hazards with four levels of flood severities. As an overall outcome, the presented framework

Integrative investigations on sediments in the Belauer See catchment (northern Germany)

Science.gov (United States)

Dreibrodt, Stefan

2015-04-01

The Holocene history of lake development, catchment vegetation, soil formation and human impact since the onset of the Neolithic period was reconstructed via the analysis of sediment sequences at Lake Belau (northern Germany). The chronology of the annually laminated lake sediment sequence was established via varve counts, radiocarbon dating and tephra analysis. Sequences of colluvial sediments and buried soils studied in 19 large exposures and supplementing auger cores within the lake catchment area were dated via radiocarbon dating and archaeological dating of embedded artifacts. The long term development of the lake status was found to be strongly influenced by local human activity. This is indicated by coincidence of phases of landscape openness deduced from pollen data with input of detritus and solutes into the lake. A comparison with palaeo-climate reconstructions reveals that calcite precipitation in the lake reflects climate variability at least to a certain degree. Calibrating the sediment record of the sub-recent lake sediments (micro-facies) on limnological and meteorological records discovered the influence of the NAO as well as solar activity on the limnological processes during the last century reflected by distinguished sedimentation patterns. A comparative study of additional laminated surface sediment sequences from northern Germany corroborates the results. A high resolution reconstruction of Neolithic weather conditions in northern Germany based on the varves of Lake Belau and Lake Poggensee was facilitated by the calibration. The quantitative records of sediments originating from soil erosion (colluvial sediments, allochthonous input into the lake) illustrate the dominance of short distance surface processes (slopes) acting in Holocene mid-latitude landscapes. Coincidence of gully incision in the lake catchment area and increased allochthonous input into the lake indicates the former occurrence of hydrological high energy runoff events (e. g

An integrated model for simulating nitrogen trading in an agricultural catchment with complex hydrogeology.

Science.gov (United States)

Cox, T J; Rutherford, J C; Kerr, S C; Smeaton, D C; Palliser, C C

2013-09-30

Nitrogen loads to several New Zealand lakes are dominated by nonpoint runoff from pastoral farmland which adversely affects lake water quality. A 'cap and trade' scheme is being considered to help meet targets set for nitrogen loads to Lake Rotorua, and a numerical model, NTRADER, has been developed to simulate and compare alternative schemes. NTRADER models both the geophysics of nitrogen generation and transport, including groundwater lag times, and the economics of 'cap and trade' schemes. It integrates the output from several existing models, including a farm-scale nitrogen leaching and abatement model, a farm-scale management economic model, and a catchment-scale nitrogen transport model. This paper details modeling methods and compares possible trading program design features for the Lake Rotorua catchment. Model simulations demonstrate how a cap and trade program could be used to effectively achieve challenging environmental goals in the targeted catchment. However, results also show that, due to complex hydrogeology, satisfactory environmental outcomes may be not achieved unless groundwater lag times are incorporated into the regulatory scheme. One way to do this, as demonstrated here, would be to explicitly include lag times in the cap and trade program. The utility of the model is further demonstrated by quantifying relative differences in abatement costs across potential regulatory schemes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Catchment areas for public transport

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jonas Lohmann Elkjær; Landex, Alex

2008-01-01

In the planning of public transport catchment areas of stops are often included to estimate potential number of travellers. There are different approaches to GIS-based catchment area analyses depending on the desired level of detail. The Circular Buffer approach is the fundamental, but also....../from stations. The article also shows how the refinement of the Service Area approach with additional time resistance results in smaller catchment areas when the feeder routes cross stairs. It is concluded that GIS-based catchment area analyses are a multiple decision support tool for planning of public...... transport where the level of detail can be suited to the purpose....

Environmental care in agricultural catchments: Toward the communicative catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Peter

1991-11-01

Substantial land degradation of agricultural catchments in Australia has resulted from the importation of European farming methods and the large-scale clearing of land. Rural communities are now being encouraged by government to take responsibility for environmental care. The importance of community involvement is supported by the view that environmental problems are a function of interactions between people and their environment. It is suggested that the commonly held view that community groups cannot care for their resources is due to inappropriate social institutions rather that any inherent disability in people. The communicative catchment is developed as a vision for environmental care into the future. This concept emerges from a critique of resource management through the catchment metaphors of the reduced, mechanical, and the complex, evolving catchment, which reflect the development of systemic and people-centered approaches to environmental care. The communicative catchment is one where both community and resource managers participate collaboratively in environmental care. A methodology based on action research and systemic thinking (systemic action research) is proposed as a way of moving towards the communicative catchment of the future. Action research is a way of taking action in organizations and communities that is participative and informed by theory, while systemic thinking takes into account the interconnections and relationships between social and natural worlds. The proposed vision, methodology, and practical operating principles stem from involvement in an action research project looking at extension strategies for the implementation of total catchment management in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.

Simulating Catchment Scale Afforestation for Mitigating Flooding

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, M. S.; Bathurst, J. C.; Quinn, P. F.; Birkinshaw, S.

2016-12-01

After the 2013-14, and the more recent 2015-16, winter floods in the UK there were calls to 'forest the uplands' as a solution to reducing flood risk across the nation. However, the role of forests as a natural flood management practice remains highly controversial, due to a distinct lack of robust evidence into its effectiveness in reducing flood risk during extreme events. This project aims to improve the understanding of the impacts of upland afforestation on flood risk at the sub-catchment and full catchment scales. This will be achieved through an integrated fieldwork and modelling approach, with the use of a series of process based hydrological models to scale up and examine the effects forestry can have on flooding. Furthermore, there is a need to analyse the extent to which land management practices, catchment system engineering and the installation of runoff attenuation features (RAFs), such as engineered log jams, in headwater catchments can attenuate flood-wave movement, and potentially reduce downstream flood risk. Additionally, the proportion of a catchment or riparian reach that would need to be forested in order to achieve a significant impact on reducing downstream flooding will be defined. The consequential impacts of a corresponding reduction in agriculturally productive farmland and the potential decline of water resource availability will also be considered in order to safeguard the UK's food security and satisfy the global demand on water resources.

Pesticide fate on catchment scale: conceptual modelling of stream CSIA data

Science.gov (United States)

Lutz, Stefanie R.; van der Velde, Ype; Elsayed, Omniea F.; Imfeld, Gwenaël; Lefrancq, Marie; Payraudeau, Sylvain; van Breukelen, Boris M.

2017-10-01

Compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) has proven beneficial in the characterization of contaminant degradation in groundwater, but it has never been used to assess pesticide transformation on catchment scale. This study presents concentration and carbon CSIA data of the herbicides S-metolachlor and acetochlor from three locations (plot, drain, and catchment outlets) in a 47 ha agricultural catchment (Bas-Rhin, France). Herbicide concentrations at the catchment outlet were highest (62 µg L-1) in response to an intense rainfall event following herbicide application. Increasing δ13C values of S-metolachlor and acetochlor by more than 2 ‰ during the study period indicated herbicide degradation. To assist the interpretation of these data, discharge, concentrations, and δ13C values of S-metolachlor were modelled with a conceptual mathematical model using the transport formulation by travel-time distributions. Testing of different model setups supported the assumption that degradation half-lives (DT50) increase with increasing soil depth, which can be straightforwardly implemented in conceptual models using travel-time distributions. Moreover, model calibration yielded an estimate of a field-integrated isotopic enrichment factor as opposed to laboratory-based assessments of enrichment factors in closed systems. Thirdly, the Rayleigh equation commonly applied in groundwater studies was tested by our model for its potential to quantify degradation on catchment scale. It provided conservative estimates on the extent of degradation as occurred in stream samples. However, largely exceeding the simulated degradation within the entire catchment, these estimates were not representative of overall degradation on catchment scale. The conceptual modelling approach thus enabled us to upscale sample-based CSIA information on degradation to the catchment scale. Overall, this study demonstrates the benefit of combining monitoring and conceptual modelling of concentration

Integration of two-phase solid fluid equations in a catchment model for flashfloods, debris flows and shallow slope failures

KAUST Repository

Bout, B.; Lombardo, Luigi; van Westen, C.J.; Jetten, V.G.

2018-01-01

An integrated, modeling method for shallow landslides, debris flows and catchment hydrology is developed and presented in this paper. Existing two-phase debris flow equations and an adaptation on the infinite slope method are coupled with a full

CAOS: the nested catchment soil-vegetation-atmosphere observation platform

Science.gov (United States)

Weiler, Markus; Blume, Theresa

2016-04-01

Most catchment based observations linking hydrometeorology, ecohydrology, soil hydrology and hydrogeology are typically not integrated with each other and lack a consistent and appropriate spatial-temporal resolution. Within the research network CAOS (Catchments As Organized Systems), we have initiated and developed a novel and integrated observation platform in several catchments in Luxembourg. In 20 nested catchments covering three distinct geologies the subscale processes at the bedrock-soil-vegetation-atmosphere interface are being monitored at 46 sensor cluster locations. Each sensor cluster is designed to observe a variety of different fluxes and state variables above and below ground, in the saturated and unsaturated zone. The numbers of sensors are chosen to capture the spatial variability as well the average dynamics. At each of these sensor clusters three soil moisture profiles with sensors at different depths, four soil temperature profiles as well as matric potential, air temperature, relative humidity, global radiation, rainfall/throughfall, sapflow and shallow groundwater and stream water levels are measured continuously. In addition, most sensors also measure temperature (water, soil, atmosphere) and electrical conductivity. This setup allows us to determine the local water and energy balance at each of these sites. The discharge gauging sites in the nested catchments are also equipped with automatic water samplers to monitor water quality and water stable isotopes continuously. Furthermore, water temperature and electrical conductivity observations are extended to over 120 locations distributed across the entire stream network to capture the energy exchange between the groundwater, stream water and atmosphere. The measurements at the sensor clusters are complemented by hydrometeorological observations (rain radar, network of distrometers and dense network of precipitation gauges) and linked with high resolution meteorological models. In this

Characterising groundwater-dominated lowland catchments: the UK Lowland Catchment Research Programme (LOCAR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on a major UK initiative to address deficiencies in understanding the hydro-ecological response of groundwater-dominated lowland catchments. The scope and objectives of this national programme are introduced and focus on one of three sets of research basins – the Pang/Lambourn Chalk catchments, tributaries of the river Thames in southern England. The motivation for the research is the need to support integrated management of river systems that have high ecological value and are subject to pressures that include groundwater abstraction for water supply, diffuse pollution, and land use and climate change. An overview of the research programme is provided together with highlights of some current research findings concerning the hydrological functioning of these catchments. Despite the importance of the Chalk as a major UK aquifer, knowledge of the subsurface movement of water and solutes is poor. Solute transport in the dual porosity unsaturated zone depends on fracture/matrix interactions that are difficult to observe; current experimental and modelling research supports the predominance of matrix flow and suggests that slow migration of a time-history of decades of nutrient loading is occurring. Groundwater flows are complex; catchments vary seasonally and are ill-defined and karst features are locally important. Groundwater flow pathways are being investigated using natural and artificial geochemical tracers based on experimental borehole arrays; stream-aquifer interaction research is using a combination of geophysics, borehole array geochemistry and longitudinal profiles of stream flow and solutes. A complex picture of localised subsurface inflows, linked to geological controls and karst features, and significant longitudinal groundwater flow below the river channel is emerging. Management implications are discussed. Strategies to control surface application of nutrients are expected to have little effect on groundwater

Comparison of different base flow separation methods in a lowland catchment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Uhlenbrook

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Assessment of water resources available in different storages and moving along different pathways in a catchment is important for its optimal use and protection, and also for the prediction of floods and low flows. Moreover, understanding of the runoff generation processes is essential for assessing the impacts of climate and land use changes on the hydrological response of a catchment. Many methods for base flow separation exist, but hardly one focuses on the specific behaviour of temperate lowland areas. This paper presents the results of a base flow separation study carried out in a lowland area in the Netherlands. In this study, field observations of precipitation, groundwater and surface water levels and discharges, together with tracer analysis are used to understand the runoff generation processes in the catchment. Several tracer and non-tracer based base flow separation methods were applied to the discharge time series, and their results are compared.

The results show that groundwater levels react fast to precipitation events in this lowland area with shallow groundwater tables. Moreover, a good correlation was found between groundwater levels and discharges suggesting that most of the measured discharge also during floods comes from groundwater storage. It was estimated using tracer hydrological approaches that approximately 90% of the total discharge is groundwater displaced by event water mainly infiltrating in the northern part of the catchment, and only the remaining 10% is surface runoff. The impact of remote recharge causing displacement of near channel groundwater during floods could also be motivated with hydraulic approximations. The results show further that when base flow separation is meant to identify groundwater contributions to stream flow, process based methods (e.g. the rating curve method; Kliner and Knezek, 1974 are more reliable than other simple non-tracer based methods. Also, the recursive filtering method

MaxEnt-Based Ecological Theory: A Template for Integrated Catchment Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Harte, J.

2017-12-01

The maximum information entropy procedure (MaxEnt) is both a powerful tool for inferring least-biased probability distributions from limited data and a framework for the construction of complex systems theory. The maximum entropy theory of ecology (METE) describes remarkably well widely observed patterns in the distribution, abundance and energetics of individuals and taxa in relatively static ecosystems. An extension to ecosystems undergoing change in response to disturbance or natural succession (DynaMETE) is in progress. I describe the structure of both the static and the dynamic theory and show a range of comparisons with census data. I then propose a generalization of the MaxEnt approach that could provide a framework for a predictive theory of both static and dynamic, fully-coupled, eco-socio-hydrological catchment systems.

Design for participation in ecologically sound management of South Africa's Mlazi River catchment

OpenAIRE

Auerbach, R.

1999-01-01

Without local participation, integrated catchment management and Landcare will not become a general reality in South Africa. With support from the South African Water Research Commission, the University of Natal's Farmer Support Group set up the Ntshongweni Catchment Management Programme (NCMP) as a practical participatory action research investigation of ecological farming systems, integrated catchment management and Landcare. Local experience played a crucial role in helping to bui...

Mass-conserving tracer transport modelling on a reduced latitude-longitude grid with NIES-TM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Belikov

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The need to perform long-term simulations with reasonable accuracy has led to the development of mass-conservative and efficient numerical methods for solving the transport equation in forward and inverse models. We designed and implemented a flux-form (Eulerian tracer transport algorithm in the National Institute for Environmental Studies Transport Model (NIES TM, which is used for simulating diurnal and synoptic-scale variations of tropospheric long-lived constituents, as well as their seasonal and inter-annual variability. Implementation of the flux-form method requires the mass conservative wind fields. However, the model is off-line and is driven by datasets from a global atmospheric model or data assimilation system, in which vertically integrated mass changes are not in balance with the surface pressure tendency and mass conservation is not achieved. To rectify the mass-imbalance, a flux-correction method is employed. To avoid a singularity near the poles, caused by the small grid size arising from the meridional convergence problem, the proposed model uses a reduced latitude–longitude grid scheme, in which the grid size is doubled several times approaching the poles. This approach overcomes the Courant condition in the Polar Regions, maintains a reasonably high integration time-step, and ensures adequate model performance during simulations. To assess the model performance, we performed global transport simulations for SF₆, ²²²Rn, and CO₂. The results were compared with observations available from the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases, GLOBALVIEW, and the Hateruma monitoring station, Japan. Overall, the results show that the proposed flux-form version of NIES TM can produce tropospheric tracer transport more realistically than previously possible. The reasons for this improvement are discussed.

A new perspective on catchment storage gained from a nested catchment experiment in Luxembourg (Europe)

Science.gov (United States)

Pfister, Laurent; Klaus, Julian; Hissler, Christophe; François Iffly, Jean; Gourdol, Laurent; Martinez-Carreras, Nuria; McDonnell, Jeffrey J.

2014-05-01

Recent hydrological process research focussed on how much water a catchment can store and how these catchments store and release water. Storage can be a valuable metric for catchment description, inter-comparison, and classification. Further storage controls catchment mixing, non-linearities in rainfall-runoff transformation and eco-hydrological processes. Various methods exist to determine catchment storage (e.g. natural tracer, soil moisture and groundwater data, hydrological models). Today it remains unclear what parts of the catchment storage are measured with the different models. Here we present a new hydrometric approach to answer the question how much water a catchment can store. We tested our approach in a dense hydro-climatological monitoring network that encompasses 16 recording streamgauges and 21 pluviographs in the Alzette River basin in Luxembourg (Europe). Catchment scales are ranging from 0.47 to 285 km2 and they have clean- and mixed combinations of distinct geologies ranging from schists to marls, sandstone, dolomite and limestone. Previous investigations in the area of interest have shown that geology largely controls winter runoff coefficients. Here, we focus at how catchment geology is ultimately affecting catchment storage. We used the approach of Sayama et al. (2011) to compute catchment dynamic storage changes for each winter season over the period 2002-2012 (based on precipitation as input; discharge and evapotranspiration as output). We determined dynamic storage changes for each winter semester (October to March) in all 16 catchments over the period 2002-2012. At the beginning of each hydrological winter season, all catchments showed similar trends in storage change. A few weeks into the winter season, catchments with lowest permeability (e.g. marls) started to plateau. The highest storage values were reached several months later in the season in catchments dominated by permeable substrate (e.g. sandstone). For most catchments, we found

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

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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

Integrated assessment of groundwater - surface water exchange in the hillslope - riparian interface of a montane catchment

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Scheliga, Bernhard; Tetzlaff, Doerthe; Nuetzmann, Gunnar; Soulsby, Chris

2016-04-01

Groundwater-surface water dynamics play an important role in runoff generation and the hydrologic connectivity between hillslopes and streams. Here, we present findings from a suite of integrated, empirical approaches to increase our understanding of groundwater-surface water interlinkages in a 3.2 km ^ 2 experimental catchment in the Scottish Highlands. The montane catchment is mainly underlain by granite and has extensive (70%) cover of glacial drift deposits which are up to 40 m deep and form the main aquifer in the catchment. Flat valley bottom areas fringe the stream channel and are characterised by peaty soils (0.5-4 m deep) which cover about 10% of the catchment and receive drainage from upslope areas. The transition between the hillslopes and riparian zone forms a critical interface for groundwater-surface water interactions that controls both the dynamics of riparian saturation and stream flow generation. We nested observations using wells to assess the groundwater - surface water transition, LiDAR surveys to explore the influence of micro-topography on shallow groundwater efflux and riparian wells to examine the magnitude and flux rates of deeper groundwater sources. We also used electrical resistivity surveys to assess the architecture and storage properties of drift aquifers. Finally, we used isotopic tracers to differentiate recharge sources and associated residence times as well as quantifying how groundwater dynamics affect stream flow. These new data have provided a novel conceptual framework for local groundwater - surface water exchange that is informing the development of new deterministic models for the site.

Nested Tracer Studies In Catchment Hydrology: Towards A Multiscale Understanding of Runoff Generation and Catchment Funtioning

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Soulsby, C.; Rodgers, P.; Malcolm, I. A.; Dunn, S.

contribute to storm runoff as well as sustain base flows. Water from steeper hillslopes appears to primarily recharge valley bottom aquifers. Fluxes from the drift aquifers into the stream bed were investigated using hydrometric and tracer techniques. Groundwater fluxes through the stream bed appear to be relatively localized relating to geological boundaries or changes in drift characteristics. How- ever, these fluxes are also controlled by morphological features in the river channel which exert a strong control on localized groundwater U surface water interactions. 1 If catchment hydrology is to contribute to a functional understanding of freshwater ecosystems it is argued that integrated tracer studies, at different scales and incorpo- rating both observations from field work and modelling applications, have a key role to play. 2

Rainfall, runoff and sediment transport in a Mediterranean mountainous catchment.

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Tuset, J; Vericat, D; Batalla, R J

2016-01-01

The relation between rainfall, runoff, erosion and sediment transport is highly variable in Mediterranean catchments. Their relation can be modified by land use changes and climate oscillations that, ultimately, will control water and sediment yields. This paper analyses rainfall, runoff and sediment transport relations in a meso-scale Mediterranean mountain catchment, the Ribera Salada (NE Iberian Peninsula). A total of 73 floods recorded between November 2005 and November 2008 at the Inglabaga Sediment Transport Station (114.5 km(2)) have been analysed. Suspended sediment transport and flow discharge were measured continuously. Rainfall data was obtained by means of direct rain gauges and daily rainfall reconstructions from radar information. Results indicate that the annual sediment yield (2.3 t km(-1) y(-1) on average) and the flood-based runoff coefficients (4.1% on average) are low. The Ribera Salada presents a low geomorphological and hydrological activity compared with other Mediterranean mountain catchments. Pearson correlations between rainfall, runoff and sediment transport variables were obtained. The hydrological response of the catchment is controlled by the base flows. The magnitude of suspended sediment concentrations is largely correlated with flood magnitude, while sediment load is correlated with the amount of direct runoff. Multivariate analysis shows that total suspended load can be predicted by integrating rainfall and runoff variables. The total direct runoff is the variable with more weight in the equation. Finally, three main hydro-sedimentary phases within the hydrological year are defined in this catchment: (a) Winter, where the catchment produces only water and very little sediment; (b) Spring, where the majority of water and sediment is produced; and (c) Summer-Autumn, when little runoff is produced but significant amount of sediments is exported out of the catchment. Results show as land use and climate change may have an important

Prediction of daily spring hydrographs for future climatic scenarios based on an integrated numerical modelling approach: Application on a snow-governed semi- arid karst catchment area.

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Doummar, J.; Kassem, A.; Gurdak, J. J.

2017-12-01

In the framework of a three-year USAID/NSF- funded PEER Science project, flow in a karst system in Lebanon (Assal Spring; discharge 0.2-2.5 m3/s yearly volume of 22-30 Mm3) dominated by snow and semi arid conditions was simulated using an integrated numerical model (Mike She 2016). The calibrated model (Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.77) is based on high resolution input data (2014-2017) and detailed catchment characterization. The approach is to assess the influence of various model parameters on recharge signals in the different hydrological karst compartments (Atmosphere, unsaturated zone, and saturated zone) based on an integrated numerical model. These parameters include precipitation intensity and magnitude, temperature, snow-melt parameters, in addition to karst specific spatially distributed features such as fast infiltration points, soil properties and thickness, topographical slopes, Epikarst and thickness of unsaturated zone, and hydraulic conductivity among others. Moreover, the model is currently simulated forward using various scenarios for future climate (Global Climate Models GCM; daily downscaled temperature and precipitation time series for Lebanon 2020-2045) in order to depict the flow rates expected in the future and the effect of climate change on hydrographs recession coefficients, discharge maxima and minima, and total spring discharge volume . Additionally, a sensitivity analysis of individual or coupled major parameters allows quantifying their impact on recharge or indirectly on the vulnerability of the system (soil thickness, soil and rock hydraulic conductivity appear to be amongst the highly sensitive parameters). This study particularly unravels the normalized single effect of rain magnitude and intensity, snow, and temperature change on the flow rate (e.g., a change of temperature of 3° on the catchment yields a Residual Mean Square Error RMSE of 0.15 m3/s in the spring discharge and a 16% error in the total annual volume with

Ecological and Socio-Economic Modeling of Consequences of Biological Management Scenarios Implementation in Integrated Watershed Management (Case Study: Simindasht Catchment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. R. Keshtkar

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Integrated watershed management is considered as a new principle for development planning and management of water and soil resources emphasizing on socio-economic characteristics of the region to sustainable livelihoods without vulnerability for plants and the residents of an area. This research, in line with the objectives of integrated management, has been carried out for modelling and evaluating the effects of ecological, socio-economic consequences resulting from the implementation of the proposed management plans on the vegetation changes with a focus on the problems in Simindasht catchment, located in Semnan and Tehran Provinces. After standardization of indices by distance method and weighing them, the scenarios were prioritized using multi-criteria decision-making technique. Trade-off analysis of the results indicates that in the integrated management of Simindasht catchment more than one single management solution, covering all aspects of the system can be recommended in different weighting approaches. The approach used herein, considering the results of different models and comparing the results, is an efficient tool to represent the watershed system as a whole and to facilitate decision making for integrated watershed management.

Rozpoznanie i leczenie alergicznego nieżytu nosa

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Anna Grad

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Alergiczny nieżyt nosa (ANN jest najczęstszą chorobą alergiczną na świecie. Często współistnieje z innymi chorobami alergicznymi, np. astmą, alergicznym zapaleniem spojówek lub atopowym zapaleniem skóry. Jest chorobą zapalną o podłożu immunologicznym, wywołaną IgE-zależną reakcją błony śluzowej nosa na alergen. Biorąc pod uwagę czas utrzymywania się objawów, ANN można podzielić na okresowy i przewlekły – ich przebieg może być łagodny oraz umiarkowany lub ciężki. Alergiczny nieżyt nosa jest chorobą zależną od wielu czynników. Za jego rozwój odpowiadają interakcje czynników środowiskowych i genetycznych. Do czynników środowiskowych zalicza się alergeny powietrznopochodne zewnętrzne i domowe (pyłki roślin, zarodniki grzybów pleśniowych, roztocze kurzu domowego, naskórki i sierści zwierząt, owady, alergeny zawodowe i zanieczyszczenia powietrza atmosferycznego. Czynniki genetyczne to atopia i współistnienie określonych polimorfizmów genów. Objawami ANN są świąd, kichanie, surowicza wydzielina nosowa, niedrożność nosa, utrata powonienia. Rozpoznanie ANN opiera się na wykazaniu zgodności pomiędzy objawami i wynikami punktowych testów skórnych lub obecnością we krwi swoistych IgE. Pomiar całkowitego IgE nie jest przydatny w rozpoznaniu ANN, a donosowe próby prowokacyjne są wykorzystywane głównie w badaniach naukowych, rzadziej w praktyce klinicznej. Postępowanie terapeutyczne obejmuje edukację pacjenta, zmniejszenie narażenia na alergeny, leczenie farmakologiczne oraz immunoterapię swoistą. W leczeniu farmakologicznym stosujemy leki przeciwhistaminowe doustne i donosowe, glikokortykosteroidy donosowe i systemowe, leki obkurczające naczynia błony śluzowej nosa, montelukast, bromek ipratropium i kromony. Immunoterapia swoista jest stosowana w leczeniu wybranych grup chorych i wpływa na naturalny przebieg chorób alergicznych.

Dlaczego Słowińcy nie chcą rozmawiać? O antropologicznym czytaniu historii

OpenAIRE

Filip, Mariusz

2015-01-01

Celem eseju jest oswojenie czytelnika ze sposobem antropologicznej/etnologicznej lektury przeszłości. Nie będzie to czynione poprzez prezentowanie czy formułowanie jakiego teoretycznego programu, lecz przez spojrzenie, jak wygląda to w praktyce. Przykładem będzie intrygująca grypa Słowińców. Pretekstem dla mojego antropologicznego czytania historii, jest postawienie na pozór banalnego, lecz świadomego i przemyślanego pytania: „Dlaczego Słowińcy nie chcą rozmawiać”? To pytanie stało się najważ...

Downscaling Satellite Data for Predicting Catchment-scale Root Zone Soil Moisture with Ground-based Sensors and an Ensemble Kalman Filter

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, H.; Baldwin, D. C.; Smithwick, E. A. H.

2015-12-01

Predicting root zone (0-100 cm) soil moisture (RZSM) content at a catchment-scale is essential for drought and flood predictions, irrigation planning, weather forecasting, and many other applications. Satellites, such as the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), can estimate near-surface (0-5 cm) soil moisture content globally at coarse spatial resolutions. We develop a hierarchical Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) data assimilation modeling system to downscale satellite-based near-surface soil moisture and to estimate RZSM content across the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory at a 1-m resolution in combination with ground-based soil moisture sensor data. In this example, a simple infiltration model within the EnKF-model has been parameterized for 6 soil-terrain units to forecast daily RZSM content in the catchment from 2009 - 2012 based on AMSRE. LiDAR-derived terrain variables define intra-unit RZSM variability using a novel covariance localization technique. This method also allows the mapping of uncertainty with our RZSM estimates for each time-step. A catchment-wide satellite-to-surface downscaling parameter, which nudges the satellite measurement closer to in situ near-surface data, is also calculated for each time-step. We find significant differences in predicted root zone moisture storage for different terrain units across the experimental time-period. Root mean square error from a cross-validation analysis of RZSM predictions using an independent dataset of catchment-wide in situ Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR) measurements ranges from 0.060-0.096 cm3 cm-3, and the RZSM predictions are significantly (p < 0.05) correlated with TDR measurements [r = 0.47-0.68]. The predictive skill of this data assimilation system is similar to the Penn State Integrated Hydrologic Modeling (PIHM) system. Uncertainty estimates are significantly (p < 0.05) correlated to cross validation error during wet and dry conditions, but more so in dry summer seasons. Developing an

Web-based modelling of energy, water and matter fluxes to support decision making in mesoscale catchments??the integrative perspective of GLOWA-Danube

Science.gov (United States)

Ludwig, R.; Mauser, W.; Niemeyer, S.; Colgan, A.; Stolz, R.; Escher-Vetter, H.; Kuhn, M.; Reichstein, M.; Tenhunen, J.; Kraus, A.; Ludwig, M.; Barth, M.; Hennicker, R.

The GLOWA-initiative (Global Change of the water cycle), funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF), has been established to address the manifold consequences of Global Change on regional water resources in a variety of catchment areas with different natural and cultural characteristics. Within this framework, the GLOWA-Danube project is dealing with the Upper Danube watershed as a representative mesoscale test site (∼75.000 km 2) for mountain-foreland regions in the temperate mid-latitudes. The principle objective is to identify, examine and develop new techniques of coupled distributed modelling for the integration of natural and socio-economic sciences. The transdisciplinary research in GLOWA-Danube develops an integrated decision support system, called DANUBIA, to investigate the sustainability of future water use. GLOWA-Danube, which is scheduled for a total run-time of eight years to operationally implement and establish DANUBIA, comprises a university-based network of experts with water-related competence in the fields of engineering, natural and social sciences. Co-operation with a network of stakeholders in water resources management of the Upper Danube catchment ensures that practical issues and future problems in the water sector of the region can be addressed. In order to synthesize a common understanding between the project partners, a standardized notation of parameters and functions and a platform-independent structure of computational methods and interfaces has been established, by making use of the unified modelling language, an industry standard for the structuring and co-ordination of large projects in software development [Booch et al., The Unified Modelling Language User Guide, Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1999]. DANUBIA is object-oriented, spatially distributed and raster-based at its core. It applies the concept of “proxels” (process pixels) as its basic objects, which have different dimensions depending on the viewing

Status and Outreach Activities of NIES GOSAT and GOSAT-2 Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Matsunaga, T.; Kamei, A.; Maksyutov, S. S.; Morino, I.; Yoshida, Y.; Saito, M.; Noda, H.; Ohyama, H.; Kawazoe, F.; Yokota, T.

2017-12-01

GOSAT (Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite) and GOSAT-2 are Japanese Earth observation satellites for greenhouse gas observation from space and jointly promoted by Ministry of the Environment, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and NIES ((National Institute for Environmental Studies). GOSAT was launched in January 2009 and has been operating for more than eight years. GOSAT-2 will be launched in FY2018. NIES is responsible for generation, archiving, validation, and distribution of higher level standard and research products of GOSAT and GOSAT-2. GOSAT's standard products such as FTS SWIR level 2 CO2 / CH4 / H2O column amount products (V02.21 - V02.60, April 2009 - February 2017), FTS TIR level 2 CO2 / CH4 profile products (V01.20, April 2009 - May 2014), and level 4A CO2 / CH4 flux products (CO2: V02.05, June 2009 - October 2015, CH4: V01.03, June 2009 - September 2013) are freely available from GDAS (GOSAT Data Archive Service). FTS SWIR level 2 standard products are validated using data from TCCON (Total Carbon Column Observing Network). GOSAT-2's standard and research products similar to those of GOSAT will be generated by G2DPS (GOSAT-2 Data Processing System) and available from a dedicate website, GOSAT-2 Product Archive. GOSAT RAs (Research Announcements) were issued eleven times in 2008 - 2017 to promote scientific researches using GOSAT data. GOSAT RA PIs (Principal Investigators) have several privileges such as access to GOSAT standard products earlier than general users, access to research products and other technical information, and a right to submit FTS observation requests. In total, more than 120 joint research contracts with scientists from more than twenty countries were concluded under GOSAT RA framework. GOSAT-2 RA is now being prepared and will be issued before GOSAT-2 launch. To expand the use of GOSAT and GOSAT-2 data in wider communities, NIES is preparing a guidebook that describes how to use satellite-based greenhouse gas

Modeling seasonal water balance based on catchments' hedging strategy on evapotranspiration for climate seasonality

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, S.; Zhao, J.; Wang, H.

2017-12-01

This paper develops a seasonal water balance model based on the hypothesis that natural catchments utilize hedging strategy on evapotranspiration for climate seasonality. According to the monthly aridity index, one year is split into wet season and dry season. A seasonal water balance model is developed by analogy to a two-stage reservoir operation model, in which seasonal rainfall infiltration, evapotranspiration and saturation-excess runoff is corresponding to the inflow, release and surplus of the catchment system. Then the optimal hedging between wet season and dry season evapotranspiration is analytically derived with marginal benefit principle. Water budget data sets of 320 catchments in the United States covering the period from 1980 to 2010 are used to evaluate the performance of this model. The Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency coefficient for evapotranspiration is higher than 0.5 in 84% of the study catchments; while the runoff is 87%. This paper validates catchments' hedging strategy on evapotranspiration for climate seasonality and shows its potential application for seasonal water balance, which is valuable for water resources planning and management.

Development of catchment research, with particular attention to Plynlimon and its forerunner, the East African catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Blackie, J. R.; Robinson, M.

2007-01-01

Dr J.S.G. McCulloch was deeply involved in the establishment of research catchments in East Africa and subsequently in the UK to investigate the hydrological consequences of changes in land use. Comparison of these studies provides an insight into how influential his inputs and direction have been in the progressive development of the philosophy, the instrumentation and the analytical techniques now employed in catchment research. There were great contrasts in the environments: tropical highland (high radiation, intense rainfall) vs. temperate maritime (low radiation and frontal storms), contrasting soils and vegetation types, as well as the differing social and economic pressures in developing and developed nations. Nevertheless, the underlying scientific philosophy was common to both, although techniques had to be modified according to local conditions. As specialised instrumentation and analytical techniques were developed for the UK catchments many were also integrated into the East African studies. Many lessons were learned in the course of these studies and from the experiences of other studies around the world. Overall, a rigorous scientific approach was developed with widespread applicability. Beyond the basics of catchment selection and the quantification of the main components of the catchment water balance, this involved initiating parallel process studies to provide information on specific aspects of catchment behaviour. This information could then form the basis for models capable of extrapolation from the observed time series to other periods/hydrological events and, ultimately, the capability of predicting the consequences of changes in catchment land management to other areas in a range of climates.

Integration of a modeling task in water policy design - Example of a prospective scenarios approach on an agricultural catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Moreau, P.; Raimbault, T.; Durand, P.; Gascuel-Odoux, C.; Salmon-Monviola, J.; Masson, V.; Cordier, M. O.

2010-05-01

To meet the objectives of the Water Framework Directive in terms of nitrate pollution of surface water, numerous mitigation options have been proposed. To support stakeholders' decision prior to the implementation of regulations, scenario analysis by models can be used as a prospective approach. The work developed an extensive virtual experiment design from an initial basic requirement of catchment managers. Specific objectives were (1) to test the ability of a distributed model (TNT2) to simulate hydrology and hydrochemistry on a watershed with a high diversity of production systems, (2) to analyse a large set of scenarios and their effects on water quality and (3) to propose an effective mode of communication between research scientists and catchment managers. The focus of the scenario, in accord with catchment managers' requirement, is put on winter catch crop (CC). 5 conditions of implantation in rotations, 3 CC durations and 2 CC harvest modes were tested. CC is favoured by managers because of its simplicity to implement on fields and its relative low influence on farm strategy. Calibration and validation periods were run from 1998 to 2007 and scenario simulation period from 2007 to 2020. Results have been provided, for each scenario, by compartment (soil, atmosphere, plant uptake, water) but especially in the form of nitrogen mass balance at the catchment scale. The scenarios were ranked by integrating positive and negative effects of each measure. This 3-step-process: translation of a simple stakeholder question into extensive set of scenarios (complexification) - modeling process and data analysis - restitution to catchments' manager into a simple integrative form (simplification), gives an operational tool for decision support. In term of water quality, the best improvements in nitrate concentrations at the outlet reached a decrease of 0.8 mgL-1 compared to a "business as usual" scenario and were achieved by exporting the CC residue, by extending CC

Water quantity and quality optimization modeling of dams operation based on SWAT in Wenyu River Catchment, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yongyong; Xia, Jun; Chen, Junfeng; Zhang, Minghua

2011-02-01

Water quantity and quality joint operation is a new mode in the present dams' operation research. It has become a hot topic in governmental efforts toward integrated basin improvement. This paper coupled a water quantity and quality joint operation model (QCmode) and genetic algorithm with Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Together, these tools were used to explore a reasonable operation of dams and floodgates at the basin scale. Wenyu River Catchment, a key area in Beijing, was selected as the case study. Results showed that the coupled water quantity and quality model of Wenyu River Catchment more realistically simulates the process of water quantity and quality control by dams and floodgates. This integrated model provides the foundation for research of water quantity and quality optimization on dam operation in Wenyu River Catchment. The results of this modeling also suggest that current water quality of Wenyu River will improve following the implementation of the optimized operation of the main dams and floodgates. By pollution control and water quantity and quality joint operation of dams and floodgates, water quality of Wenyu river will change significantly, and the available water resources will increase by 134%, 32%, 17%, and 82% at the downstream sites of Sha River Reservoir, Lutong Floodgate, Xinpu Floodgate, and Weigou Floodgate, respectively. The water quantity and quality joint operation of dams will play an active role in improving water quality and water use efficiency in Wenyu River Basin. The research will provide the technical support for water pollution control and ecological restoration in Wenyu River Catchment and could be applied to other basins with large number of dams. Its application to the Wenyu River Catchment has a great significance for the sustainable economic development of Beijing City.

Integrated Rural-Urban Water Management for Climate Based ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

There are serious short- and long-term consequences on human health, physical assets, economic ... To work, adaptive climate-proof integrated urban water management must extend throughout the whole catchment, an approach known as integrated water resource management. ... Careers · Contact Us · Site map.

The Saale-Project -A multidisciplinary approach towards sustainable integrative catchment management -

Science.gov (United States)

Bongartz, K.; Flügel, W. A.

2003-04-01

In the joint research project “Development of an integrated methodology for the sustainable management of river basins The Saale River Basin example”, coordinated by the Centre of Environmental Research (UFZ), concepts and tools for an integrated management of large river basins are developed and applied for the Saale river basin. The ultimate objective of the project is to contribute to the holistic assessment and benchmarking approaches in water resource planning, as required by the European Water Framework Directive. The study presented here deals (1) with the development of a river basin information and modelling system, (2) with the refinement of a regionalisation approach adapted for integrated basin modelling. The approach combines a user friendly basin disaggregation method preserving the catchment’s physiographic heterogeneity with a process oriented hydrological basin assessment for scale bridging integrated modelling. The well tested regional distribution concept of Response Units (RUs) will be enhanced by landscape metrics and decision support tools for objective, scale independent and problem oriented RU delineation to provide the spatial modelling entities for process oriented and distributed simulation of vertical and lateral hydrological transport processes. On basis of this RUs suitable hydrological modelling approaches will be further developed with strong respect to a more detailed simulation of the lateral surface and subsurface flows as well as the channel flow. This methodical enhancement of the well recognised RU-concept will be applied to the river basin of the Saale (Ac: 23 179 km2) and validated by a nested catchment approach, which allows multi-response-validation and estimation of uncertainties of the modelling results. Integrated modelling of such a complex basin strongly influenced by manifold human activities (reservoirs, agriculture, urban areas and industry) can only be achieved by coupling the various modelling approaches

Assessment of vulnerability in karst aquifers using a quantitative integrated numerical model: catchment characterization and high resolution monitoring - Application to semi-arid regions- Lebanon.

Science.gov (United States)

Doummar, Joanna; Aoun, Michel; Andari, Fouad

2016-04-01

Karst aquifers are highly heterogeneous and characterized by a duality of recharge (concentrated; fast versus diffuse; slow) and a duality of flow which directly influences groundwater flow and spring responses. Given this heterogeneity in flow and infiltration, karst aquifers do not always obey standard hydraulic laws. Therefore the assessment of their vulnerability reveals to be challenging. Studies have shown that vulnerability of aquifers is highly governed by recharge to groundwater. On the other hand specific parameters appear to play a major role in the spatial and temporal distribution of infiltration on a karst system, thus greatly influencing the discharge rates observed at a karst spring, and consequently the vulnerability of a spring. This heterogeneity can only be depicted using an integrated numerical model to quantify recharge spatially and assess the spatial and temporal vulnerability of a catchment for contamination. In the framework of a three-year PEER NSF/USAID funded project, the vulnerability of a karst catchment in Lebanon is assessed quantitatively using a numerical approach. The aim of the project is also to refine actual evapotranspiration rates and spatial recharge distribution in a semi arid environment. For this purpose, a monitoring network was installed since July 2014 on two different pilot karst catchment (drained by Qachqouch Spring and Assal Spring) to collect high resolution data to be used in an integrated catchment numerical model with MIKE SHE, DHI including climate, unsaturated zone, and saturated zone. Catchment characterization essential for the model included geological mapping and karst features (e.g., dolines) survey as they contribute to fast flow. Tracer experiments were performed under different flow conditions (snow melt and low flow) to delineate the catchment area, reveal groundwater velocities and response to snowmelt events. An assessment of spring response after precipitation events allowed the estimation of the

Characterization of NIES CRM No. 23 Tea Leaves II for the determination of multielements.

Science.gov (United States)

Mori, Ikuko; Ukachi, Miyuki; Nagano, Kimiyo; Ito, Hiroyasu; Yoshinaga, Jun; Nishikawa, Masataka

2010-05-01

A candidate environmental certified reference material (CRM) for the determination of multielements in tea leaves and materials of similar matrix, NIES CRM No. 23 Tea Leaves II, has been developed and characterized by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan. The origin of the material was tea leaves, which were ground, sieved through a 106-microm mesh, homogenized, and then subdivided into amber glass bottles. The results of homogeneity and stability tests indicated that the material was sufficiently homogeneous and stable for use as a reference material. The property values of the material were statistically determined based on chemical analyses by a network of laboratories using a wide range of methods. Sixteen laboratories participated in the characterization, and nine certified values and five reference values were obtained. These property values of the candidate CRM, which are expressed as mass fractions, were close to the median and/or mean values of the mass fractions of elements in various tea products. The candidate CRM is appropriate for use in analytical quality control and in the evaluation of methods used in the analysis of tea and materials of similar matrix.

Nanotechnologies et Génie Civil, comment coopérer pour innover ?

OpenAIRE

LEBENTAL, Bérengère

2010-01-01

On discute la gestion de projet innovant à partir de l'exemple du projet Nanosonar, un projet de coopération entre le CEA-LETI et le LCPC visant au développement de nanocapteur innovant pour le suivi de durabilité en génie civil.

Participatory scenario development for integrated assessment of nutrient flows in a Catalan river catchment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Caille

2007-11-01

Full Text Available Rivers in developed regions are under significant stress due to nutrient enrichment generated mainly by human activities. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus emissions are the product of complex dynamic systems influenced by various factors such as demographic, socio-economic and technological development. Using a Catalan river catchment, La Tordera (North-East of Spain, as a case study of an integrated and interdisciplinary environmental assessment of nutrient flows, we present and discuss the development of narrative socio-economic scenarios through a participatory process for the sustainable management of the anthropogenic sources of nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus. In this context, scenarios are an appropriate tool to assist nutrient emissions modelling, and to assess impacts, possible pathways for socio-economic development and associated uncertainties. Evaluated against the 1993–2003 baseline period, scenarios target the 2030 horizon, i.e. through the implementation process of the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC. After a critical examination of the methodology used in the participatory development of socio-economic scenarios, we present four possible futures (or perspectives for the Catalan river catchment conceived by stakeholders invited to a workshop. Keys to the success of such a participatory process were trust, which enhanced openness, and disagreements, which fostered the group's creativity for scenario development. The translation of narrative socio-economic scenarios into meaningful nutrient emission scenarios is also discussed. By integrating findings of natural sciences and socio-economic analysis, we aim to assist decision makers and stakeholders in evaluating optimal management strategies for the anthropogenic sources of nitrogen and phosphorus.

Safeguarding the provision of ecosystem services in catchment systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Everard, Mark

2013-04-01

A narrow technocentric focus on a few favored ecosystem services (generally provisioning services) has led to ecosystem degradation globally, including catchment systems and their capacities to support human well-being. Increasing recognition of the multiple benefits provided by ecosystems is slowly being translated into policy and some areas of practice, although there remains a significant shortfall in the incorporation of a systemic perspective into operation management and decision-making tools. Nevertheless, a range of ecosystem-based solutions to issues as diverse as flooding and green space provision in the urban environment offers hope for improving habitat and optimization of beneficial services. The value of catchment ecosystem processes and their associated services is also being increasingly recognized and internalized by the water industry, improving water quality and quantity through catchment land management rather than at greater expense in the treatment costs of contaminated water abstracted lower in catchments. Parallel recognition of the value of working with natural processes, rather than "defending" built assets when catchment hydrology is adversely affected by unsympathetic upstream development, is being progressively incorporated into flood risk management policy. This focus on wider catchment processes also yields a range of cobenefits for fishery, wildlife, amenity, flood risk, and other interests, which may be optimized if multiple stakeholders and their diverse value systems are included in decision-making processes. Ecosystem services, particularly implemented as a central element of the ecosystem approach, provide an integrated framework for building in these different perspectives and values, many of them formerly excluded, into commercial and resource management decision-making processes, thereby making tractable the integrative aspirations of sustainable development. This can help redress deeply entrenched inherited assumptions

Prioritization of catchments based on soil erosion using remote sensing and GIS.

Science.gov (United States)

Khadse, Gajanan K; Vijay, Ritesh; Labhasetwar, Pawan K

2015-06-01

Water and soil are the most essential natural resources for socioeconomic development and sustenance of life. A study of soil and water dynamics at a watershed level facilitates a scientific approach towards their conservation and management. Remote sensing and Geographic Information System are tools that help to plan and manage natural resources on watershed basis. Studies were conducted for the formulation of catchment area treatment plan based on watershed prioritization with soil erosion studies using remote sensing techniques, corroborated with Geographic Information System (GIS), secondary data and ground truth information. Estimation of runoff and sediment yield is necessary in prioritization of catchment for the design of soil conservation structures and for identifying the critical erosion-prone areas of a catchment for implementation of best management plan with limited resources. The Universal Soil Loss Equation, Sediment Yield Determination and silt yield index methods are used for runoff and soil loss estimation for prioritization of the catchments. On the basis of soil erosion classes, the watersheds were grouped into very high, high, moderate and low priorities. High-priority watersheds need immediate attention for soil and water conservation, whereas low-priority watershed having good vegetative cover and low silt yield index may not need immediate attention for such treatments.

Catchment-scale evaluation of pollution potential of urban snow at two residential catchments in southern Finland.

Science.gov (United States)

Sillanpää, Nora; Koivusalo, Harri

2013-01-01

Despite the crucial role of snow in the hydrological cycle in cold climate conditions, monitoring studies of urban snow quality often lack discussions about the relevance of snow in the catchment-scale runoff management. In this study, measurements of snow quality were conducted at two residential catchments in Espoo, Finland, simultaneously with continuous runoff measurements. The results of the snow quality were used to produce catchment-scale estimates of areal snow mass loads (SML). Based on the results, urbanization reduced areal snow water equivalent but increased pollutant accumulation in snow: SMLs in a medium-density residential catchment were two- to four-fold higher in comparison with a low-density residential catchment. The main sources of pollutants were related to vehicular traffic and road maintenance, but also pet excrement increased concentrations to a high level. Ploughed snow can contain 50% of the areal pollutant mass stored in snow despite its small surface area within a catchment.

Integrated analysis of water quality parameters for cost-effective faecal pollution management in river catchments.

Science.gov (United States)

Nnane, Daniel Ekane; Ebdon, James Edward; Taylor, Huw David

2011-03-01

In many parts of the world, microbial contamination of surface waters used for drinking, recreation, and shellfishery remains a pervasive risk to human health, especially in Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDC). However, the capacity to provide effective management strategies to break the waterborne route to human infection is often thwarted by our inability to identify the source of microbial contamination. Microbial Source Tracking (MST) has potential to improve water quality management in complex river catchments that are either routinely, or intermittently contaminated by faecal material from one or more sources, by attributing faecal loads to their human or non-human sources, and thereby supporting more rational approaches to microbial risk assessment. The River Ouse catchment in southeast England (U.K.) was used as a model with which to investigate the integration and application of a novel and simple MST approach to monitor microbial water quality over one calendar year, thereby encompassing a range of meteorological conditions. A key objective of the work was to develop simple low-cost protocols that could be easily replicated. Bacteriophages (viruses) capable of infecting a human specific strain of Bacteroides GB-124, and their correlation with presumptive Escherichia coli, were used to distinguish sources of faecal pollution. The results reported here suggest that in this river catchment the principal source of faecal pollution in most instances was non-human in origin. During storm events, presumptive E. coli and presumptive intestinal enterococci levels were 1.1-1.2 logs higher than during dry weather conditions, and levels of the faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) were closely associated with increased turbidity levels (presumptive E. coli and turbidity, r = 0.43). Spatio-temporal variation in microbial water quality parameters was accounted for by three principal components (67.6%). Cluster Analysis, reduced the fourteen monitoring sites to six

Spatial and temporal variations in landscape evolution: historic and longer-term sediment flux through global catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Covault, Jacob A.; Craddock, William H.; Romans, Brian W.; Fildani, Andrea; Gosai, Mayur

2013-01-01

Sediment generation and transport through terrestrial catchments influence soil distribution, geochemical cycling of particulate and dissolved loads, and the character of the stratigraphic record of Earth history. To assess the spatiotemporal variation in landscape evolution, we compare global compilations of stream gauge–derived () and cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN)–derived (predominantly 10Be; ) denudation of catchments (mm/yr) and sediment load of rivers (Mt/yr). Stream gauges measure suspended sediment loads of rivers during several to tens of years, whereas CRNs provide catchment-integrated denudation rates at 102–105-yr time scales. Stream gauge–derived and CRN-derived sediment loads in close proximity to one another (temporary storage of sediment in flood plains can provide stream gauge–based sediment loads and denudation rates that are applicable over longer periods than the durations of gauge measurements. The buffering capacity of catchments also has implications for interpreting the stratigraphic record; delayed sediment transfer might complicate the stratigraphic record of external forcings and catchment modification.

Calibration of the sodium base cation dominance index of weathering for the River Dee catchment in north-east Scotland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stutter, M. [Aberdeen Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Plant and Soil Science; Smart, R.; Cresser, M. [York Univ. (United Kingdom). Environmental Dept.

2002-07-01

Previously the dominance of base cations by Na{sup +} in river water in upland catchments with low weathering rates and influenced by marine-derived aerosols has been suggested as a quantitative index of weathering rate upstream of the sampling point. Using data for 59 sites from a study of the River Dee catchment in NE Scotland, the index has been fully calibrated against catchment weathering rates and net alkalinity production, derived through input output budget methods, for both upland and agricultural catchments and over a wide range of parent materials. It is shown that the relationship between Na{sup +} dominance and weathering rate is logarithmic, rather than linear as initially suggested. The excellent correlations highlight the potential use of this Na{sup +} dominance index for the direct quantification of catchment susceptibility to acidification at fine spatial resolution, using a few simple and inexpensive measurements. Stronger correlations were observed between the % Na{sup +} dominance and net annual flux of alkalinity than between % Na{sup +} dominance and weathering rate derived from summation of base cation fluxes. This demonstrates the importance of mechanisms controlling the transport of base cations out of catchments, namely in association with organic matter and with anthropogenically derived SO{sub 4}{sup 2-}. These processes are shown to reduce the residual alkalinity derived through weathering. The partial neutralization of organic acidity by internally generated alkalinity has implications in the context of using the mass balance approach for setting critical loads for catchments. (Author)

Catchment response to lava damming: integrating field observation, geochronology and landscape evolution modelling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Gorp, Wouter; Schoorl, Jeroen M.; Temme, Arnaud J. A. M.; Reimann, Tony; Wijbrans, Jan R.; Maddy, Darrel; Demir, Tuncer; Veldkamp, Tom

2016-01-01

Combining field reconstruction and landscape evolution modelling can be useful to investigate the relative role of different drivers on catchment response. The Geren Catchment (~45 km2) in western Turkey is suitable for such a study, as it has been influenced by uplift, climate change and lava

How young water fractions can delineate travel time distributions in contrasting catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Lutz, Stefanie; Zink, Matthias; Merz, Ralf

2017-04-01

Travel time distributions (TTDs) are crucial descriptors of flow and transport processes in catchments. Tracking fluxes of environmental tracers such as stable water isotopes offers a practicable method to determine TTDs. The mean transit time (MTT) is the most commonly reported statistic of TTDs; however, MTT assessments are prone to large aggregation biases resulting from spatial heterogeneity and non-stationarity in real-world catchments. Recently, the young water fraction (Fyw) has been introduced as a more robust statistic that can be derived from seasonal tracer cycles. In this study, we aimed at improving the assessment of TTDs by using Fyw as additional information in lumped isotope models. First, we calculated Fyw from monthly δ18O-samples for 24 contrasting sub-catchments in a meso-scale catchment (3300 km2). Fyw ranged from 0.01 to 0.27 (mean= 0.11) and was not significantly correlated with catchment characteristics (e.g., mean slope, catchment area, and baseflow index) apart from the dominant soil type. Second, assuming gamma-shaped TTDs, we determined time-invariant TTDs for each sub-catchment by optimization of lumped isotope models using the convolution integral method. Whereas multiple optimization runs for the same sub-catchment showed a wide range of TTD parameters, the use of Fyw as additional information allowed constraining this range and thus improving the assessment of MTTs. Hence, the best model fit to observed isotope data might not be the desired solution, as the resulting TTD might define a young water fraction non-consistent with the tracer-cycle based Fyw. Given that the latter is a robust descriptor of fast-flow contribution, isotope models should instead aim at accurately describing both Fyw and the isotope time series in order to improve our understanding of flow and transport in catchments.

Zoning of the White Sea catchment area by the degree of continental runoff influence on the marine environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bulavina A. S.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Methodologies for the integral evaluation of the potential impact of continental runoff on the marine aquatic environment have been developed and tested in relation to the catchment area of the White Sea. Integral indicators of pollution potential (PP and self-purification capacity (SPC of the river waters have been calculated within the boundaries of the hydrologic areas. The following indicators have been used to calculate the PP: the volume of wastewater and the population density in the catchment area (anthropogenic components of pollution, sediment load (a natural component of pollution. Such natural settings of the catchment as the lake percentage, woodiness and the role of topography in self-purification of rivers have been used to calculate the SPC. The quality of river waters, entering the sea, is the result of the ratio of the proposed integrated indicators. On the basis of the quantitative ratios of PP and SPC, the zoning of the catchment area according to the degree of the negative impact of river waters on water quality in the White Sea has been performed. The resulting zoning scheme is demonstrated as a holistic picture, representing a complex of natural-economic factors on the river catchments of the White Sea basin. It has been revealed that river runoff from a considerable part of the catchment area has not a significant negative impact on the water quality on the White Sea. The greatest pollution effect on the waters of the White Sea has the Northern Dvina River and the Niva River. The obtained data are well correlated with the data of hydrochemical observations in the bays of the White Sea. The objectivity of integrated assessment has been provided by the base on a large number of field data and the exception of the indicators that have not quantitative expression. The obtained results can be used to develop scientifically valid environmental programmes and to plan industrial development in the catchment area.

Recession-based hydrological models for estimating low flows in ungauged catchments in the Himalayas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. G. Rees

2004-01-01

Full Text Available The Himalayan region of Nepal and northern India experiences hydrological extremes from monsoonal floods during July to September, when most of the annual precipitation falls, to periods of very low flows during the dry season (December to February. While the monsoon floods cause acute disasters such as loss of human life and property, mudslides and infrastructure damage, the lack of water during the dry season has a chronic impact on the lives of local people. The management of water resources in the region is hampered by relatively sparse hydrometerological networks and consequently, many resource assessments are required in catchments where no measurements exist. A hydrological model for estimating dry season flows in ungauged catchments, based on recession curve behaviour, has been developed to address this problem. Observed flows were fitted to a second order storage model to enable average annual recession behaviour to be examined. Regionalised models were developed, using a calibration set of 26 catchments, to predict three recession curve parameters: the storage constant; the initial recession flow and the start date of the recession. Relationships were identified between: the storage constant and catchment area; the initial recession flow and elevation (acting as a surrogate for rainfall; and the start date of the recession and geographic location. An independent set of 13 catchments was used to evaluate the robustness of the models. The regional models predicted the average volume of water in an annual recession period (1st of October to the 1st of February with an average error of 8%, while mid-January flows were predicted to within ±50% for 79% of the catchments in the data set. Keywords: Himalaya, recession curve, water resources, ungauged catchment, regionalisation, low flows

An operational weather radar-based Quantitative Precipitation Estimation and its application in catchment water resources modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

He, Xin; Vejen, Flemming; Stisen, Simon

2011-01-01

of precipitation compared with rain-gauge-based methods, thus providing the basis for better water resources assessments. The radar QPE algorithm called ARNE is a distance-dependent areal estimation method that merges radar data with ground surface observations. The method was applied to the Skjern River catchment...... in western Denmark where alternative precipitation estimates were also used as input to an integrated hydrologic model. The hydrologic responses from the model were analyzed by comparing radar- and ground-based precipitation input scenarios. Results showed that radar QPE products are able to generate...... reliable simulations of stream flow and water balance. The potential of using radar-based precipitation was found to be especially high at a smaller scale, where the impact of spatial resolution was evident from the stream discharge results. Also, groundwater recharge was shown to be sensitive...

Catchment Morphing (CM): A Novel Approach for Runoff Modeling in Ungauged Catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jun; Han, Dawei

2017-12-01

Runoff prediction in ungauged catchments has been one of the major challenges in the past decades. However, due to the tremendous heterogeneity of the catchments, obstacles exist in deducing model parameters for ungauged catchments from gauged ones. We propose a novel approach to predict ungauged runoff with Catchment Morphing (CM) using a fully distributed model. CM is defined as by changing the catchment characteristics (area and slope here) from the baseline model built with a gauged catchment to model the ungauged ones. As a proof of concept, a case study on seven catchments in the UK has been used to demonstrate the proposed scheme. Comparing the predicted with measured runoff, the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) varies from 0.03 to 0.69 in six catchments. Moreover, NSEs are significantly improved (up to 0.81) when considering the discrepancy of percentage runoff between the target and baseline catchments. A distinct advantage has been experienced by comparing the CM with a traditional method for ungauged catchments. The advantages are: (a) less demand of the similarity between the baseline catchment and the ungauged catchment, (b) less demand of available data, and (c) potentially widely applicable in varied catchments. This study demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed scheme as a potentially powerful alternative to the conventional methods in runoff predictions of ungauged catchments. Clearly, more work beyond this pilot study is needed to explore and develop this new approach further to maturity by the hydrological community.

Flash flood modelling for ungauged catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Garambois, P.-A.; Roux, H.; Larnier, K.; Dartus, D.

2012-04-01

Flash flood is a very intense and quick hydrologic response of a catchment to rainfall. This phenomenon has a high spatial-temporal variability as its generating storm, often hitting small catchments (few km2). Data collected by (Gaume et al. 2009) about 500 flash floods over the last 50 years showed that they could occur everywhere in Europe and more often in the Mediterranean regions, Alpine regions and continental Europe. Given the small spatial-temporal scales and high variability of flash floods, their prediction remains a hard exercise as the necessary data are often scarce. Flash flood prediction on ungauged catchments is one of the challenges of hydrological modelling as defined by (Sivapalan et al. 2003). Several studies have been headed up with the MARINE model (Modélisation de l'Anticipation du Ruissellement et des Inondations pour des évèNements Extrêmes) for the Gard region (France), (Roux et al. 2011), (Castaings et al. 2009). This physically based spatially distributed rainfall runoff model is dedicated to flash flood prediction. The study aims at finding a methodology for flash flood prediction at ungauged locations in the Cévennes-Vivarais region in particular. The regionalization method is based on multiple calibrations on gauged catchments in order to extract model structures (model + parameter values) for each catchment. Several mathematical methods (multiple regressions, transfer functions, krigging…) will then be tested to calculate a regional parameter set. The study also investigates the usability of additional hydrologic indices at different time scales to constrain model predictions from parameters obtained using these indices, and this independently of the model considered. These hydrologic indices gather information on hydrograph shape or catchment dynamic for instance. Results explaining global catchments behaviour are expected that way. The spatial-temporal variability of storms is also described through indices and linked with

Catchment Classification: Connecting Climate, Structure and Function

Science.gov (United States)

Sawicz, K. A.; Wagener, T.; Sivapalan, M.; Troch, P. A.; Carrillo, G. A.

2010-12-01

Hydrology does not yet possess a generally accepted catchment classification framework. Such a classification framework needs to: [1] give names to things, i.e. the main classification step, [2] permit transfer of information, i.e. regionalization of information, [3] permit development of generalizations, i.e. to develop new theory, and [4] provide a first order environmental change impact assessment, i.e., the hydrologic implications of climate, land use and land cover change. One strategy is to create a catchment classification framework based on the notion of catchment functions (partitioning, storage, and release). Results of an empirical study presented here connects climate and structure to catchment function (in the form of select hydrologic signatures), based on analyzing over 300 US catchments. Initial results indicate a wide assortment of signature relationships with properties of climate, geology, and vegetation. The uncertainty in the different regionalized signatures varies widely, and therefore there is variability in the robustness of classifying ungauged basins. This research provides insight into the controls of hydrologic behavior of a catchment, and enables a classification framework applicable to gauged and ungauged across the study domain. This study sheds light on what we can expect to achieve in mapping climate, structure and function in a top-down manner. Results of this study complement work done using a bottom-up physically-based modeling framework to generalize this approach (Carrillo et al., this session).

Assessment of surface water resources availability using catchment modeling and the results of tracer studies in the meso-scale Migina Catchment, Rwanda

Science.gov (United States)

Munyaneza, O.; Mukubwa, A.; Maskey, S.; Wenninger, J.; Uhlenbrook, S.

2013-12-01

In the last couple of years, different hydrological research projects were undertaken in the Migina catchment (243.2 km2), a tributary of the Kagera river in Southern Rwanda. These projects were aimed to understand hydrological processes of the catchment using analytical and experimental approaches and to build a pilot case whose experience can be extended to other catchments in Rwanda. In the present study, we developed a hydrological model of the catchment, which can be used to inform water resources planning and decision making. The semi-distributed hydrological model HEC-HMS (version 3.5) was used with its soil moisture accounting, unit hydrograph, liner reservoir (for base flow) and Muskingum-Cunge (river routing) methods. We used rainfall data from 12 stations and streamflow data from 5 stations, which were collected as part of this study over a period of two years (May 2009 and June 2011). The catchment was divided into five sub-catchments each represented by one of the five observed streamflow gauges. The model parameters were calibrated separately for each sub-catchment using the observed streamflow data. Calibration results obtained were found acceptable at four stations with a Nash-Sutcliffe Model Efficiency of 0.65 on daily runoff at the catchment outlet. Due to the lack of sufficient and reliable data for longer periods, a model validation (split sample test) was not undertaken. However, we used results from tracer based hydrograph separation from a previous study to compare our model results in terms of the runoff components. It was shown that the model performed well in simulating the total flow volume, peak flow and timing as well as the portion of direct runoff and base flow. We observed considerable disparities in the parameters (e.g. groundwater storage) and runoff components across the five sub-catchments, that provided insights into the different hydrological processes at sub-catchment scale. We conclude that such disparities justify the need

Réhabilitation psychosociale et schizophrénie : transfert des apprentissages cognitifs dans la vie quotidienne

OpenAIRE

Pivot, Lucile

2016-01-01

La schizophrénie est une pathologie psychiatrique chronique d’apparition précoce (entre 15 et 25 ans) et relativement fréquente. Elle se caractérise par un ensemble de symptômes très hétérogènes, qui varient au cours de la maladie et dont le retrait social et les difficultés cognitives sont les plus invalidants (Krebs, 2014).Au cours des dernières décennies, la compréhension de la schizophrénie a beaucoup évolué grâce à l’avancée de connaissances dans le domaine des sciences humaines et biomé...

The validity of flow approximations when simulating catchment-integrated flash floods

Science.gov (United States)

Bout, B.; Jetten, V. G.

2018-01-01

Within hydrological models, flow approximations are commonly used to reduce computation time. The validity of these approximations is strongly determined by flow height, flow velocity and the spatial resolution of the model. In this presentation, the validity and performance of the kinematic, diffusive and dynamic flow approximations are investigated for use in a catchment-based flood model. Particularly, the validity during flood events and for varying spatial resolutions is investigated. The OpenLISEM hydrological model is extended to implement both these flow approximations and channel flooding based on dynamic flow. The flow approximations are used to recreate measured discharge in three catchments, among which is the hydrograph of the 2003 flood event in the Fella river basin. Furthermore, spatial resolutions are varied for the flood simulation in order to investigate the influence of spatial resolution on these flow approximations. Results show that the kinematic, diffusive and dynamic flow approximation provide least to highest accuracy, respectively, in recreating measured discharge. Kinematic flow, which is commonly used in hydrological modelling, substantially over-estimates hydrological connectivity in the simulations with a spatial resolution of below 30 m. Since spatial resolutions of models have strongly increased over the past decades, usage of routed kinematic flow should be reconsidered. The combination of diffusive or dynamic overland flow and dynamic channel flooding provides high accuracy in recreating the 2003 Fella river flood event. Finally, in the case of flood events, spatial modelling of kinematic flow substantially over-estimates hydrological connectivity and flow concentration since pressure forces are removed, leading to significant errors.

Empirical models based on the universal soil loss equation fail to predict sediment discharges from Chesapeake Bay catchments.

Science.gov (United States)

Boomer, Kathleen B; Weller, Donald E; Jordan, Thomas E

2008-01-01

The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its derivatives are widely used for identifying watersheds with a high potential for degrading stream water quality. We compared sediment yields estimated from regional application of the USLE, the automated revised RUSLE2, and five sediment delivery ratio algorithms to measured annual average sediment delivery in 78 catchments of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. We did the same comparisons for another 23 catchments monitored by the USGS. Predictions exceeded observed sediment yields by more than 100% and were highly correlated with USLE erosion predictions (Pearson r range, 0.73-0.92; p USLE estimates (r = 0.87; p USLE model did not change the results. In ranked comparisons between observed and predicted sediment yields, the models failed to identify catchments with higher yields (r range, -0.28-0.00; p > 0.14). In a multiple regression analysis, soil erodibility, log (stream flow), basin shape (topographic relief ratio), the square-root transformed proportion of forest, and occurrence in the Appalachian Plateau province explained 55% of the observed variance in measured suspended sediment loads, but the model performed poorly (r(2) = 0.06) at predicting loads in the 23 USGS watersheds not used in fitting the model. The use of USLE or multiple regression models to predict sediment yields is not advisable despite their present widespread application. Integrated watershed models based on the USLE may also be unsuitable for making management decisions.

Design for participation in ecologically sound management of South Africa's Mlazi River catchment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Auerbach, R.

1999-01-01

Without local participation, integrated catchment management and Landcare will not become a general reality in South Africa. With support from the South African Water Research Commission, the University of Natal's Farmer Support Group set up the Ntshongweni Catchment Management Programme

Recession-based hydrological models for estimating low flows in ungauged catchments in the Himalayas

Science.gov (United States)

Rees, H. G.; Holmes, M. G. R.; Young, A. R.; Kansakar, S. R.

The Himalayan region of Nepal and northern India experiences hydrological extremes from monsoonal floods during July to September, when most of the annual precipitation falls, to periods of very low flows during the dry season (December to February). While the monsoon floods cause acute disasters such as loss of human life and property, mudslides and infrastructure damage, the lack of water during the dry season has a chronic impact on the lives of local people. The management of water resources in the region is hampered by relatively sparse hydrometerological networks and consequently, many resource assessments are required in catchments where no measurements exist. A hydrological model for estimating dry season flows in ungauged catchments, based on recession curve behaviour, has been developed to address this problem. Observed flows were fitted to a second order storage model to enable average annual recession behaviour to be examined. Regionalised models were developed, using a calibration set of 26 catchments, to predict three recession curve parameters: the storage constant; the initial recession flow and the start date of the recession. Relationships were identified between: the storage constant and catchment area; the initial recession flow and elevation (acting as a surrogate for rainfall); and the start date of the recession and geographic location. An independent set of 13 catchments was used to evaluate the robustness of the models. The regional models predicted the average volume of water in an annual recession period (1st of October to the 1st of February) with an average error of 8%, while mid-January flows were predicted to within ±50% for 79% of the catchments in the data set.

A novel approach for runoff modelling in ungauged catchments by Catchment Morphing

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, J.; Han, D.

2017-12-01

Runoff prediction in ungauged catchments has been one of the major challenges in the past decades. However, due to the tremendous heterogeneity of hydrological catchments, obstacles exist in deducing model parameters for ungauged catchments from gauged ones. We propose a novel approach to predict ungauged runoff with Catchment Morphing (CM) using a fully distributed model. CM is defined as by changing the catchment characteristics (area and slope here) from the baseline model built with a gauged catchment to model the ungauged ones. The advantages of CM are: (a) less demand of the similarity between the baseline catchment and the ungauged catchment, (b) less demand of available data, and (c) potentially applicable in varied catchments. A case study on seven catchments in the UK has been used to demonstrate the proposed scheme. To comprehensively examine the CM approach, distributed rainfall inputs are utilised in the model, and fractal landscapes are used to morph the land surface from the baseline model to the target model. The preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, which is promising in runoff simulation for ungauged catchments. Clearly, more work beyond this pilot study is needed to explore and develop this new approach further to maturity by the hydrological community.

Network-based Modeling of Mesoscale Catchments - The Hydrology Perspective of Glowa-danube

Science.gov (United States)

Ludwig, R.; Escher-Vetter, H.; Hennicker, R.; Mauser, W.; Niemeyer, S.; Reichstein, M.; Tenhunen, J.

Within the GLOWA initiative of the German Ministry for Research and Educa- tion (BMBF), the project GLOWA-Danube is funded to establish a transdisciplinary network-based decision support tool for water related issues in the Upper Danube wa- tershed. It aims to develop and validate integration techniques, integrated models and integrated monitoring procedures and to implement them in the network-based De- cision Support System DANUBIA. An accurate description of processes involved in energy, water and matter fluxes and turnovers requires an intense collaboration and exchange of water related expertise of different scientific disciplines. DANUBIA is conceived as a distributed expert network and is developed on the basis of re-useable, refineable, and documented sub-models. In order to synthesize a common understand- ing between the project partners, a standardized notation of parameters and functions and a platform-independent structure of computational methods and interfaces has been established using the Unified Modeling Language UML. DANUBIA is object- oriented, spatially distributed and raster-based at its core. It applies the concept of "proxels" (Process Pixel) as its basic object, which has different dimensions depend- ing on the viewing scale and connects to its environment through fluxes. The presented study excerpts the hydrological view point of GLOWA-Danube, its approach of model coupling and network based communication (using the Remote Method Invocation RMI), the object-oriented technology to simulate physical processes and interactions at the land surface and the methodology to treat the issue of spatial and temporal scal- ing in large, heterogeneous catchments. The mechanisms applied to communicate data and model parameters across the typical discipline borders will be demonstrated from the perspective of a land-surface object, which comprises the capabilities of interde- pendent expert models for snowmelt, soil water movement, runoff formation, plant

Ķīniešu tradīcijas un Mao Dzeduns: Mao „ci” dzeju interpretācija

OpenAIRE

Komova, Ņina

2010-01-01

Bakalaura darba tēma ir “Ķīniešu tradīcija un Mao Dzeduns: Mao “ci” dzeju interpretācija”. Šajā darba tiek aplūkota Mao Dzeduna dzeja, kādus dzejoļus viņš rakstīja, kādas bija galvenās tēmas viņā dzejā, kā arī daži no viņa dzejoļu tulkojumi. Šajā laikā cilvēkiem ir izveidojusies liela interese par Ķīnas kultūru, jo īpaši ir interese par literatūru un dzeju. Senā ķīniešu dzeja ir plaši aplūkota arī Latvijā. Ir iztulkoti un komentēti Li Bo darbi, kā arī citi seno ķīniešu autoru darbi. Iz...

Merging perspectives in the catchment sciences: the US-Japan Joint Seminar on catchment hydrology and forest biogeochemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Kevin J. McGuire; Stephen D. Sebestyen; Nobuhito Ohte; Emily M. Elliott; Takashi Gomi; Mark B. Green; Brian L. McGlynn; Naoko. Tokuchi

2014-01-01

Japan has strong research programmes in the catchment sciences that overlap with interests in the US catchment science community, particularly in experimental and field-based research. Historically, however, there has been limited interaction between these two hydrologic science communities because of differences in language, culture, and research approaches. These...

Nutrient fluxes from coastal California catchments with suburban development

Science.gov (United States)

Melack, J. M.; Leydecker, A.; Beighley, E.; Robinson, T.; Coombs, S.

2005-12-01

Numerous streams originate in the mountains fringing California's coast and transport nutrients into coastal waters. In central California, these streams traverse catchments with land covers including chaparral, grazed grasslands, orchards, industrial agriculture and suburban and urban development. Fluvial nutrient concentrations and fluxes vary as a function of these land covers and as a function of considerable fluctuations in rainfall. As part of a long-term investigation of mobilization and fluvial transport of nutrients in catchments bordering the Santa Barbara Channel we have intensively sampled nutrient concentrations and measured discharge during storm and base flows in multiple catchments and subcatchments. Volume-weighted mean concentrations of nitrate generally ranged from 5 to 25 micromolar in undeveloped areas, increased to about 100 micromolar for suburban and most agricultural catchments, and were in excess of 1000 micromolar in catchments with greenhouse-based agriculture. Phosphate concentrations ranged from 2 to 20 micromolar among the catchments. These data are used to examine the premise that the suburbanized portion of the catchments is the primary source of nutrients to the streams.

Importance of vegetation, topography and flow paths for water transit times of base flow in alpine headwater catchments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. H. Mueller

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The mean transit time (MTT of water in a catchment gives information about storage, flow paths, sources of water and thus also about retention and release of solutes in a catchment. To our knowledge there are only a few catchment studies on the influence of vegetation cover changes on base flow MTTs. The main changes in vegetation cover in the Swiss Alps are massive shrub encroachment and forest expansion into formerly open habitats. Four small and relatively steep headwater catchments in the Swiss Alps (Ursern Valley were investigated to relate different vegetation cover to water transit times. Time series of water stable isotopes were used to calculate MTTs. The high temporal variation of the stable isotope signals in precipitation was strongly dampened in stream base flow samples. MTTs of the four catchments were 70 to 102 weeks. The strong dampening of the stable isotope input signal as well as stream water geochemistry points to deeper flow paths and mixing of waters of different ages at the catchments' outlets. MTTs were neither related to topographic indices nor vegetation cover. The major part of the quickly infiltrating precipitation likely percolates through fractured and partially karstified deeper rock zones, which increases the control of bedrock flow paths on MTT. Snow accumulation and the timing of its melt play an important role for stable isotope dynamics during spring and early summer. We conclude that, in mountainous headwater catchments with relatively shallow soil layers, the hydrogeological and geochemical patterns (i.e. geochemistry, porosity and hydraulic conductivity of rocks and snow dynamics influence storage, mixing and release of water in a stronger way than vegetation cover or topography do.

Impact of soil protection measures based on topographical variations through connectivity indices in two agricultural catchments in Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Taguas, Encarnación; Mesas, F. Javier; García-Ferrer, Alfonso; Marín-Moreno, Víctor; Mateos, Luciano

2017-04-01

Physiographic attributes of the catchments (spatial organization and internal connectivity) determine sediment production, transport and delivery to river channels downstream. Understanding the hydrological connectivity allows identifying runoff and sediment contribution from overland flow pathways, rills and gullies at the upper parts of the catchments to sink areas (Borselli et al., 2008). Currently, the design of orchards and row crops plantations is driven by traffic and machinery management criteria, meaning significant simplification of the landscape. Topographic alterations may reduce the connectivity and maximize the retention of water and sediments in catchments by increasing travel times and infiltration (Gay et al., 2016). There are connectivity indices based on topography and land use information (Borselli et al., 2008) and travel times (Chow et al., 1988) which may help to identify measures to reduce water and sediment transfer. In this work, connectivity indices derived from digital elevation models (DEM) of two small agricultural catchments where topographic measures to interrupt the connectivity had been implemented were analyzed. The topographical details of the tree row ridges in a young almond orchard catchment and half-moons (individual terraces) in an olive grove catchment were obtained using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) flights. The aim was to evaluate the benefits of ridges and half-moons by comparing spatial patterns of connectivity indices before and after the topographical modifications in the catchments. The catchments were flown in December 2016. The original DEMs were generated based on previous topographical information and a filter based on minimum heights. The statistics and the maps generated will be presented as results of our study and its interpretation will provide an analysis to preliminarily explore effective and economical measures for erosion control and improved water harvesting. REFERENCES Gay, O. Cerdan, V. Mardhel, M

Rice agriculture impacts catchment hydrographic patterns and nitrogen export characteristics in subtropical central China: a paired-catchment study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi; Liu, Xinliang; Wang, Hua; Li, Yong; Li, Yuyuan; Liu, Feng; Xiao, Runlin; Shen, Jianlin; Wu, Jinshui

2017-06-01

Increased nitrogen (N) concentrations in water bodies have highlighted issues regarding nutrient pollution in agricultural catchments. In this study, the ammonium-N (NH 4 + -N), nitrate-N (NO 3 - -N), and total N (TN) concentrations were observed in the stream water and groundwater of two contrasting catchments (named Tuojia and Jianshan) in subtropical central China from 2010 to 2014, to determine the rice agriculture impacts on the hydrographic patterns, and N export characteristics of the catchments. The results suggested that greater amounts of stream flow (523.0 vs. 434.7 mm year -1 ) and base flow (237.6 vs. 142.8 mm year -1 ) were produced in Tuojia than in Jianshan, and a greater base flow contribution to stream flow and higher frequencies of high-base flow days were observed during the fallow season than during the rice-growing season, indicating that intensive rice agriculture strongly influences the catchment hydrographic pattern. Rice agriculture resulted in moderate N pollution in the stream water and groundwater, particularly in Tuojia. Primarily, rice agriculture increased the NH 4 + -N concentration in the stream water; however, it increased the NO 3 - -N concentrations in the groundwater, suggesting that the different N species in the paddy fields migrated out of the catchments through distinct hydrological pathways. The average TN loading via stream flow and base flow was greater in Tuojia than in Jianshan (1.72 and 0.58 vs. 0.72 and 0.15 kg N ha -1  month -1 , respectively). Greater TN loading via stream flow was observed during the fallow season in Tuojia and during the rice-growing season in Jianshan, and these different results were most likely a result of the higher base flow contribution to TN loading (33.5 vs. 21.3%) and greater base flow enrichment ratio (1.062 vs. 0.876) in Tuojia than in Jianshan. Therefore, the impact of rice agriculture on catchment eco-hydrological processes should be considered when performing water quality

The development and evolution of landform based on neotectonic movement: The Sancha river catchment in the southwestern China

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Lingmin; Xu, Mo; Yang, Yanna; Wang, Xingbing

2018-02-01

Neotectonics has changed the coupled process of endogenic and exogenic geological dynamics, which mold the modern landform. Geomorphologic analysis is essential for identifying and understanding the tectonic activity and indicates the responsive mechanism of the landform to tectonic activity. At first, this research reconstructed the twisted Shanpen period planation surface, computed the valley floor width-to-height ratio of Sancha river and extracted the cross sections marking the river terraces to analyze the characteristics of the neotectonics. And then, the relation between neotectonic movement and landform development was analyzed by dividing the landform types. At last, the spatial variation of landform evolution was analyzed by extracting the Hypsometric Integral of sub-catchments. The Sancha river catchment's neotectonic movement presents the tilt-lift of earth's crust from NW to SE, which is characterized by the posthumous activity of Yanshan tectonic deformation. The spatial distribution of river terraces indicates that Sancha river catchment has experienced at least four intermittent uplifts and the fault blocks at both the sides of Liuzhi-Zhijin basement fault have differentially uplifted since the late Pleistocene. As the resurgence of Liuzhi-Zhijin basement fault, the Sancha river catchment was broken into two relative independent landform units. The spatial variations of the landform types near the Sancha river and the sub-catchments' landform evolution are characterized by periodic replacement. The styles of geological structure have controlled the development of landform far away from the Sancha River and influenced the landform evolution. The posthumous activities of the secondary structure have resulted in the spatial variation of sub-catchments' landform evolution, which presents periodic replacement with local exceptions. The present study suggests that spatial variations of the development and evolution of modern landform of Sancha River

Assessment of surface water resources availability using catchment modelling and the results of tracer studies in the mesoscale Migina Catchment, Rwanda

Science.gov (United States)

Munyaneza, O.; Mukubwa, A.; Maskey, S.; Uhlenbrook, S.; Wenninger, J.

2014-12-01

In the present study, we developed a catchment hydrological model which can be used to inform water resources planning and decision making for better management of the Migina Catchment (257.4 km2). The semi-distributed hydrological model HEC-HMS (Hydrologic Engineering Center - the Hydrologic Modelling System) (version 3.5) was used with its soil moisture accounting, unit hydrograph, liner reservoir (for baseflow) and Muskingum-Cunge (river routing) methods. We used rainfall data from 12 stations and streamflow data from 5 stations, which were collected as part of this study over a period of 2 years (May 2009 and June 2011). The catchment was divided into five sub-catchments. The model parameters were calibrated separately for each sub-catchment using the observed streamflow data. Calibration results obtained were found acceptable at four stations with a Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency index (NS) of 0.65 on daily runoff at the catchment outlet. Due to the lack of sufficient and reliable data for longer periods, a model validation was not undertaken. However, we used results from tracer-based hydrograph separation from a previous study to compare our model results in terms of the runoff components. The model performed reasonably well in simulating the total flow volume, peak flow and timing as well as the portion of direct runoff and baseflow. We observed considerable disparities in the parameters (e.g. groundwater storage) and runoff components across the five sub-catchments, which provided insights into the different hydrological processes on a sub-catchment scale. We conclude that such disparities justify the need to consider catchment subdivisions if such parameters and components of the water cycle are to form the base for decision making in water resources planning in the catchment.

Współwystępowanie astmy, alergicznego nieżytu nosa i idiosynkrazji aspirynowej

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrzej M. Fal

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Astma, alergiczny nieżyt nosa i nadwrażliwość na aspirynę stanowią coraz istotniejszy problem epidemiologiczny. W Polsce, pod kierunkiem Kliniki Chorób Wewnętrznych i Alergologii Akademii Medycznej we Wrocławiu przeprowadzono badanie epidemiologiczne w 11 ośrodkach. Wynika z niego, że częstość występowania tych problemów klinicznych stale wzrasta. Obecnie na astmę choruje 5,4% populacji, na ANN – 8,5%, a nadwrażliwość na aspirynę dotyczy ok. 0,5% populacji. Inne doniesienia mówią o częstszym występowaniu nadwrażliwości na aspirynę u chorych z atopią. W związku z tak dużym rozpowszechnieniem schorzeń o podłożu alergicznym i szerokim zastosowaniem w leczeniu innych schorzeń kwasu acetylosalicylowego oraz innych leków z grupy niesteroidowych leków przeciwzapalnych, problem częstości współwystępowania tych chorób wydaje się być istotny i jest przedmiotem niniejszej pracy. W analizie retrospektywnej zidentyfikowano wśród pacjentów Kliniki Chorób Wewnętrznych i Alergologii AM we Wrocławiu w latach 1999-2003 grupę 1 557 chorych z co najmniej jednym z rozpoznań: astmy, alergicznego nieżytu nosa lub nadwrażliwości na aspirynę. Astmę zdiagnozowano u 1 015 pacjentów, alergiczny nieżyt nosa u 495, natomiast nadwrażliwość na aspirynę u 363 chorych, co stanowiło odpowiednio: 65%, 32% i 23% grupy. Współwystępowanie astmy i alergicznego nieżytu nosa stwierdzono u 255 pacjentów. Współwystępowanie którejś z powyższych chorób i idiosynkrazji aspirynowej zaobserwowano odpowiednio u 3 i 6% grupy. Wnioskujemy, że alergiczny nieżyt nosa i astma współwystępują z dużą częstością, co świadczy o wspólnym podłożu patogenetycznym tych chorób i potwierdza koncepcję united airways disease. Częstość występowania idiosynkrazji aspirynowej w grupie chorych z atopią jest 10-krotnie większa w porównaniu z populacją ogólną.

Ground Albedo Neutron Sensing (GANS) for Measurement of Integral Soil Water Content at the Small Catchment Scale

Science.gov (United States)

Rivera Villarreyes, C.; Baroni, G.; Oswald, S. E.

2012-12-01

Soil water content at the plot or hill-slope scale is an important link between local vadose zone hydrology and catchment hydrology. One largest initiative to cover the measuring gap of soil moisture between point scale and remote sensing observations is the COSMOS network (Zreda et al., 2012). Here, cosmic-ray neutron sensing, which may be more precisely named ground albedo neutron sensing (GANS), is applied. The measuring principle is based on the crucial role of hydrogen as neutron moderator compared to others landscape materials. Soil water content contained in a footprint of ca. 600 m diameter and a depth ranging down to a few decimeters is inversely correlated to the neutron flux at the air-ground interface. This approach is now implemented, e.g. in USA (Zreda et al., 2012) and Germany (Rivera Villarreyes et al., 2011), based on its simple installation and integral measurement of soil moisture at the small catchment scale. The present study performed Ground Albedo Neutron Sensing on farmland at two locations in Germany under different vegetative situations (cropped and bare field) and different seasonal conditions (summer, autumn and winter). Ground albedo neutrons were measured at (i) a farmland close to Potsdam and Berlin cropped with corn in 2010, sunflower in 2011 and winter rye in 2012, and (ii) a mountainous farmland catchment (Schaefertal, Harz Mountains) since middle 2011. In order to test this methodology, classical soil moisture devices and meteorological data were used for comparison. Moreover, several calibration approaches, role of vegetation cover and transferability of calibration parameters to different times and locations were also evaluated. Observations suggest that GANS can overcome the lack of data for hydrological processes at the intermediate scale. Soil moisture from GANS compared quantitatively with mean values derived from a network of classical devices under vegetated and non- vegetated conditions. The GANS approach responded well

Avoiding Implementation Failure in Catchment Landscapes: A Case Study in Governance of the Great Barrier Reef.

Science.gov (United States)

Dale, Allan P; Vella, Karen; Gooch, Margaret; Potts, Ruth; Pressey, Robert L; Brodie, Jon; Eberhard, Rachel

2017-10-04

Water quality outcomes affecting Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are governed by multi-level and multi-party decision-making that influences forested and agricultural landscapes. With international concern about the GBR's declining ecological health, this paper identifies and focuses on implementation failure (primarily at catchment scale) as a systemic risk within the overall GBR governance system. There has been limited integrated analysis of the full suite of governance subdomains that often envelop defined policies, programs and delivery activities that influence water quality in the GBR. We consider how the implementation of separate purpose-specific policies and programs at catchment scale operate against well-known, robust design concepts for integrated catchment governance. We find design concerns within ten important governance subdomains that operate within GBR catchments. At a whole-of-GBR scale, we find a weak policy focus on strengthening these delivery-oriented subdomains and on effort integration across these subdomains within catchments. These governance problems when combined may contribute to failure in the implementation of major national, state and local government policies focused on improving water quality in the GBR, a lesson relevant to landscapes globally.

Catchment area-based evaluation of the AMC-dependent SCS-CN-based rainfall-runoff models

Science.gov (United States)

Mishra, S. K.; Jain, M. K.; Pandey, R. P.; Singh, V. P.

2005-09-01

Using a large set of rainfall-runoff data from 234 watersheds in the USA, a catchment area-based evaluation of the modified version of the Mishra and Singh (2002a) model was performed. The model is based on the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) methodology and incorporates the antecedent moisture in computation of direct surface runoff. Comparison with the existing SCS-CN method showed that the modified version performed better than did the existing one on the data of all seven area-based groups of watersheds ranging from 0.01 to 310.3 km2.

Managing Multiple Catchment Demands for Sustainable Water Use and Ecosystem Service Provision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathleen C. Stosch

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Ensuring water, food and energy security for a growing world population represents a 21st century catchment management challenge. Failure to recognise the complexity of interactions across ecosystem service provision can risk the loss of other key environmental and socioeconomic benefits from the natural capital of catchment systems. In particular, the ability of soil and water to meet human needs is undermined by uncertainties around climate change effects, ecosystem service interactions and conflicting stakeholder interests across catchments. This critical review draws from an extensive literature to discuss the benefits and challenges of utilising an ecosystem service approach for integrated catchment management (ICM. State-of-the-art research on ecosystem service assessment, mapping and participatory approaches is evaluated and a roadmap of the key short- and longer-term research needs for maximising landscape-scale ecosystem service provision from catchments is proposed.

Catchment-scale groundwater recharge and vegetation water use efficiency

Science.gov (United States)

Troch, P. A. A.; Dwivedi, R.; Liu, T.; Meira, A.; Roy, T.; Valdés-Pineda, R.; Durcik, M.; Arciniega, S.; Brena-Naranjo, J. A.

2017-12-01

Precipitation undergoes a two-step partitioning when it falls on the land surface. At the land surface and in the shallow subsurface, rainfall or snowmelt can either runoff as infiltration/saturation excess or quick subsurface flow. The rest will be stored temporarily in the root zone. From the root zone, water can leave the catchment as evapotranspiration or percolate further and recharge deep storage (e.g. fractured bedrock aquifer). Quantifying the average amount of water that recharges deep storage and sustains low flows is extremely challenging, as we lack reliable methods to quantify this flux at the catchment scale. It was recently shown, however, that for semi-arid catchments in Mexico, an index of vegetation water use efficiency, i.e. the Horton index (HI), could predict deep storage dynamics. Here we test this finding using 247 MOPEX catchments across the conterminous US, including energy-limited catchments. Our results show that the observed HI is indeed a reliable predictor of deep storage dynamics in space and time. We further investigate whether the HI can also predict average recharge rates across the conterminous US. We find that the HI can reliably predict the average recharge rate, estimated from the 50th percentile flow of the flow duration curve. Our results compare favorably with estimates of average recharge rates from the US Geological Survey. Previous research has shown that HI can be reliably estimated based on aridity index, mean slope and mean elevation of a catchment (Voepel et al., 2011). We recalibrated Voepel's model and used it to predict the HI for our 247 catchments. We then used these predicted values of the HI to estimate average recharge rates for our catchments, and compared them with those estimated from observed HI. We find that the accuracies of our predictions based on observed and predicted HI are similar. This provides an estimation method of catchment-scale average recharge rates based on easily derived catchment

Picturing and modelling catchments by representative hillslopes

Science.gov (United States)

Loritz, Ralf; Hassler, Sibylle; Jackisch, Conrad; Zehe, Erwin

2016-04-01

Hydrological modelling studies often start with a qualitative sketch of the hydrological processes of a catchment. These so-called perceptual models are often pictured as hillslopes and are generalizations displaying only the dominant and relevant processes of a catchment or hillslope. The problem with these models is that they are prone to become too much predetermined by the designer's background and experience. Moreover it is difficult to know if that picture is correct and contains enough complexity to represent the system under study. Nevertheless, because of their qualitative form, perceptual models are easy to understand and can be an excellent tool for multidisciplinary exchange between researchers with different backgrounds, helping to identify the dominant structures and processes in a catchment. In our study we explore whether a perceptual model built upon an intensive field campaign may serve as a blueprint for setting up representative hillslopes in a hydrological model to reproduce the functioning of two distinctly different catchments. We use a physically-based 2D hillslope model which has proven capable to be driven by measured soil-hydrological parameters. A key asset of our approach is that the model structure itself remains a picture of the perceptual model, which is benchmarked against a) geo-physical images of the subsurface and b) observed dynamics of discharge, distributed state variables and fluxes (soil moisture, matric potential and sap flow). Within this approach we are able to set up two behavioral model structures which allow the simulation of the most important hydrological fluxes and state variables in good accordance with available observations within the 19.4 km2 large Colpach catchment and the 4.5 km2 large Wollefsbach catchment in Luxembourg without the necessity of calibration. This corroborates, contrary to the widespread opinion, that a) lower mesoscale catchments may be modelled by representative hillslopes and b) physically-based

Surface-groundwater interactions in hard rocks in Sardon Catchment of western Spain: an integrated modeling approach

Science.gov (United States)

Hassan, S.M. Tanvir; Lubczynski, Maciek W.; Niswonger, Richard G.; Zhongbo, Su

2014-01-01

The structural and hydrological complexity of hard rock systems (HRSs) affects dynamics of surface–groundwater interactions. These complexities are not well described or understood by hydrogeologists because simplified analyses typically are used to study HRSs. A transient, integrated hydrologic model (IHM) GSFLOW (Groundwater and Surface water FLOW) was calibrated and post-audited using 18 years of daily groundwater head and stream discharge data to evaluate the surface–groundwater interactions in semi-arid, ∼80 km2 granitic Sardon hilly catchment in Spain characterized by shallow water table conditions, relatively low storage, dense drainage networks and frequent, high intensity rainfall. The following hydrological observations for the Sardon Catchment, and more generally for HRSs were made: (i) significant bi-directional vertical flows occur between surface water and groundwater throughout the HRSs; (ii) relatively large groundwater recharge represents 16% of precipitation (P, 562 mm.y−1) and large groundwater exfiltration (∼11% of P) results in short groundwater flow paths due to a dense network of streams, low permeability and hilly topographic relief; deep, long groundwater flow paths constitute a smaller component of the water budget (∼1% of P); quite high groundwater evapotranspiration (∼5% of P and ∼7% of total evapotranspiration); low permeability and shallow soils are the main reasons for relatively large components of Hortonian flow and interflow (15% and 11% of P, respectively); (iii) the majority of drainage from the catchment leaves as surface water; (iv) declining 18 years trend (4.44 mm.y−1) of groundwater storage; and (v) large spatio-temporal variability of water fluxes. This IHM study of HRSs provides greater understanding of these relatively unknown hydrologic systems that are widespread throughout the world and are important for water resources in many regions.

Can integrative catchment management mitigate future water quality issues caused by climate change and socio-economic development?

Science.gov (United States)

Honti, Mark; Schuwirth, Nele; Rieckermann, Jörg; Stamm, Christian

2017-03-01

The design and evaluation of solutions for integrated surface water quality management requires an integrated modelling approach. Integrated models have to be comprehensive enough to cover the aspects relevant for management decisions, allowing for mapping of larger-scale processes such as climate change to the regional and local contexts. Besides this, models have to be sufficiently simple and fast to apply proper methods of uncertainty analysis, covering model structure deficits and error propagation through the chain of sub-models. Here, we present a new integrated catchment model satisfying both conditions. The conceptual iWaQa model was developed to support the integrated management of small streams. It can be used to predict traditional water quality parameters, such as nutrients and a wide set of organic micropollutants (plant and material protection products), by considering all major pollutant pathways in urban and agricultural environments. Due to its simplicity, the model allows for a full, propagative analysis of predictive uncertainty, including certain structural and input errors. The usefulness of the model is demonstrated by predicting future surface water quality in a small catchment with mixed land use in the Swiss Plateau. We consider climate change, population growth or decline, socio-economic development, and the implementation of management strategies to tackle urban and agricultural point and non-point sources of pollution. Our results indicate that input and model structure uncertainties are the most influential factors for certain water quality parameters. In these cases model uncertainty is already high for present conditions. Nevertheless, accounting for today's uncertainty makes management fairly robust to the foreseen range of potential changes in the next decades. The assessment of total predictive uncertainty allows for selecting management strategies that show small sensitivity to poorly known boundary conditions. The identification

Risk-based prioritization of ground water threatening point sources at catchment and regional scales

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Overheu, Niels Døssing; Tuxen, Nina; Flyvbjerg, John

2014-01-01

framework has been developed to enable a systematic and transparent risk assessment and prioritization of contaminant point sources, considering the local, catchment, or regional scales (Danish EPA, 2011, 2012). The framework has been tested in several catchments in Denmark with different challenges...... and needs, and two of these are presented. Based on the lessons learned, the Danish EPA has prepared a handbook to guide the user through the steps in a risk-based prioritization (Danish EPA, 2012). It provides guidance on prioritization both in an administratively defined area such as a Danish Region...... of the results are presented using the case studies as examples. The methodology was developed by a broad industry group including the Danish EPA, the Danish Regions, the Danish Nature Agency, the Technical University of Denmark, and consultants — and the framework has been widely accepted by the professional...

Water Quality Changes during Rapid Urbanization in the Shenzhen River Catchment: An Integrated View of Socio-Economic and Infrastructure Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hua-peng Qin

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Surface water quality deterioration is a serious problem in many rapidly urbanizing catchments in developing countries. There is currently a lack of studies that quantify water quality variation (deterioration or otherwise due to both socio-economic and infrastructure development in a catchment. This paper investigates the causes of water quality changes over the rapid urbanization period of 1985–2009 in the Shenzhen River catchment, China and examines the changes in relation to infrastructure development and socio-economic policies. The results indicate that the water quality deteriorated rapidly during the earlier urbanization stages before gradually improving over recent years, and that rapid increases in domestic discharge were the major causes of water quality deterioration. Although construction of additional wastewater infrastructure can significantly improve water quality, it was unable to dispose all of the wastewater in the catchment. However, it was found that socio-economic measures can significantly improve water quality by decreasing pollutant load per gross regional production (GRP or increasing labor productivity. Our findings suggest that sustainable development during urbanization is possible, provided that: (1 the wastewater infrastructure should be constructed timely and revitalized regularly in line with urbanization, and wastewater treatment facilities should be upgraded to improve their nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies; (2 administrative regulation policies, economic incentives and financial policies should be implemented to encourage industries to prevent or reduce the pollution at the source; (3 the environmental awareness and education level of local population should be increased; (4 planners from various sectors should consult each other and adapt an integrated planning approach for socio-economic and wastewater infrastructure development.

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 Catchments (Version 2.1) for the Conterminous United States: Base Flow Index

Science.gov (United States)

This dataset represents the base flow index values within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds. Attributes of the landscape layer were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. (See Supplementary Info for Glossary of Terms) The base-flow index (BFI) grid for the conterminous United States was developed to estimate (1) BFI values for ungaged streams, and (2) ground-water recharge throughout the conterminous United States (see Source_Information). Estimates of BFI values at ungaged streams and BFI-based ground-water recharge estimates are useful for interpreting relations between land use and water quality in surface and ground water. The bfi (%) was summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a continuous data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description).

How runoff begins (and ends): characterizing hydrologic response at the catchment scale

Science.gov (United States)

Mirus, Benjamin B.; Loague, Keith

2013-01-01

Improved understanding of the complex dynamics associated with spatially and temporally variable runoff response is needed to better understand the hydrology component of interdisciplinary problems. The objective of this study was to quantitatively characterize the environmental controls on runoff generation for the range of different streamflow-generation mechanisms illustrated in the classic Dunne diagram. The comprehensive physics-based model of coupled surface-subsurface flow, InHM, is employed in a heuristic mode. InHM has been employed previously to successfully simulate the observed hydrologic response at four diverse, well-characterized catchments, which provides the foundation for this study. The C3 and CB catchments are located within steep, forested terrain; the TW and R5 catchments are located in gently sloping rangeland. The InHM boundary-value problems for these four catchments provide the corner-stones for alternative simulation scenarios designed to address the question of how runoff begins (and ends). Simulated rainfall-runoff events are used to systematically explore the impact of soil-hydraulic properties and rainfall characteristics. This approach facilitates quantitative analysis of both integrated and distributed hydrologic responses at high-spatial and temporal resolution over the wide range of environmental conditions represented by the four catchments. The results from 140 unique simulation scenarios illustrate how rainfall intensity/depth, subsurface permeability contrasts, characteristic curve shapes, and topography provide important controls on the hydrologic-response dynamics. The processes by which runoff begins (and ends) are shown, in large part, to be defined by the relative rates of rainfall, infiltration, lateral flow convergence, and storage dynamics within the variably saturated soil layers.

The effect of water storage change in ET estimation in humid catchments based on water balance models and Budyko framework

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Tingting; Sun, Fubao; Liu, Changming; Liu, Wenbin; Wang, Hong

2017-04-01

An accurate estimation of ET in humid catchments is essential in water-energy budget research and water resource management etc, while it remains a huge challenge and there is no well accepted explanation for the difficulty of annual ET estimation in humid catchments so far. Here we presents the ET estimation in 102 humid catchments over China based on the Budyko framework and two hydrological models: abcd model and Xin'anjiang mdoel, in comparison with ET calculated from the water balance equation (ETwb) on the ground that the ΔS is approximately zero at multiannual and annual time scale. We provides a possible explanation for this poorly annual ET estimation in humid catchments as well. The results show that at multi-annual timescale, the Budyko framework works fine in ET estimation in humid catchments, while at annual time scale, neither the Budyko framework nor the hydrological models can estimate ET well. The major cause for this poorly estimated annual ET in humid catchments is the neglecting of the ΔS in ETwb since it enlarge the variability of real actual evapotranspiration. Much improvement has been made when compared estimated ET + ΔS with those ETwb, and the bigger the catchment area is, the better this improvement is. It provides a reasonable explanation for the poorly estimated annual ET in humid catchments and reveals the important role of the ΔS in ET estimation and validation. We highlight that the annual ΔS shouldn't be taken as zero in water balance equation in humid catchments.

Hydrology and sediment yield calibration for the Barasona reservoir catchment (Spain) using SWAT

Science.gov (United States)

Palazón, Leticia; Navas, Ana

2013-04-01

Hydrological and soil erosion models, as Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), have become very useful tools and increasingly serve as vital components of integrated environmental assessments that provide information outside of direct field experiments and causal observation. The purpose of this study was to improve the calibration of SWAT model to use it in an alpine catchment as a simulator of processes related to water quality and soil erosion. SWAT is spatially semi-distributed, agro-hydrological model that operates on a daily time step (as a minimum) at basin scale. It is designed to predict the impact of management on water, sediment and agricultural chemical yields in ungaged catchments. SWAT provides physically based algorithms as an option to define many of the important components of the hydrologic cycle. The input requirements of the model are used to describe the climate, soil properties, topography, vegetation, and land management practices. SWAT analyzes small or large catchments by discretising into sub-basins, which are then further subdivided into hydrological response units (HRUs) with homogeneous land use, soil type and slope. SWAT model (SWAT2009) coupled with a GIS interface (ArcSWAT), was applied to the Barasona reservoir catchment located in the central Spanish Pyrenees. The 1509 km2 agro-forestry catchment presents a mountain type climate, an altitudinal range close to 3000 meters and a precipitation variation close to 1000 mm/km. The mountainous characteristics of the catchment, in addition to the scarcity of climate data in the region, require specific calibration for some processes. Snowfall and snowmelt are significant processes in the hydrologic regime of the area and were calibrated in a previous work. In this work some of the challenges of the catchment to model with SWAT which affected the hydrology and the sediment yield simulation were performed as improvement of the previous calibration. Two reservoirs, a karst system which

The typology of Irish hard-rock aquifers based on an integrated hydrogeological and geophysical approach

Science.gov (United States)

Comte, Jean-Christophe; Cassidy, Rachel; Nitsche, Janka; Ofterdinger, Ulrich; Pilatova, Katarina; Flynn, Raymond

2012-12-01

Groundwater flow in hard-rock aquifers is strongly controlled by the characteristics and distribution of structural heterogeneity. A methodology for catchment-scale characterisation is presented, based on the integration of complementary, multi-scale hydrogeological, geophysical and geological approaches. This was applied to three contrasting catchments underlain by metamorphic rocks in the northern parts of Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, UK). Cross-validated surface and borehole geophysical investigations confirm the discontinuous overburden, lithological compartmentalisation of the bedrock and important spatial variations of the weathered bedrock profiles at macro-scale. Fracture analysis suggests that the recent (Alpine) tectonic fabric exerts strong control on the internal aquifer structure at meso-scale, which is likely to impact on the anisotropy of aquifer properties. The combination of the interpretation of depth-specific hydraulic-test data with the structural information provided by geophysical tests allows characterisation of the hydrodynamic properties of the identified aquifer units. Regionally, the distribution of hydraulic conductivities can be described by inverse power laws specific to the aquifer litho-type. Observed groundwater flow directions reflect this multi-scale structure. The proposed integrated approach applies widely available investigative tools to identify key dominant structures controlling groundwater flow, characterising the aquifer type for each catchment and resolving the spatial distribution of relevant aquifer units and associated hydrodynamic parameters.

Water Travel Time Distributions in Permafrost-affected Catchments: Challenges, Progress and Implications

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, A. A.; Piovano, T. I.; Tetzlaff, D.; Ala-aho, P. O. A.; Wookey, P. A.; Soulsby, C.

2017-12-01

Characterising the travel times of water has been a major research focus in catchment science over the past decade. Use of isotopes to quantify the temporal dynamics of the transformation of precipitation into runoff has revealed fundamental new insights into catchment flow paths and mixing processes that influence biogeochemical transport. However, permafrost-affected catchments have received little attention, despite their global importance in terms of rapid environmental change. Such places have limited access for data collection during critical periods (e.g. early phases of snowmelt), temporal and spatially variable freeze-thaw cycles, and the development of the active layer has a time variant influence on catchment hydrology. All of these characteristics make the application of traditional transit time estimation approaches challenging. This contribution describes an isotope-based study undertaken to provide a preliminary assessment of travel times at SikSik Creek in the Canadian Arctic. We adopted a model-data fusion approach to estimate the volumes and isotopic characteristics of snowpack and meltwater. Using sampling in the spring/summer we characterise the isotopic composition of summer rainfall, melt from residual snow, soil water and stream water. In addition, soil moisture dynamics and the temporal evolution of the active layer profile were also monitored. Transit times were estimated for soil and stream water compositions using lumped convolution integral models and temporally variable inputs including snowmelt, ice thaw, and summer rainfall. Comparing transit time estimates using a variety of inputs reveals transit time is best estimated using all available inflows (i.e. snowmelt, ice thaw, and rainfall). Early spring transit times are short, dominated by snowmelt and ice thaw and limited catchment storage when soils are predominantly frozen. However, significant and increasing mixing with water in the active layer during the summer results in more

Catchment heterogeneity controls emergent archetype concentration-discharge relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Musolff, A.; Fleckenstein, J. H.; Rao, P. S.; Jawitz, J. W.

2017-12-01

Relationships between in-stream dissolved solute concentrations (C) and discharge (Q) are often-used indicators of catchment-scale processes and their interference with human activities. Here we analyze observational C-Q relationships from 61 catchments and 8 different solutes across a wide range of land-uses and discharge regimes. This analysis is combined with a parsimonious stochastic modeling approach to test how C-Q relationships arise from spatial heterogeneity in catchment solute sources coupled with different timescales of biogeochemical reactions. The observational data exhibit archetypical dilution, enrichment, and constant C-Q patterns. Moreover, with land-use intensification we find decreasing C variability relative to Q variability (chemostatic export regime). Our model indicates that the dominant driver of emergent C-Q patterns was structured heterogeneity of solute sources implemented as correlation of source concentration to travel time. Regardless of the C-Q pattern, with decreasing source heterogeneity we consistently find lower variability in C than in Q and a dominance of chemostatic export regimes. Here, the variance in exported loads is determined primarily by variance of Q. We conclude that efforts to improve stream water quality and ecological integrity in intensely managed catchments should lead away from landscape homogenization by introducing structured source heterogeneity. References: Musolff, A., J. H. Fleckenstein, P. S. C. Rao, and J. W. Jawitz (2017), Emergent archetype patterns of coupled hydrologic and biogeochemical responses in catchments, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44(9), 4143-4151, doi: 10.1002/2017GL072630.

„Nie chuchaj, aby się śnieg nie rozpłynął”. Dwa nieznane wcześniej Brosciana ze zbiorów Biblioteki UMK w Toruniu

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michał Choptiany

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Artykuł podejmuje zagadnienie badań proweniencyjnych prowadzonych w zbiorach Biblioteki UMK w Toruniu i stanowi jednocześnie komunikat o identyfikacji marginaliów wykonanych przez Jana Brożka (1585–1652 w dwóch drukach zakupionych przez BUMK na rynku antykwarycznym w 1968 r. – Streny Johannesa Keplera (Frankfurt 1611 i Numerus figuratus Johanna Remmelina (Norymberga 1614. Podane są kolejno: charakterystyka egzemplarza, dowody na proponowaną w tekście atrybucję (oparte na rękopisach Brożka zachowanych w zbiorach Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej w Krakowie, a marginalia znajdujące się w dziełku Keplera powiązane zostają z ogłoszoną przez Brożka w roku 1615 rozprawą Problema geometricum. W ostatniej części zostają nakreślone perspektywy badawcze związane z rekonstrukcją warsztatu naukowego krakowskiego uczonego – zarówno w mniejszej skali, obejmującej wyłącznie jego lektury i notatki związane z rozprawą z 1615 r., jak i całość jego rękopiśmiennej spuścizny, która w dalszym ciągu nie jest wystarczająco dobrze rozpoznana.

The morphological /settlement pattern classification of South African settlements based on a settlement catchment approach, to inform facility allocation and service delivery

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Sogoni, Z

2016-07-01

Full Text Available / settlement pattern classification of South African settlements based on a settlement catchment approach, to inform facility allocation and service delivery Zukisa Sogoni Planning Africa Conference 2016 4 July 2Project Focus and Background • CSIR... services. • Purpose is to support application & planning for new investment & prevent “unsustainable” investments / White elephants. 3Outputs • National set of service delivery catchments • Profile information per individual catchment • Ranking...

High spatial-temporal resolution and integrated surface and subsurface precipitation-runoff modelling for a small stormwater catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Hailegeorgis, Teklu T.; Alfredsen, Knut

2018-02-01

Reliable runoff estimation is important for design of water infrastructure and flood risk management in urban catchments. We developed a spatially distributed Precipitation-Runoff (P-R) model that explicitly represents the land cover information, performs integrated modelling of surface and subsurface components of the urban precipitation water cycle and flow routing. We conducted parameter calibration and validation for a small (21.255 ha) stormwater catchment in Trondheim City during Summer-Autumn events and season, and snow-influenced Winter-Spring seasons at high spatial and temporal resolutions of respectively 5 m × 5 m grid size and 2 min. The calibration resulted in good performance measures (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, NSE = 0.65-0.94) and acceptable validation NSE for the seasonal and snow-influenced periods. The infiltration excess surface runoff dominates the peak flows while the contribution of subsurface flow to the sewer pipes also augments the peak flows. Based on the total volumes of simulated flow in sewer pipes (Qsim) and precipitation (P) during the calibration periods, the Qsim/P ranges from 21.44% for an event to 56.50% for the Winter-Spring season, which are in close agreement with the observed volumes (Qobs/P). The lowest percentage of precipitation volume that is transformed to the total simulated runoff in the catchment (QT) is 79.77%. Computation of evapotranspiration (ET) indicated that the ET/P is less than 3% for the events and snow-influenced seasons while it is about 18% for the Summer-Autumn season. The subsurface flow contribution to the sewer pipes are markedly higher than the total surface runoff volume for some events and the Summer-Autumn season. The peakiest flow rates correspond to the Winter-Spring season. Therefore, urban runoff simulation for design and management purposes should include two-way interactions between the subsurface runoff and flow in sewer pipes, and snow-influenced seasons. The developed urban P-R model is

An integrated suspended sediment budgeting of the agricultural Can Revull catchment (Mallorca, Spain)

Science.gov (United States)

Estrany, J.; Garcia, C.

2012-04-01

The Mediterranean region of Europe has a long history of human settlement and human impacts. The very high spatial and temporal variability of fluvial processes in the region also creates problems for measurement and monitoring and for assessment of effects. Extensive rainfed herbaceous crops are one of the most representative agricultural elements of this region, which should be one of the major factor affecting erosion processes. Although land use is commonly seen as resulting in increased sediment yields, the implementation of soil and water conservation practices can have the reverse effect. Sediment budgets offer a means to assess the sources, storage, rates of transport, yields, and efficiency of delivery of sediment for a range of catchment scales. Field measurements were conducted in Can Revull, a small agricultural catchment (1.03 km2) on the island of Mallorca. This study uses 137Cs measurements, sediment source fingerprinting and continuous turbidity records of four hydrological years (2004-2005 to 2007-2008) to quantify the individual components of the budget. A large proportion of the material mobilized from cultivated fields without conservation practices (gross erosion was 775 t yr-1; 1,270 t km-2 yr-1) was, however, subsequently deposited either within the field of origin (112 t yr-1; 180 t km-2 yr-1) or at intermediate locations between the source field and the channel network (field-to-channel conveyance loss was 591 t yr-1; 1,090 t km-2 yr-1). The estimates of sediment accumulation rates on the floodplain in the lower reaches of the catchment indicate that the mean sedimentation rate was 0.47 g cm-2 yr-1. This value was extrapolated to the total area of the floodplain to estimate a total annual conveyance loss or storage of 150 t yr-1. Monitoring at the catchment outlet over the study period indicated a mean annual suspended sediment yield of 7 t km-2 yr-1. The sum of the estimates of sediment yield and floodplain storage (157 t yr-1) was taken

Modeling of Faecal Contamination in Water from Catchment to Shellfish Growing Area

OpenAIRE

Bougeard, Morgane; Le Saux, Jean-claude; Perenne, Nicolas; Le Guyader, Soizick; Pommepuy, Monique

2009-01-01

During rainstorms, watersheds can introduce large amounts of faecal pollution into the rivers and sea, leading to shellfish contamination. In this study, we assessed Escherichia coli fluxes from a catchment, and their impact on estuarine water quality, using two assembled models. For the catchment, the agro-hydrological model SWAT was implemented integrating land uses, soil, topography, rainfall and other climatic data on Daoulas watershed (France). Initially, the SWAT model was calibrated an...

How old is upland catchment water?

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Harald; Cartwright, Ian; Morgenstern, Uwe; Gilfedder, Benjamin

2014-05-01

Tritium activities in the southern hemisphere have long decayed down the natural background levels, which allows unique ages to be determined by single measurements. In this study major ion chemistry, stable isotopes and Tritium were determined at 2 locations and various stages of discharge (18 Tritium samples in between April 2013 and January 2014) in a first-order perennial stream draining a 7.3 km2 catchment in the Dandenong National Park, Melbourne, Australia. Even during major discharge event major ions and stable isotope data have little variation and Tritium activities remain low (1.4 to 1.8 TU) in comparison to local rainfall of ~ 3TU. Age estimations based on an exponential flow model are 15 to 25 years indicating that water draining from upland catchments is much older than we have previously estimated using stable isotopes.

Drought variability in six catchments in the UK

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok-Pan, Chun; Onof, Christian; Wheater, Howard

2010-05-01

Drought is fundamentally related to consistent low precipitation levels. Changes in global and regional drought patterns are suggested by numerous recent climate change studies. However, most of the climate change adaptation measures are at a catchment scale, and the development of a framework for studying persistence in precipitation is still at an early stage. Two stochastic approaches for modelling drought severity index (DSI) are proposed to investigate possible changes in droughts in six catchments in the UK. They are the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and the generalised linear model (GLM) approach. Results of ARIMA modelling show that mean sea level pressure and possibly the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index are important climate variables for short term drought forecasts, whereas relative humidity is not a significant climate variable despite its high correlation with the DSI series. By simulating rainfall series, the generalised linear model (GLM) approach can provide the probability density function of the DSI. GLM simulations indicate that the changes in the 10th and 50th quantiles of drought events are more noticeable than in the 90th extreme droughts. The possibility of extending the GLM approach to support risk-based water management is also discussed.

Runoff generation in a Mediterranean semi-arid landscape: Thresholds, scale, rainfall and catchment characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Ries, Fabian; Schmidt, Sebastian; Sauter, Martin; Lange, Jens

2016-04-01

Surface runoff acts as an integrated response of catchment characteristics and hydrological processes. In the Eastern Mediterranean region, a lack of runoff data has hindered a better understanding of runoff generation processes on the catchment scale, despite the importance of surface runoff as a water resource or flood hazard. Our main aim was to identify and explain differences in catchment runoff reactions across a variety of scales. Over a period of five years, we observed runoff in ephemeral streams of seven watersheds with sizes between 3 and 129 km2. Landuse and surface cover types (share of vegetation, bare soil and rock outcrops) were derived from aerial images by objective classification techniques. Using data from a dense rainfall network we analysed the effects of scale, catchment properties and aridity on runoff generation. Thereby we extracted rainfall and corresponding runoff events from our time-series to calculate event based rainfall characteristics and catchment runoff coefficients. Soil moisture observations provided additional information on antecedent moisture conditions, infiltration characteristics and the evolution of saturated areas. In contrast to the prevailing opinion that the proportion of Hortonian overland flow increases with aridity, we found that in our area the largest share (> 95 %) of runoff is generated by saturation excess overland flow in response to long lasting, rainfall events of high amount. This was supported by a strong correlation between event runoff and precipitation totals. Similar rainfall thresholds (50 mm) for runoff generation were observed in all investigated catchments. No scale effects on runoff coefficients were found; instead we identified up to three-fold runoff coefficients in catchments with larger extension of arid areas, higher percentage of rock outcrops and urbanization. Comparing two headwater catchments with noticeable differences in extent of olive orchards, no difference in runoff generation was

Arménie

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

François Verdier

2012-04-01

Full Text Available L’Arménie est une petite république du Caucase, à la limite sud–est de l’Europe, qui a gagné son autonomie en 1990 après l’ouverture du bloc soviétique. Le nouveau Ministère du Patrimoine a sollicité la coopération de la France pour mettre en place une nouvelle politique culturelle. Tout d’abord, une évaluation sur place de la situation dans les domaines des monuments historiques, de l’archéologie et de l’Inventaire a permis d’envisager les réponses à proposer. Pour la demande d’informatisation des dossiers d’inventaire déjà réalisés sous l’autorité de l’Académie de Saint–Petersbourg, nous avons proposé de former des chercheurs arméniens aux méthodes et techniques de l’Inventaire général. L’accueil d’une stagiaire pendant trois mois au service régional de l’Inventaire de Haute–Normandie a été suivi par la mise en place d’un équipement informatique à Yérévan, puis par l’accueil et la formation de techniciens informaticiens et photographes arméniens. De retour dans leur pays ils ont commencé à remettre en place un service d’inventaire dont le programme comprend la création d’une base de données patrimoniales, le recensement de la ville de Yérévan, la numérisation d’images pour la publication d’un indicateur du patrimoine et la préparation de dossiers de protection au titre du patrimoine mondial.The Armenian heritage comprises both archaeological remains of towns destroyed by never–ending wars and a number of old churches from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, was founded three thousand years ago and is one of Europe’s oldest capitals. From 1925 it has developed according to an ambitious urban planning project. After the major political upheavals of 1991, a special ministry was created to look after the architectural and movable heritage of the country and to promote the Armenian national identity. A mission in Yerevan was

Water and salt balance modelling to predict the effects of land-use changes in forested catchments. 1. Small catchment water balance model

Science.gov (United States)

Sivapalan, Murugesu; Ruprecht, John K.; Viney, Neil R.

1996-03-01

A long-term water balance model has been developed to predict the hydrological effects of land-use change (especially forest clearing) in small experimental catchments in the south-west of Western Australia. This small catchment model has been used as the building block for the development of a large catchment-scale model, and has also formed the basis for a coupled water and salt balance model, developed to predict the changes in stream salinity resulting from land-use and climate change. The application of the coupled salt and water balance model to predict stream salinities in two small experimental catchments, and the application of the large catchment-scale model to predict changes in water yield in a medium-sized catchment that is being mined for bauxite, are presented in Parts 2 and 3, respectively, of this series of papers.The small catchment model has been designed as a simple, robust, conceptually based model of the basic daily water balance fluxes in forested catchments. The responses of the catchment to rainfall and pan evaporation are conceptualized in terms of three interdependent subsurface stores A, B and F. Store A depicts a near-stream perched aquifer system; B represents a deeper, permanent groundwater system; and F is an intermediate, unsaturated infiltration store. The responses of these stores are characterized by a set of constitutive relations which involves a number of conceptual parameters. These parameters are estimated by calibration by comparing observed and predicted runoff. The model has performed very well in simulations carried out on Salmon and Wights, two small experimental catchments in the Collie River basin in south-west Western Australia. The results from the application of the model to these small catchments are presented in this paper.

Diatoms as a fingerprint of sub-catchment contributions to meso-scale catchment runoff

Science.gov (United States)

Klaus, Julian; Wetzel, Carlos E.; Martinez-Carreras, Nuria; Ector, Luc; Pfister, Laurent

2014-05-01

In recent years, calls were made for new eco-hydrological approaches to improve understanding of hydrological processes. Recently diatoms, one of the most common and diverse algal groups that can be easily transported by flowing water due to their small size (~10-200 µm), were used to detect the onset and cessation of surface runoff to small headwater streams and constrain isotopic and hydro-chemical hydrograph separation methods. While the method showed its potential in the hillslope-riparian zone-stream continuum of headwater catchments, the behavior of diatoms and their use for hydrological process research in meso-scale catchments remains uncertain. Diatoms can be a valuable support for isotope and hydro-chemical tracer methods when these become ambiguous with increasing scale. Distribution and abundance of diatom species is controlled by various environmental factors (pH, soil type, moisture conditions, exposition to sunlight, etc.). We therefore hypothesize that species abundance and composition can be used as a proxy for source areas. This presentation evaluates the potential for diatoms to trace source-areas in the nested meso-scale Attert River basin (250 km2, Luxembourg, Europe). We sampled diatom populations in streamwater during one flood event in Fall 2011 in 6 sub-catchments and the basin outlet - 17 to 28 samples/catchment for the different sampling locations. Diatoms were classified and counted in every individual sample. In total more than 400 diatom species were detected. Ordination analysis revealed a clear distinction between communities sampled in different sub-catchments. The species composition at the catchment outlet reflects a mixing of the diatom composition originating from different sub-catchments. This data suggests that diatoms indeed can reflect the geographic origin of stream water at the catchment outlet. The centroids of the ordination analysis might be linked to the physiographic characteristics (geology and land use) of the

Building capacity for co-operative governance as a basis for integrated water resource managing in the Inkomati and Mvoti catchments, South Africa

OpenAIRE

Colvin, J; Ballim, F; Chimbuya, S; Everard, M; Goss, J; Klarenberg, G; Ndlovu, S; Ncala, D; Weston, D

2008-01-01

South Africa's National Water Act and National Water Resource Strategy set out an ambitious vision for Integrated Water Resources Management including a strong focus on the redistribution of water resources towards the poor and on empowering historically disadvantaged communities. To achieve this vision the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry (DWAF) has been pursuing a programme for devolving powers to 19 stakeholder-led catchment management agencies (CMAs) and more locally, transforming i...

Integrating isotopic tracer techniques with Bayesian modelling for improved assessment and management of sedimentation problems in the Gilgel-Gibe catchment, Ethiopia

Science.gov (United States)

Dume, Bayu; Amsalu, Nebiyu; Bode, Samuel; Mtei, Kelvin; Munishi, Linus; Navas, Ana; Semmens, Brice; Smith, Hugh; Stock, Brian; Blake, Will; Boeckx, Pascal

2017-04-01

Soil erosion and associated downstream siltation of dams and lakes is becoming serious threat to catchment ecosystem services supporting water, food and energy security in Ethiopia. Sediments originate on catchment hillslopes but mobilisation processes vary depending on land use and terrain. The Gilgel Gibe hydroelectric dam is one of a series of development projects launched by the Federal Government of Ethiopia. The catchment is characterised by erodible, deforested agricultural land which is also overgrazed. Siltation and nutrient enrichment are significant issues given 'hotspot' sheet erosion estimates of 2210 ton per square km. The annual contribution of sediment from the Gilgel Gibe River to the dam was estimated at 277 thousand tons per year leading to accumulations of 3.75 x 107 cubic metres per year of silt behind the dam. The primary driver for mobilisation and translocation to downstream is believed to be erosion on agricultural lands and collapse of steep banks, through landsliding into river channels in the highland headwaters. The relative importance of specific sources of siltation are unknown and sediment source apportionment has been identified as a first essential step before soil conservation measures can be implemented. Knowledge of sediment source and transfer dynamics is critical to inform management policy decisions to maintain and enhance future food, water and energy security To test the applicability of a new combination of Bayesian unmixing modelling with sediment fingerprinting in this terrain (IMIXSED approach) a demonstration sub-catchment was selected through field assessment in the upper Gilgel-Gibe water-supply catchments (Unta River) and sampling strategies designed. Accordingly, sources, i.e. soil samples from landslides (n=40), eroding channel bank (n = 5), cultivated land (n = 30), grasslands (n = 30), wooded areas (n = 10), homestead plots (n = 10) were collected alongside 10 spatially-integrated sediment deposits from the

An integrated modelling and multicriteria analysis approach to managing nitrate diffuse pollution: 2. A case study for a chalk catchment in England.

Science.gov (United States)

Koo, B K; O'Connell, P E

2006-04-01

The site-specific land use optimisation methodology, suggested by the authors in the first part of this two-part paper, has been applied to the River Kennet catchment at Marlborough, Wiltshire, UK, for a case study. The Marlborough catchment (143 km(2)) is an agriculture-dominated rural area over a deep chalk aquifer that is vulnerable to nitrate pollution from agricultural diffuse sources. For evaluation purposes, the catchment was discretised into a network of 1 kmx1 km grid cells. For each of the arable-land grid cells, seven land use alternatives (four arable-land alternatives and three grassland alternatives) were evaluated for their environmental and economic potential. For environmental evaluation, nitrate leaching rates of land use alternatives were estimated using SHETRAN simulations and groundwater pollution potential was evaluated using the DRASTIC index. For economic evaluation, economic gross margins were estimated using a simple agronomic model based on nitrogen response functions and agricultural land classification grades. In order to see whether the site-specific optimisation is efficient at the catchment scale, land use optimisation was carried out for four optimisation schemes (i.e. using four sets of criterion weights). Consequently, four land use scenarios were generated and the site-specifically optimised land use scenario was evaluated as the best compromise solution between long term nitrate pollution and agronomy at the catchment scale.

Assessment of water availability in Chindwinn catchment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phyu Oo Khin; Ohn Gyaw

2001-01-01

A study of water balance over Chindwinn Catchment has been carried out by using three decades of available climatological and hydrological data (i.e. from 1967). The study was based on the monthly, annual and normal values. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) computed by as well as on the using Penman (1963) as well as Hargreaves (1985) methods. Some of the reliable data of evaporation at the stations were also used to estimate actual evaporation with the pancoefficient value 0.7. The values of actual evapotranspiration estimated by Hargreaves method was lower than the values estimated by Penman, but most followed the same significant trend. The soil moisture deficiency generally occurs during November and April. A few cases of soil moisture deficiency do occur in August, September and October. However, on the overall availability of water in the catchment is quite promising. The residual resulted from the water balance estimation may be assumed as soil moisture in the catchment by neglecting some losses from the catchment. (author)

Modelling land cover change effects on catchment-to-lake sediment transfer

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Hugh; Peñuela Fernández, Andres; Sellami, Haykel; Sangster, Heather; Boyle, John; Chiverrell, Richard; Riley, Mark

2017-04-01

Measurements of catchment soil erosion and sediment transfer to streams and lakes are limited and typically short duration (physical and social records coupled with high-resolution, sub-annual simulations of catchment-to-lake soil erosion and sedimentation. This choice of modelling period represents a compromise between the length of record and data availability for model parameterisation. We combine historic datasets for climate and land cover from four lake catchments in Britain with a fully revised catchment-scale modelling approach based on the Morgan-Morgan-Finney model, called MMF-TWI, that incorporates new elements representing plant growth, soil water balance and variable runoff and sediment contributing areas. The catchments comprise an intensively-farmed lowland agricultural catchment and three upland catchments. Historic change simulations were compared with sedimentation rates determined from multiple dated cores taken from each lake. Our revised modelling approach produced generally comparable rates of lake sediment flux to those based on sediment archives. Moreover, these centennial scale records form the basis for examining hypothetical scenarios linked to changes in crop rotation (lowland) and riparian re-afforestation (uplands), as well as providing an extended historic baseline against which to compare future climate effects on runoff, erosion and lake sediment delivery.

Patterns and processes of nutrient transfers from land to water: a catchment approach to evaluate Good Agricultural Practice in Ireland

Science.gov (United States)

Mellander, P.-E.; Melland, A. R.; Shortle, G.; Wall, D.; Mechan, S.; Buckley, C.; Fealy, R.; Jordan, P.

2009-04-01

Eutrophication of fresh, transitional and coastal waters by excessive nutrient inputs is one of the most widespread water quality problems in developed countries. Sources of nutrient nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) can come from a multiplicity of sources and be dependent on numerous hydrological controls from catchments with both urban and agricultural landuses. Aquatic impacts are widely reported as a result of excessive nutrient transfers from land to water and include changes in ecological integrity and loss of amenity. In the European Union, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and associated Directives are the key structures with which member states must develop national and often trans-national polices to deal with issues of water resources management. The linked Nitrates Directive is particularly concerned with integrating sustainable agriculture and good water quality objectives and is written into national polices. In Ireland this policy is the Nitrates Directive National Action Programme (NAP), Statutory Instruction 378, Good Agricultural Practise regulation, and amongst other things, sets targets and limits on the use of organic and inorganic fertilisers, soil fertility and slurry/fertiliser spreading and cultivation times. To evaluate the effectiveness of this policy, Teagasc, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority, is undertaking a catchment scale audit on sources, sinks, and changes in nutrient use and export over several years. The Agricultural Catchments Programme is based on a science-stakeholder-management partnership to generate knowledge and specifically to protect water quality from nitrogen and phosphorus transfers within the constraints of the requirements of modern Irish agricultural practises. Eight catchments of 5-12 km2 have been selected for the programme to represent a range of agricultural intensities and vulnerabilities to nitrogen and phosphorus loss including catchments that are situated on permeable and impermeable

Catchment Dispersion Mechanisms in an Urban Context

Science.gov (United States)

Gironas, J. A.; Mejia, A.; Rossel, F.; Rinaldo, A.; Rodriguez, F.

2014-12-01

Dispersion mechanisms have been examined in-depth in natural catchments in previous studies. However, these dispersion mechanisms have been studied little in urban catchments, where artificial transport elements and morphological arrangements are expected to modify travel times and mobilize excess rainfall from spatially distributed impervious sites. Thus, these features can modify the variance of the catchment's travel times and hence the total dispersion. This work quantifies the dispersion mechanisms in an urban catchment using the theory of transport by travel times as represented by the Urban Morpho-climatic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (U-McIUH) model. This model computes travel times based on kinematic wave theory and accounts explicitly for the path heterogeneities and altered connectivity patterns characteristic of an urban drainage network. The analysis is illustrated using the Aubinière urban catchment (France) as a case study. We found that kinematic dispersion is dominant for small rainfall intensities, whereas geomorphologic dispersion becomes more dominant for larger intensities. The total dispersion scales with the drainage area in a power law fashion. The kinematic dispersion is dominant across spatial scales up to a threshold of approximately 2-3 km2, after which the geomorphologic dispersion becomes more dominant. Overall, overland flow is responsible for most of the dispersion, while conduits tend to counteract the increase of the geomorphologic dispersion with a negative kinematic dispersion. Further studies with other catchments are needed to assess whether the latter is a general feature of urban drainage networks.

Conditional flood frequency and catchment state: a simulation approach

Science.gov (United States)

Brettschneider, Marco; Bourgin, François; Merz, Bruno; Andreassian, Vazken; Blaquiere, Simon

2017-04-01

Catchments have memory and the conditional flood frequency distribution for a time period ahead can be seen as non-stationary: it varies with the catchment state and climatic factors. From a risk management perspective, understanding the link of conditional flood frequency to catchment state is a key to anticipate potential periods of higher flood risk. Here, we adopt a simulation approach to explore the link between flood frequency obtained by continuous rainfall-runoff simulation and the initial state of the catchment. The simulation chain is based on i) a three state rainfall generator applied at the catchment scale, whose parameters are estimated for each month, and ii) the GR4J lumped rainfall-runoff model, whose parameters are calibrated with all available data. For each month, a large number of stochastic realizations of the continuous rainfall generator for the next 12 months are used as inputs for the GR4J model in order to obtain a large number of stochastic realizations for the next 12 months. This process is then repeated for 50 different initial states of the soil moisture reservoir of the GR4J model and for all the catchments. Thus, 50 different conditional flood frequency curves are obtained for the 50 different initial catchment states. We will present an analysis of the link between the catchment states, the period of the year and the strength of the conditioning of the flood frequency compared to the unconditional flood frequency. A large sample of diverse catchments in France will be used.

The Influence of temporal sampling regime on the WFD classification of catchments within the Eden Demonstration Test Catchment Project

Science.gov (United States)

Jonczyk, Jennine; Haygarth, Phil; Quinn, Paul; Reaney, Sim

2014-05-01

A high temporal resolution data set from the Eden Demonstration Test Catchment (DTC) project is used to investigate the processes causing pollution and the influence of temporal sampling regime on the WFD classification of three catchments. This data highlights WFD standards may not be fit for purpose. The Eden DTC project is part of a UK government-funded project designed to provide robust evidence regarding how diffuse pollution can be cost-effectively controlled to improve and maintain water quality in rural river catchments. The impact of multiple water quality parameters on ecosystems and sustainable food production are being studied at the catchment scale. Three focus catchments approximately 10 km2 each, have been selected to represent the different farming practices and geophysical characteristics across the Eden catchment, Northern England. A field experimental programme has been designed to monitor the dynamics of agricultural diffuse pollution at multiple scales using state of the art sensors providing continuous real time data. The data set, which includes Total Phosphorus and Total Reactive Phosphorus, Nitrate, Ammonium, pH, Conductivity, Turbidity and Chlorophyll a reveals the frequency and duration of nutrient concentration target exceedance which arises from the prevalence of storm events of increasing magnitude. This data set is sub-sampled at different time intervals to explore how different sampling regimes affects our understanding of nutrient dynamics and the ramification of the different regimes to WFD chemical status. This presentation seeks to identify an optimum temporal resolution of data for effective catchment management and to question the usefulness of the WFD status metric for determining health of a system. Criteria based on high frequency short duration events needs to be accounted for.

Landscape-based hydrological modelling : Understanding the influence of climate, topography, and vegetation on catchment hydrology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gao, H.

2015-01-01

In this thesis, a novel landscape-based hydrological model is presented that was developed and tested in numerous catchments around the world with various landscapes and climate conditions. A landscape is considered to consist of a topography and an ecosystem living on it. Firstly, the influence of

GIS-based Approach to Estimate Surface Runoff in Small Catchments: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vojtek Matej

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The issue of surface runoff assessment is one of the important and relevant topics of hydrological as well as geographical research. The aim of the paper is therefore to estimate and assess surface runoff on the example of Vyčoma catchment which is located in the Western Slovakia. For this purpose, SCS runoff curve number method, modeling in GIS and remote sensing were used. An important task was the creation of a digital elevation model (DEM, which enters the surface runoff modeling and affects its accuracy. Great attention was paid to the spatial interpretation of land use categories applying aerial imagery from 2013 and hydrological soil groups as well as calculation of maximum daily rainfall with N-year return periods as partial tasks in estimating surface runoff. From the methodological point of view, the importance of the paper can be seen in the use of a simple GIS-based approach to assess the surface runoff conditions in a small catchment.

Prediction of Baseflow Index of Catchments using Machine Learning Algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Yadav, B.; Hatfield, K.

2017-12-01

We present the results of eight machine learning techniques for predicting the baseflow index (BFI) of ungauged basins using a surrogate of catchment scale climate and physiographic data. The tested algorithms include ordinary least squares, ridge regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso), elasticnet, support vector machine, gradient boosted regression trees, random forests, and extremely randomized trees. Our work seeks to identify the dominant controls of BFI that can be readily obtained from ancillary geospatial databases and remote sensing measurements, such that the developed techniques can be extended to ungauged catchments. More than 800 gauged catchments spanning the continental United States were selected to develop the general methodology. The BFI calculation was based on the baseflow separated from daily streamflow hydrograph using HYSEP filter. The surrogate catchment attributes were compiled from multiple sources including digital elevation model, soil, landuse, climate data, other publicly available ancillary and geospatial data. 80% catchments were used to train the ML algorithms, and the remaining 20% of the catchments were used as an independent test set to measure the generalization performance of fitted models. A k-fold cross-validation using exhaustive grid search was used to fit the hyperparameters of each model. Initial model development was based on 19 independent variables, but after variable selection and feature ranking, we generated revised sparse models of BFI prediction that are based on only six catchment attributes. These key predictive variables selected after the careful evaluation of bias-variance tradeoff include average catchment elevation, slope, fraction of sand, permeability, temperature, and precipitation. The most promising algorithms exceeding an accuracy score (r-square) of 0.7 on test data include support vector machine, gradient boosted regression trees, random forests, and extremely randomized

Probabilistic properties of the date of maximum river flow, an approach based on circular statistics in lowland, highland and mountainous catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Rutkowska, Agnieszka; Kohnová, Silvia; Banasik, Kazimierz

2018-04-01

Probabilistic properties of dates of winter, summer and annual maximum flows were studied using circular statistics in three catchments differing in topographic conditions; a lowland, highland and mountainous catchment. The circular measures of location and dispersion were used in the long-term samples of dates of maxima. The mixture of von Mises distributions was assumed as the theoretical distribution function of the date of winter, summer and annual maximum flow. The number of components was selected on the basis of the corrected Akaike Information Criterion and the parameters were estimated by means of the Maximum Likelihood method. The goodness of fit was assessed using both the correlation between quantiles and a version of the Kuiper's and Watson's test. Results show that the number of components varied between catchments and it was different for seasonal and annual maxima. Differences between catchments in circular characteristics were explained using climatic factors such as precipitation and temperature. Further studies may include circular grouping catchments based on similarity between distribution functions and the linkage between dates of maximum precipitation and maximum flow.

Application of GIS-based SCS-CN method in West Bank catchments, Palestine

OpenAIRE

Sameer Shadeed; Mohammad Almasri

2010-01-01

Among the most basic challenges of hydrology are the prediction and quantification of catchment surface runoff. The runoff curve number (CN) is a key factor in determining runoff in the SCS (Soil Conservation Service) based hydrologic modeling method. The traditional SCS-CN method for calculating the composite curve number is very tedious and consumes a major portion of the hydrologic modeling time. Therefore, geographic information systems (GIS) are now being used in combination with the SCS...

Integrated assessment indicator for watercourses. Perspectives and possibilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Voksoe, A.; Homstvedt, S.; Aalbu, Oe.; Valland, N.; Yndesdal, N.; Pettersen, S.; Eikenes, O.; Hoeifoedt, H.; Taugboel, G.

1996-01-01

This publication presents the result of a project aiming at developing a GIS (Geographical Information System) -based procedure to assess the integrated effect of various encroachments in and along watercourses. Four major catchments in Norway have been investigated. The GIS-method has been developed using existing data and data from detailed field registrations of encroachments in two catchments. Using existing data only, two other catchments have been analysed to test the validity of the proposed procedure. The various types of encroachments were assigned different weights and areal influences according to their estimated deteriorating effect on the natural situation. Applying the GIS-procedure the integrated effect is determined, giving a representative picture of the total situation. The results of the project are an interactive Windows-based application to operate the GIS-tool and produce maps as well as recommendations as to which categories of encroachments are to be considered. The method is proposed as a tool to obtain a consistent national management of preserved watersheds. 16 figs., 4 tabs

C, N, P export regimes from headwater catchments to downstream reaches

Science.gov (United States)

Dupas, R.; Musolff, A.; Jawitz, J. W.; Rao, P. S.; Jaeger, C. G.; Fleckenstein, J. H.; Rode, M.; Borchardt, D.

2017-12-01

Excessive amounts of nutrients and dissolved organic matter in freshwater bodies affect aquatic ecosystems. In this study, the spatial and temporal variability in nitrate (NO3), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) was analyzed in the Selke river continuum from headwaters draining 1 - 3 km² catchments to downstream reaches representing spatially integrated signals from 184 - 456 km² catchments (part of TERENO - Terrestrial Environmental Observatories, in Germany). Three headwater catchments were selected as archetypes of the main landscape units (land use x lithology) present in the Selke catchment. Export regimes in headwater catchments were interpreted in terms of NO3, DOC and SRP land-to-stream transfer processes. Headwater signals were subtracted from downstream signals, with the differences interpreted in terms of in-stream processes and contribution of point-source emissions. The seasonal dynamics for NO3 were opposite those of DOC and SRP in all three headwater catchments, and spatial differences also showed NO3 contrasting with DOC and SRP. These dynamics were interpreted as the result of the interplay of hydrological and biogeochemical processes, for which riparian zones were hypothesized to play a determining role. In the two downstream reaches, NO3 was transported almost conservatively, whereas DOC was consumed and produced in the upper and lower river sections, respectively. The natural export regime of SRP in the three headwater catchments mimicked a point-source signal, which may lead to overestimation of domestic contributions in the downstream reaches. Monitoring the river continuum from headwaters to downstream reaches proved effective to investigate jointly land-to-stream and in-stream transport and transformation processes.

La langue des unscriptions latines en slovénie

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mitja Skubic

1981-12-01

Full Text Available Les inscriptions latines dans les régions du Sud-est de l'Europe, dont la langue a déja été étudiée par Mihǎescu, sont nombreuses.Cependant, seules, ici, certaines parties des anciennes provinces de Norique, de Pannonie Supérieure et d'Istrie nord-occidentale nous intéresseront, c'est-à-dire, celles qui font aujourd'hui partie de la République Socialiste de Slovénie. Il n'y a pas de raisons historiques, certes, pour une telle d ­ limitation, vu que la Norique et la Pannonie Supérieure n'ont pas subi, depuis leur latinisation, d' événements historiques qui auraient pu influencer la langue écrite d'une manière différente.

Soil Erosion Analysis in a Small Forested Catchment Supported by ArcGIS Model Builder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CSÁFORDI, Péter

2012-01-01

Full Text Available To implement the analysis of soil erosion with the USLE in a GIS environment, a new workflow has been developed with the ArcGIS Model Builder. The aim of this four-part framework is to accelerate data processing and to ensure comparability of soil erosion risk maps. The first submodel generates the stream network with connected catchments, computes slope conditions and the LS factor in USLE based on the DEM. The second submodel integrates stream lines, roads, catchment boundaries, land cover, land use, and soil maps. This combined dataset is the basis for the preparation of other USLE-factors. The third submodel estimates soil loss, and creates zonal statistics of soil erosion. The fourth submodel classifies soil loss into categories enabling the comparison of modelled and observed soil erosion. The framework was applied in a small forested catchment in Hungary. Although there is significant deviation between the erosion of different land covers, the predicted specific soil loss does not increase above the tolerance limit in any area unit. The predicted surface soil erosion in forest subcompartments mostly depends on the slope conditions.

Exploring the influence of citizen involvement on the assimilation of crowdsourced observations: a modelling study based on the 2013 flood event in the Bacchiglione catchment (Italy)

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzoleni, Maurizio; Cortes Arevalo, Vivian Juliette; Wehn, Uta; Alfonso, Leonardo; Norbiato, Daniele; Monego, Martina; Ferri, Michele; Solomatine, Dimitri P.

2018-01-01

To improve hydrological predictions, real-time measurements derived from traditional physical sensors are integrated within mathematic models. Recently, traditional sensors are being complemented with crowdsourced data (social sensors). Although measurements from social sensors can be low cost and more spatially distributed, other factors like spatial variability of citizen involvement, decreasing involvement over time, variable observations accuracy and feasibility for model assimilation play an important role in accurate flood predictions. Only a few studies have investigated the benefit of assimilating uncertain crowdsourced data in hydrological and hydraulic models. In this study, we investigate the usefulness of assimilating crowdsourced observations from a heterogeneous network of static physical, static social and dynamic social sensors. We assess improvements in the model prediction performance for different spatial-temporal scenarios of citizen involvement levels. To that end, we simulate an extreme flood event that occurred in the Bacchiglione catchment (Italy) in May 2013 using a semi-distributed hydrological model with the station at Ponte degli Angeli (Vicenza) as the prediction-validation point. A conceptual hydrological model is implemented by the Alto Adriatico Water Authority and it is used to estimate runoff from the different sub-catchments, while a hydraulic model is implemented to propagate the flow along the river reach. In both models, a Kalman filter is implemented to assimilate the crowdsourced observations. Synthetic crowdsourced observations are generated for either static social or dynamic social sensors because these measures were not available at the time of the study. We consider two sets of experiments: (i) assuming random probability of receiving crowdsourced observations and (ii) using theoretical scenarios of citizen motivations, and consequent involvement levels, based on population distribution. The results demonstrate the

Integrating observations and models to help understanding how flooding impacts upon catchments as a basis for decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Owen, Gareth; Quinn, Paul; O'Donnell, Greg

2014-05-01

uncertainty of their decisions. The tool can also be used to map the likely changes in flood peak due to land use management options. An example case study will be shown for a 35km2 catchment in Northern England which is prone to flooding. The method encourages end users to instrument and quantify their own catchment network and to make informed, evidence based decisions appropriate to their own flooding problems.

A detailed model for simulation of catchment scale subsurface hydrologic processes

Science.gov (United States)

Paniconi, Claudio; Wood, Eric F.

1993-01-01

A catchment scale numerical model is developed based on the three-dimensional transient Richards equation describing fluid flow in variably saturated porous media. The model is designed to take advantage of digital elevation data bases and of information extracted from these data bases by topographic analysis. The practical application of the model is demonstrated in simulations of a small subcatchment of the Konza Prairie reserve near Manhattan, Kansas. In a preliminary investigation of computational issues related to model resolution, we obtain satisfactory numerical results using large aspect ratios, suggesting that horizontal grid dimensions may not be unreasonably constrained by the typically much smaller vertical length scale of a catchment and by vertical discretization requirements. Additional tests are needed to examine the effects of numerical constraints and parameter heterogeneity in determining acceptable grid aspect ratios. In other simulations we attempt to match the observed streamflow response of the catchment, and we point out the small contribution of the streamflow component to the overall water balance of the catchment.

Assessment of Runoff Contributing Catchment Areas in Rainfall Runoff Modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Johansen, C.; Schaarup-Jensen, Kjeld

2005-01-01

to determine with significant precision the hydrological reduction factor is implemented to account all hydrological losses except the initial loss. This paper presents an inconsistency between calculations of the hydrological reduction factor, based on measurements of rainfall and runoff, and till now...... recommended literary values for residential areas. It is proven by comparing rainfall-runoff measurements from four different residential catchments that the literary values of the hydrological reduction factor are over-estimated for this type of catchments. In addition, different catchment descriptions...

The relative influence of climate and catchment properties on hydrological drought

Science.gov (United States)

Van Loon, Anne; Laaha, Gregor; Koffler, Daniel

2014-05-01

Studying hydrological drought (a below-normal water availability in groundwater, lakes and streams) is important to society and the ecosystem, but can also reveal interesting information about catchment functioning. This information can later be used for predicting drought in ungauged basins and to inform water management decisions. In this study, we used an extensive Austrian dataset of discharge measurements in clusters of catchments and combine this dataset with thematic information on climate and catchment properties. Our aim was to study the relative effects of climate and catchment characteristics on drought duration and deficit and on hydrological drought typology. Because the climate of the region is roughly uniform, our hypothesis was that the effect of differences of catchment properties would stand out. From time series of precipitation and discharge we identified droughts with the widely-used threshold level approach, defining a drought when a variable falls below a pre-defined threshold representing the regime. Drought characteristics that were analysed are drought duration and deficit. We also applied the typology of Van Loon & Van Lanen (2012). To explain differences in drought characteristics between catchments we did a correlation analysis with climate and catchment characteristics, based on Pearson correlation. We found very interesting patterns in the correlations of drought characteristics with climate and catchment properties: 1) Droughts with long duration (mean and maximum) and composite droughts are related to catchments with a high BFI (high baseflow) and a high percentage of shallow groundwater tables. 2) The deficit (mean and maximum) of both meteorological droughts and hydrological droughts is strongly related to catchment humidity, in this case quantified by average annual precipitation. 3) The hydrological drought types that are related to snow, i.e. cold snow season drought and snow melt drought, occur in catchments that are have a

Enhancing community role in catchment area of cascade-pond system at the campus of Universitas Indonesia, Depok, West Java, Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maitri Caya

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The population in the catchment area of Universitas Indonesia (UI campus cascade-pond system is growing rapidly. The rapid growth of population increases the activities intensity in the catchment area, so that a better water resource management is urgently needed. The Dublin Principles in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM among others says that water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, which involves users, planners and policymakers at all levels. The Watershed Stewardship Program is one of the Eight-Tool for Watershed Protection developed by Center for Watershed Protection. Community as the main role holder, besides as beneficiary, is also as planner and executor of the program. The study aims to facilitate community in designing the activities towards water-friendly neighborhood, in the framework of community-potential-based watershed management, to increase the health of UI aquatic system and its catchment area. A combination of Participatory Action Research and Appreciative Inquiry method is applied. The required data and information is collected through field survey and focus group discussion (FGD. Field survey is conducted by interviewing random population inside the catchment area to get the behavior pattern overview of the community. FGD aims to unite the stakeholder and discuss their knowledge and potencies.

Multiscale investigation of catchment functioning using environmental tracers: Insights from the mesoscale Attert basin in Luxembourg

Science.gov (United States)

Wrede, S.; Pfister, L.; Krein, A.; Bogaard, T. A.; Savenije, H. H. G.; Uhlenbrook, S.

2009-04-01

Experimental hydrology focuses traditionally on field investigations at smaller spatial and temporal scales and research is driven by small-scale, detailed and complex investigations of densely instrumented research sites. However, to improve operational water management and protection of water resources at the river basin scale, it is necessary to study the hydrological processes across a range of scales. Empirical studies investigating catchment structure and functioning across multiple scales are still rare and urgently needed. Besides geomorphologic and climatic catchment descriptors, environmental tracers have been recognized as a fundamental tool in experimental hydrology to assess the scaling gap, as they provide an independent and integrative perspective of catchment functioning and scaling. A three year tracer study is being carried out in the Attert river basin in Luxembourg to identify how major controls of runoff generation change across scales and to investigate the spatial and temporal functioning of larger basins. The mesoscale (300 km²) Attert catchment is located in the Midwestern part of Luxembourg and lies at the transition zone of contrasting bedrock lithology that is a major control for runoff generation: The Northern part is characterized by Devonian schist of the Ardennes massif, while sedimentary deposits of sandstone and marls dominate in the Southern part of the basin. Major hydrochemical tracers including stable water isotopes were grab sampled fortnightly and, where possible, also event-based at 13 nested stream locations ranging in size from 0.5 to 300 km² throughout the basin. Results using Deuterium and a range of hydrochemical tracers confirm the major role of bedrock lithology for runoff response of different geological parts of the basins: Hydrological response of schistose basins is characterized by seasonal variation and a delayed shallow groundwater component originating from a saprolitic zone, sandstone basins exhibit a

Mitigating Agricultural Diffuse Pollution: Learning from The River Eden Demonstration Test Catchment Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Reaney, S. M.; Barker, P. A.; Haygarth, P.; Quinn, P. F.; Aftab, A.; Barber, N.; Burke, S.; Cleasby, W.; Jonczyk, J. C.; Owen, G. J.; Perks, M. T.; Snell, M. A.; Surridge, B.

2016-12-01

Freshwater systems continue to fail to achieve their ecological potential and provide associated ecological services due to poor water quality. A key driver of the failure to achieve good status under the EU Water Framework Directive derives from non-point (diffuse) pollution of sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen from agricultural landscapes. While many mitigation options exist, a framework is lacking which provides a holistic understanding of the impact of mitigation scheme design on catchment function and agronomics. The River Eden Demonstration Test Catchment project (2009-2017) in NW England uses an interdisciplinary approach including catchment hydrology, sediment-nutrient fluxes and farmer attitudes, to understand ecological function and diffuse pollution mitigation feature performance. Water flow (both surface and groundwater) and quality monitoring focused on three ca. 10km2 catchments with N and P measurements every 30 minutes. Ecological status was determined by monthly diatom community analysis and supplemented by macrophyte, macroinvertebrate and fish surveys. Changes in erosion potential and hydrological connectivity were monitored using extensive Landsat images and detailed UAV monitoring. Simulation modelling work utilised hydrological simulation models (CRAFT, CRUM3 and HBV-Light) and SCIMAP based risk mapping. Farmer behaviour and attitudes have been assessed with surveys, interviews and diaries. A suite of mitigation features have been installed including changes to land management - e.g. aeriation, storage features within a `treatment train', riparian fencing and woodland creation. A detailed dataset of the integrated catchment hydrological, water quality and ecological behaviour over multiple years, including a drought period and an extreme rainfall event, highlights the interaction between ecology, hydrological and nutrient dynamics that are driven by sediment and nutrients exported within a small number of high magnitude storm events. Hence

Analyzing catchment behavior through catchment modeling in the Gilgel Abay, Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Uhlenbrook

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Understanding catchment hydrological processes is essential for water resources management, in particular in data scarce regions. The Gilgel Abay catchment (a major tributary into Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile is undergoing intensive plans for water management, which is part of larger development plans in the Blue Nile basin in Ethiopia. To obtain a better understanding of the water balance dynamics and runoff generation mechanisms and to evaluate model transferability, catchment modeling has been conducted using the conceptual hydrological model HBV. Accordingly, the catchment of the Gilgel Abay has been divided into two gauged sub-catchments (Upper Gilgel Abay and Koga and the un-gauged part of the catchment. All available data sets were tested for stationarity, consistency and homogeneity and the data limitations (quality and quantity are discussed. Manual calibration of the daily models for three different catchment representations, i.e. (i lumped, (ii lumped with multiple vegetation zones, and (iii semi-distributed with multiple vegetation and elevation zones, showed good to satisfactory model performances with Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies R_eff > 0.75 and > 0.6 for the Upper Gilgel Abay and Koga sub-catchments, respectively. Better model results could not be obtained with manual calibration, very likely due to the limited data quality and model insufficiencies. Increasing the computation time step to 15 and 30 days improved the model performance in both sub-catchments to R_eff > 0.8. Model parameter transferability tests have been conducted by interchanging parameters sets between the two gauged sub-catchments. Results showed poor performances for the daily models (0.30 < R_eff < 0.67, but better performances for the 15 and 30 days models, R_eff > 0.80. The transferability tests together with a sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulations (more than 1 million

Ecological studies in the Ratanica catchment (Carpathian foothills, southern Poland) - an overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grodzinska, K.; Szarek, G.

1995-01-01

This paper includes an overview of ecological studies conducted since 1986 in the Ratanica pine-beech forested catchment located in the polluted, high populated southern part of Poland. General characteristics of the catchment (including soil and vegetation, air pollution, input/output of nutrients and pollutants, element budget data and forest health assessment) are presented. Based on biogeochemical and bioindication results, the Ratanica catchment has been classified as a moderately to heavily deteriorated area. Predictions for this forested catchment for various deposition of anthropogenic pollutants, are also discussed. 22 refs., 1 fig

Ability of the CCSR-NIES atmospheric general circulation model in the stratosphere. Chapter 3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sugata, S.

1997-01-01

A quantitative evaluation of climate change such as global warming is impossible without a high-quality numerical model which describes the dynamics of the climate system and the circulation of energy and materials. The Center for Climate Research - National Institute for Environmental Studies (CCSR-NIES) atmospheric general circulation model (hereafter, GCM for a general circulation model) has been developed to obtain such a high-quality model. The emphasis of the development has been laid on the troposphere and the lower stratosphere below about 30 km altitude. This is natural because human beings live on the Earth's surface and the condition of the lower atmosphere directly affects human life. However, the stratosphere and the upper atmosphere beyond it have recently been the focus even in investigations of climate change, because they are relevant to many issues which relate closely to tropospheric climate change, such as the ozone hole, material exchange between the stratosphere and the troposphere, and physical interaction between the stratosphere and troposphere. This study extended the region of the CCSR-NIES GCM to the lower mesosphere (about 70 km from the surface). This is our first attempt to investigate this GCM's climatology in the upper atmosphere, although some studies for QBO in the middle and lower stratosphere had been done with the GCM

Catchment-coastal zone interaction based upon scenario and model analysis: Elbe and the German Bight case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hofmann, J.; Behrendt, H.; Gilbert, A.J.; Janssen, R.; Kannen, A.; Kappenberg, J.W.; Lenhart, H.; Lise, W.; Nunneri, C.; Windhorst, W.

2005-01-01

This paper presents a holistic strategy on the interaction of activities in the Elbe river basin and their effects on eutrophication in the coastal waters of the German Bight. This catchment-coastal zone interaction is the main target of the EUROCAT (EUROpean CATchments, catchment changes and their

Simulating nitrogen budgets in complex farming systems using INCA: calibration and scenario analyses for the Kervidy catchment (W. France)

OpenAIRE

P. Durand; P. Durand

2004-01-01

The integrated nitrogen model INCA (Integrated Nitrogen in Catchments) was used to analyse the nitrogen dynamics in a small rural catchment in Western France. The agrosystem studied is very complex, with: extensive use of different organic fertilisers, a variety of crop rotations, a structural excess of nitrogen (i.e. more animal N produced by the intensive farming than the N requirements of the crops and pastures), and nitrate retention in both hydrological stores and riparian zones. The ...

Catchment power and the joint distribution of elevation and travel distance to the outlet

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L. S. Sklar

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The delivery of water, sediment, and solutes by catchments is influenced by the distribution of source elevations and their travel distances to the outlet. For example, elevation affects the magnitude and phase of precipitation, as well as the climatic factors that govern rock weathering, which influence the production rate and initial particle size of sediments. Travel distance, in turn, affects the timing of flood peaks at the outlet and the degree of sediment size reduction by wear, which affects particle size distributions at the outlet. The distributions of elevation and travel distance have been studied extensively but separately, as the hypsometric curve and width function. Yet a catchment can be considered as a collection of points, each with paired values of elevation and travel distance. For every point, the ratio of elevation to travel distance defines the mean slope for transport of mass to the outlet. Recognizing that mean slope is proportional to the average rate of loss of potential energy by water and sediment during transport to the outlet, we use the joint distribution of elevation and travel distance to define two new metrics for catchment geometry: "source-area power", and the corresponding catchment-wide integral "catchment power". We explore patterns in source-area and catchment power across three study catchments spanning a range of relief and drainage area. We then develop an empirical algorithm for generating synthetic source-area power distributions, which can be parameterized with data from natural catchments. This new way of quantifying the three-dimensional geometry of catchments can be used to explore the effects of topography on the distribution on fluxes of water, sediment, isotopes, and other landscape products passing through catchment outlets, and may provide a fresh perspective on problems of both practical and theoretical interest.

Marie-Eugénie Kaufmant, Poétique des espaces naturels dans la «Comedia nueva»

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Alexandre Roquain

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Review of Marie-Eugénie Kaufmant, Poétique des espaces naturels dans la «Comedia nueva», Casa de Velázquez (Bibliothèque de la Casa de Velázquez, 48, Madrid, 2010, 571 pp. ISBN: 978-84-96820-40-1.

Improved Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Crop Production at the Catchment Scale via a Process-Based Nitrogen Simulation Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Wenjie; van der Werf, Hayo M G; Salmon-Monviola, Jordy

2015-09-15

One of the major challenges in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of crop production is the nonlinearity between nitrogen (N) fertilizer inputs and on-site N emissions resulting from complex biogeochemical processes. A few studies have addressed this nonlinearity by combining process-based N simulation models with LCA, but none accounted for nitrate (NO3(-)) flows across fields. In this study, we present a new method, TNT2-LCA, that couples the topography-based simulation of nitrogen transfer and transformation (TNT2) model with LCA, and compare the new method with a current LCA method based on a French life cycle inventory database. Application of the two methods to a case study of crop production in a catchment in France showed that, compared to the current method, TNT2-LCA allows delineation of more appropriate temporal limits when developing data for on-site N emissions associated with specific crops in this catchment. It also improves estimates of NO3(-) emissions by better consideration of agricultural practices, soil-climatic conditions, and spatial interactions of NO3(-) flows across fields, and by providing predicted crop yield. The new method presented in this study provides improved LCA of crop production at the catchment scale.

Ucieleśnienie poznania to nie to, co myślisz

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Andrew D. Wilson

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Najbardziej fascynującą obecnie hipotezą w kognitywistyce jest teoria mówiąca o tym, że poznanie jest ucieleśnione. Tak jak inne dobre pomysły w naukach poznawczych, „ucieleśnienie” może jednocześnie posiadać przynajmniej sześć różnych znaczeń. Najpopularniejsze definicje tego pojęcia opierają się na prostym założeniu, że „stany ciała wpływają na stany umysłu”; implikacje hipotezy o ucieleśnieniu prowadzą jednak do bardziej radykalnych wniosków. Jeśli poznanie dotyczy mózgu, ciała i środowiska, to „stany umysłu” w odcieleśnionej kognitywistyce nie istnieją, więc też nie można ich modyfikować. Wobec tego poznanie jawi się jako rozszerzony system złożony z wielu zasobów, a poważna refleksja nad ucieleśnieniem wymaga nowych metod i nowej teorii. W niniejszym artykule opisujemy cztery główne założenia, na których powinny opierać się programy badawcze zakładające dogłębną analizę implikacji tezy o ucieleśnieniu poznania. Pierwszym krokiem jest analiza zadaniowa opisująca z perspektywy pierwszoosobowej konkretne zadanie, które ma wykonać percypujący i działający podmiot [ang. agent]. Następnie należy określić, jakie zasoby odpowiednie do wykonania zadania dostępne są poznającemu podmiotowi. Pojęcie zasobów obejmuje mózg, ciało i środowisko. Trzecim krokiem jest zdefiniowanie sposobów, w jaki działający podmiot może połączyć dostępne zasoby, tak by stworzyć system zdolny do rozwiązania wyznaczonego zadania. Kolejnym krokiem jest sprawdzenie, czy działania pojęte przez podmiot zostały opisane w punkcie trzecim. Powyższą procedurę przedstawimy szczegółowo, odnosząc się do dwóch wyrazistych przykładów (problemu zapolowego i błędu AB oraz objaśnimy, jak stosować wspomnianą analizę do złożonej kwestii wykorzystania języka. Poznanie ucieleśnione jest czymś więcej niż nam się wydaje. Mamy też dostęp do narzędzi, które pozwol

Exploring the physical controls of regional patterns of flow duration curves – Part 3: A catchment classification system based on regime curve indicators

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M. Sivapalan

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Predictions of hydrological responses in ungauged catchments can benefit from a classification scheme that can organize and pool together catchments that exhibit a level of hydrologic similarity, especially similarity in some key variable or signature of interest. Since catchments are complex systems with a level of self-organization arising from co-evolution of climate and landscape properties, including vegetation, there is much to be gained from developing a classification system based on a comparative study of a population of catchments across climatic and landscape gradients. The focus of this paper is on climate seasonality and seasonal runoff regime, as characterized by the ensemble mean of within-year variation of climate and runoff. The work on regime behavior is part of an overall study of the physical controls on regional patterns of flow duration curves (FDCs, motivated by the fact that regime behavior leaves a major imprint upon the shape of FDCs, especially the slope of the FDCs. As an exercise in comparative hydrology, the paper seeks to assess the regime behavior of 428 catchments from the MOPEX database simultaneously, classifying and regionalizing them into homogeneous or hydrologically similar groups. A decision tree is developed on the basis of a metric chosen to characterize similarity of regime behavior, using a variant of the Iterative Dichotomiser 3 (ID3 algorithm to form a classification tree and associated catchment classes. In this way, several classes of catchments are distinguished, in which the connection between the five catchments' regime behavior and climate and catchment properties becomes clearer. Only four similarity indices are entered into the algorithm, all of which are obtained from smoothed daily regime curves of climatic variables and runoff. Results demonstrate that climate seasonality plays the most significant role in the classification of US catchments, with rainfall timing and climatic aridity index

Régulation en génie climatique froid, climatisation, chauffage

CERN Document Server

Desmons, Jean

2010-01-01

Après un rappel des bases de l'électronique et de l'hydraulique nécessaires en régulation climatique, cet ouvrage donne tous les éléments méthodologiques et technologiques pour : concevoir les systèmes de régulation adaptés aux installations de froid, de climatisation et de chauffage ; mettre en oeuvre les régulateurs (entrées / sorties, réglage, paramétrage, dépannage, repérage et contrôle) ; pratiquer la maintenance des installations. Il regroupe notamment plusieurs cas pratiques de régulation d'installations réelles : groupe à eau glacée, bloc opératoire, pompes à chaleur, régulation numérique, détente directe, alimentation en fluide frigoporteur. Cette seconde édition révisée et mise à jour s'enrichit également d'une section sur les installations photovoltaïques et d'un nouveau chapitre sur la régulation numérique et les systèmes informatiques. Cet ouvrage constitue un outil de travail indispensable aux ingénieurs et techniciens en froid et génie climatique et en régu...

Modelling mean transit time of stream base flow during tropical cyclone rainstorm in a steep relief forested catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jun-Yi; Huang, -Chuan, Jr.

2017-04-01

Mean transit time (MTT) is one of the of fundamental catchment descriptors to advance understanding on hydrological, ecological, and biogeochemical processes and improve water resources management. However, there were few documented the base flow partitioning (BFP) and mean transit time within a mountainous catchment in typhoon alley. We used a unique data set of 18O isotope and conductivity composition of rainfall (136 mm to 778 mm) and streamflow water samples collected for 14 tropical cyclone events (during 2011 to 2015) in a steep relief forested catchment (Pinglin, in northern Taiwan). A lumped hydrological model, HBV, considering dispersion model transit time distribution was used to estimate total flow, base flow, and MTT of stream base flow. Linear regression between MTT and hydrometric (precipitation intensity and antecedent precipitation index) variables were used to explore controls on MTT variation. Results revealed that both the simulation performance of total flow and base flow were satisfactory, and the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient of total flow and base flow was 0.848 and 0.732, respectively. The event magnitude increased with the decrease of estimated MTTs. Meanwhile, the estimated MTTs varied 4-21 days with the increase of BFP between 63-92%. The negative correlation between event magnitude and MTT and BFP showed the forcing controls the MTT and BFP. Besides, a negative relationship between MTT and the antecedent precipitation index was also found. In other words, wetter antecedent moisture content more rapidly active the fast flow paths. This approach is well suited for constraining process-based modeling in a range of high precipitation intensity and steep relief forested environments.

Évaluation de la réussite de l'ouvrage de protection de berges de la Romanche au barrage de Livet, réalisé à l'aide de techniques de génie végétal

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DELAGE, Camille

2017-05-01

Full Text Available À l’interface entre les écosystèmes aquatiques et terrestres, le génie végétal sur les berges de cours d’eau s’inspire et utilise les capacités naturelles des végétaux comme matériel de base à la reconstruction de berges. Cette alternative au génie civil, confère aux écosystèmes une meilleure capacité de retour vers des systèmes plus naturels et surtout plus diversifiés. Toutefois, la restauration écologique et particulièrement les techniques de génie végétal souffrent de l’absence généralisée d’évaluation du succès et de retours d’expérience sur le développement des espèces et la tenue des différentes techniques. Cet article présente la démarche adoptée ainsi que les principaux résultats du suivi du réaménagement des berges de la Romanche au barrage de Livet, réalisé avec des techniques mixtes associant enrochements et différentes techniques de génie végétal.

Hydrological behaviour and water balance analysis for Xitiaoxi catchment of Taihu Basin

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Xue Lijuan

2008-09-01

Full Text Available With the rapid social and economic development of the Taihu region, Taihu Lake now faces an increasingly severe eutrophication problem. Pollution from surrounding catchments contributes greatly to the eutrophication of water bodies in the region. Investigation of surface flow and associated mass transport for the Xitiaoxi catchment is of a significant degree of importance as the Xitiaoxi catchment is one of the major catchments within the Taihu region. A SWAT-based distributed hydrological model was established for the Xitiaoxi catchment. The model was calibrated and verified using hydrometeorological data from 1988 to 2001. The results indicate that the modeled daily and annual stream flow match the observed data both in the calibration period and the verification period, with a linear regression coefficient R2 and a coefficient e for modeled daily stream flow greater than 0.8 at Hengtangcun and Fanjiacun gauge stations. The results show that the runoff process in the Xitiaoxi catchment is affected both by rainfall and human activities (e.g., reservoirs and polder areas. Moreover, the human activities weaken flood peaks more noticeably during rainstorms. The water balance analysis reveals the percentages of precipitation made up by surface flow, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge and the change of soil storage, all of which are considered useful to the further understanding of the hydrological processes in the Xitiaoxi catchment. This study provides a good base for further studies in mass transport modeling and comparison of modeling results from similar hydrological models.

Quantifying nonpoint source emissions and their water quality responses in a complex catchment: A case study of a typical urban-rural mixed catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lei; Dai, Ying; Zhi, Xiaosha; Xie, Hui; Shen, Zhenyao

2018-04-01

As two key threats to receiving water bodies, the generation mechanisms and processes of urban and agricultural nonpoint sources (NPSs) show clear differences, which lead to distinct characteristics of water quality responses with mixed land-uses catchments compared to single land-use ones. However, few studies have provided such insights in these characteristic or quantified different water environment responses to NPS pollution. In this study, an integrated modelling approach was developed for those complex catchments by combining three commonly used models: SWMM (Storm Water Management Model), SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) and MIKE 11. A case study was performed in a typical urban-rural catchment of Chao Lake, China. The simulated results indicated that urban NPS pollution responded sensitively to rainfall events and was greatly affected by the antecedent dry days. Compare to urban NPS, agricultural NPS pollution was characterized with the time-lag to rainfall depended on soil moisture and the post-rain-season emissions carried by lateral flows, and were also affected by the local farm-practice schedule. With comprehensive impacts from urban-rural land-uses, the time-interleaved urban and agricultural NPS pollution emissions and more abundant pollution accumulation both led to a decrease in the responsive time and an increase in the frequency of peak pollution concentration values even during the dry season. These obtained characteristics can provide guidance for drafting watershed management plans in similar mixed land use catchments.

Real-time Seismic Alert System of NIED

Science.gov (United States)

Horiuchi, S.; Fujinawa, Y.; Negishi, H.; Matsumoto, T.; Fujiwara, H.; Kunugi, T.; Hayashi, Y.

2001-12-01

An extensive seismic network has been constructed nationwide composed of hi-sensitivity seismographic network, broadband seismographic network and strong motion seismographic network. All these data from some 3,000 sites belonging to NIED, JMA and universities are to be accumulated and distributed through NIED to any scientists and engineering through INTERNET under the coordination of the National Seismic Research Committee of MEXT. As a practical application of those data we are now developing a real-time seismic alert information system for the purpose of providing short-term warning of imminent strong grounds motions from major earthquakes from several seconds to a few days. The contents of information are seismic focal parameters (several seconds), seismic fault plane solutions (some 10 seconds), after-shock activities (several minutes-a few days ). The fundamental fault parameters are used to build specific information at sites for particular users for use of triggering automated and /or half-automated responses. The most important application is an immediate estimate of expected shaking distribution and damages in a district using synthetic database and site effects for local governments to initial proper measures of hazard mitigation. Another application is estimation of arrival time and shaking strength at any individual site for human lives to be safeguarded. The system could also start an automatic electrical isolation and protection of computer systems, protection of hazardous chronic systems, transportation systems and so on. The information are corrected successively as seismic ground motion are received at a larger number of sites in time with the result that more accurate and more sophisticated earthquake information is transmitted to any user. Besides the rapid determination of seismic parameters, one of essential items in this alert system is the data transmission means. The data transmission is chosen to assure negligibly small delay of data

Uniform Transnational Assessment of the Environmental Indices from the Romanian Catchment Area of the Tisa River

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SILVIU-FLORIN FONOGEA

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The uniform transnational assessment of the environmental indices in the catchment area of the Tisa river aims at rehabilitating, protecting and conserving the environmental systems, as well as creating a commonly strategic demarche concerning a sustainable spatial development, based on integrated intersectorial approaches of environmental issues, viewed in their territorial dimension. The information necessary in underlining the current situation in the Romanian catchment area of the Tisa has been structured according to the following categories of analysed indices: sources of surface waters, resources of drinkable water and water supply resources, the risk of not reaching the environmental objectives, significant sources of water pollution (punctual sources of pollution, diffuse sources of pollution, significant hydromorphic pressure, the quality of water, significant sources of air pollution, soils affected by agricultural and industrial activities, nature protection and waste management.

Extreme inflow events and synoptic forcing in Sydney catchments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pepler, Acacia S; Rakich, Clinton S

2010-01-01

The Sydney catchment region encompasses over 16,000km 2 , supplying water to over 4 million inhabitants. However, few studies have investigated the synoptic and climatic influences on inflow in this region, which are crucial for understanding the vulnerability of water supply in a changing climate. This study identifies extremely high and low inflow events between 1960 and 2008 based on catchment averages. The focus of the study is an analysis of the synoptic cause/s of each extreme inflow event. The events are evaluated to identify any trends and also to determine the concurrent significant climatic influences on rainfall over the catchments. Relationships between catchment inflow, rainfall, tropical SST indices, and other influencing factors such as observed wind and temperatures are investigated. Our results show that East Coast Lows and anomalously easterly flow are the drivers of high inflow events, with low inflow events dominated by westerly wind patterns and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation.

Comparison of Water Flows in Four European Lagoon Catchments under a Set of Future Climate Scenarios

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Cornelia Hesse

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Climate change is supposed to remarkably affect the water resources of coastal lagoons as they are highly vulnerable to changes occurring at their catchment and/or ocean or sea boundaries. Probable impacts of projected climate changes on catchment hydrology and freshwater input were assessed using the eco-hydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model for the drainage areas of four European lagoons: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal, Mar Menor (Spain, Tyligulskyi Liman (Ukraine and Vistula Lagoon (Poland/Russia under a set of 15 climate scenarios covering the time period until the year 2100. Climate change signals for all regions show continuously increasing trends in temperature, but various trends in precipitation. Precipitation is projected to decrease in two catchments on the Iberian Peninsula and increase in the Baltic region catchment, and does not show a clear trend in the catchment located near the Black Sea. The average projected changes in freshwater inputs reflect these changes in climate conditions, but often show variability between the scenarios, in future periods, and within the catchments. According to the individual degrees of water management influences in the four drainage basins, the climate sensitivity of river inflows is differently pronounced in each.

Multi-catchment rainfall-runoff simulation for extreme flood estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Paquet, Emmanuel

2017-04-01

The SCHADEX method (Paquet et al., 2013) is a reference method in France for the estimation of extreme flood for dam design. The method is based on a semi-continuous rainfall-runoff simulation process: hundreds of different rainy events, randomly drawn up to extreme values, are simulated independently in the hydrological conditions of each day when a rainy event has been actually observed. This allows generating an exhaustive set of crossings between precipitation and soil saturation hazards, and to build a complete distribution of flood discharges up to extreme quantiles. The hydrological model used within SCHADEX, the MORDOR model (Garçon, 1996), is a lumped model, which implies that hydrological processes, e.g. rainfall and soil saturation, are supposed to be homogeneous throughout the catchment. Snow processes are nevertheless represented in relation with altitude. This hypothesis of homogeneity is questionable especially as the size of the catchment increases, or in areas of highly contrasted climatology (like mountainous areas). Conversely, modeling the catchment with a fully distributed approach would cause different problems, in particular distributing the rainfall-runoff model parameters trough space, and within the SCHADEX stochastic framework, generating extreme rain fields with credible spatio-temporal features. An intermediate solution is presented here. It provides a better representation of the hydro-climatic diversity of the studied catchment (especially regarding flood processes) while keeping the SCHADEX simulation framework. It consists in dividing the catchment in several, more homogeneous sub-catchments. Rainfall-runoff models are parameterized individually for each of them, using local discharge data if available. A first SCHADEX simulation is done at the global scale, which allows assigning a probability to each simulated event, mainly based on the global areal rainfall drawn for the event (see Paquet el al., 2013 for details). Then the

Chalk Catchment Transit Time: Unresolved Issues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Darling, W. G.; Gooddy, D. C. [British Geological Survey, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom); Barker, J. A. [School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton (United Kingdom); Robinson, M. [Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom)

2013-07-15

The mean transit time (MTT) of a catchment is the average residence time of water from rainfall to river outflow at the foot of the catchment. As such, MTT has important water quality as well as resource implications. Many catchments worldwide have been measured for MTT using environmental isotopes, yet the Chalk, an important aquifer in NW Europe, has received little attention in this regard. The catchment of the River Lambourn in southern England has been intermittently studied since the 1960s using isotopic methods. A tritium peak measured in the river during the 1970s indicates an apparent MTT of {approx}15 years, but the thick unsaturated zone (average {approx}50 m) of the catchment suggests that the MTT should be much greater because of the average downward movement through the Chalk of {approx}1 m/a consistently indicated by tritium and other tracers. Recent work in the catchment using SF{sub 6} as a residence time indicator has given groundwater ages in the narrow range 11-18 yrs, apparently supporting the river tritium data but in conflict with the unsaturated zone data even allowing for a moderate proportion of rapid bypass flow. The MTT of the catchment remains unresolved for the time being. (author)

CHANGES OF WATER BALANCE COMPONENTS OF MIDFOREST POND IN A HYDROLOGICAL YEARS OF A DIFFERENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITION COURSE

OpenAIRE

Mariusz Korytowski; Czesław Szafrański

2014-01-01

The paper presents the results of the researches carried out at the catchment of water pond number one, located at Wielosławice Forestry of Siemianice Experimental Farm. The researches were carried out in three hydrological years 2002/2003, 2003/2004 i 2009/2010 of a different precipitation sums. The area of investigated catchment of pond number one is about 7,5 ha and its forestation totals 100 % and it is situated in a part of Niesób catchment - left-side tributary of Prosna River. Fresh ha...

A simple distributed sediment delivery approach for rural catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Reid, Lucas; Scherer, Ulrike

2014-05-01

The transfer of sediments from source areas to surface waters is a complex process. In process based erosion models sediment input is thus quantified by representing all relevant sub processes such as detachment, transport and deposition of sediment particles along the flow path to the river. A successful application of these models requires, however, a large amount of spatially highly resolved data on physical catchment characteristics, which is only available for a few, well examined small catchments. For the lack of appropriate models, the empirical Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is widely applied to quantify the sediment production in meso to large scale basins. As the USLE provides long-term mean soil loss rates, it is often combined with spatially lumped models to estimate the sediment delivery ratio (SDR). In these models, the SDR is related to data on morphological characteristics of the catchment such as average local relief, drainage density, proportion of depressions or soil texture. Some approaches include the relative distance between sediment source areas and the river channels. However, several studies showed that spatially lumped parameters describing the morphological characteristics are only of limited value to represent the factors of influence on sediment transport at the catchment scale. Sediment delivery is controlled by the location of the sediment source areas in the catchment and the morphology along the flow path to the surface water bodies. This complex interaction of spatially varied physiographic characteristics cannot be adequately represented by lumped morphological parameters. The objective of this study is to develop a simple but spatially distributed approach to quantify the sediment delivery ratio by considering the characteristics of the flow paths in a catchment. We selected a small catchment located in in an intensively cultivated loess region in Southwest Germany as study area for the development of the SDR approach. The

Modeling radiocesium transport from a river catchment based on a physically-based distributed hydrological and sediment erosion model.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinouchi, Tsuyoshi; Yoshimura, Kazuya; Omata, Teppei

2015-01-01

The accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) in March 2011 resulted in the deposition of large quantities of radionuclides, such as (134)Cs and (137)Cs, over parts of eastern Japan. Since then high levels of radioactive contamination have been detected in large areas, including forests, agricultural land, and residential areas. Due to the strong adsorption capability of radiocesium to soil particles, radiocesium migrates with eroded sediments, follows the surface flow paths, and is delivered to more populated downstream regions and eventually to the Pacific Ocean. It is therefore important to understand the transport of contaminated sediments in the hydrological system and to predict changes in the spatial distribution of radiocesium concentrations by taking the land-surface processes related to sediment migration into consideration. In this study, we developed a distributed model to simulate the transport of water and contaminated sediment in a watershed hydrological system, and applied this model to a partially forested mountain catchment located in an area highly contaminated by the radioactive fallout. Observed discharge, sediment concentration, and cesium concentration measured from June 2011 until December 2012 were used for calibration of model parameters. The simulated discharge and sediment concentration both agreed well with observed values, while the cesium concentration was underestimated in the initial period following the accident. This result suggests that the leaching of radiocesium from the forest canopy, which was not considered in the model, played a significant role in its transport from the catchment. Based on the simulation results, we quantified the long-term fate of radiocesium over the study area and estimated that the effective half-life of (137)Cs deposited in the study area will be approximately 22 y due to the export of contaminated sediment by land-surface processes, and the amount of (137)Cs remaining in the

Planning Method of Eco-environment Restoration Based on Enlarging Terrace and De-farming in Loess Hilly Region——A Case Study of Yangou Catchment

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Lijuan; DANG; Yong; XU

2013-01-01

After expatiating the guiding ideology,contents,standards and principles of eco-environment restoration based on enlarging terrace and de-farming,this paper discussed the planning method and technical flow of enlarging terrace and garden plot in a small catchment of loess hilly region by means of GIS spatial analysis technology,and then the planning method was applied in Yangou catchment.The result showed that it is practicabl,and the areas of newly-built terrace and garden plot in Yangou catchment are at least 295.06 and 4.61 hm2,so that the areas of basic farmland and garden plot reach 359.23 and 622.69 hm2.After the land use structure is regulated,the forest coverage is 48.87%,and the permanent vegetation coverage is about 75% in Yangou catchment,while sediment reduction benefit is above 80% in slope land.In agricultural development,Yangou catchment can yield 1 645.13 tons of food supplies,above 9 340 tons of apples,and can feed 7 500 sheep every year.

Demonstrating the viability and value of community-based monitoring schemes in catchment science

Science.gov (United States)

Starkey, Eleanor; Parkin, Geoff; Quinn, Paul; Large, Andy

2016-04-01

Hydrological catchments are complex systems which need to be monitored over time in order to characterise their behaviour on a local level, model, implement mitigation measures and meet policy targets. Despite hydrometric monitoring techniques being well developed, data is often inadequate within rural areas. Local knowledge and experiences are also vital sources of information in this sector but they are not routinely harvested. Long-term evidence is required to provide stakeholders with confidence and innovation is required to fully engage with and inform the public. Citizen science and volunteered geographical information (VGI) projects are encouraging volunteers to participate in crowdsourcing activities and generate new knowledge, but they have not been fully investigated within catchment science. A citizen science approach has therefore been implemented within the 42km2 Haltwhistle Burn catchment (northern England) using effective engagement techniques. This catchment responds rapidly, experiences flash flood events, and like many, it does not benefit from any traditional monitoring equipment. Participation levels confirm that members of the public do want to monitor their local water environment, with flooding being a key driver. Regular 'River Watch' volunteers and passers-by are sharing their knowledge and monitoring rainfall, river levels, water quality parameters, sediment issues, flood events and performance of flood risk management features. This has enabled a variety of low-cost data collection and submission tools to be tested over a two year period. Training has encouraged good quality data to be collected and volunteers are ready to capture meaningful information during unexpected flood events. Although volunteers are capable of collecting quantitative information, photographs and videos are submitted more readily. Twitter has also been used to share real-time observations successfully. A traditional monitoring network has been running in parallel

The Catchment Feature Model: A Device for Multimodal Fusion and a Bridge between Signal and Sense

Science.gov (United States)

Quek, Francis

2004-12-01

The catchment feature model addresses two questions in the field of multimodal interaction: how we bridge video and audio processing with the realities of human multimodal communication, and how information from the different modes may be fused. We argue from a detailed literature review that gestural research has clustered around manipulative and semaphoric use of the hands, motivate the catchment feature model psycholinguistic research, and present the model. In contrast to "whole gesture" recognition, the catchment feature model applies a feature decomposition approach that facilitates cross-modal fusion at the level of discourse planning and conceptualization. We present our experimental framework for catchment feature-based research, cite three concrete examples of catchment features, and propose new directions of multimodal research based on the model.

Modelling the impact of implementing Water Sensitive Urban Design on at a catchment scale

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Locatelli, Luca; Gabriel, S.; Bockhorn, Britta

Stormwater management using Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is expected to be part of future drainage systems. This project aimed to develop a set of hydraulic models of the Harrestrup Å catchment (close to Copenhagen) in order to demonstrate the importance of modeling WSUDs at different scales......, ranging from models of an individual soakaway up to models of a large urban catchment. The models were developed in Mike Urban with a new integrated soakaway model. A small-scale individual soakaway model was used to determine appropriate initial conditions for soakway models. This model was applied...

Using stable isotopes to estimate and compare mean residence times in contrasting geologic catchments (Attert River, NW Luxembourg)

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Carreras, N.; Fenicia, F.; Frentress, J.; Wrede, S.; Pfister, L.

2012-04-01

In recent years, stable isotopes have been increasingly used to characterize important aspects of catchment hydrological functioning, such as water storage dynamics, flow pathways and water sources. These characteristics are often synthesized by the Mean Residence Time (MRT), which is a simple catchment descriptor that employ the relation of distinct stable isotopic signatures in the rainfall input and streamflow output of a catchment that are significantly dampened through sub-surface propagation. In this preliminary study, MRT was estimated in the Attert River catchment (NW Luxembourg), where previous studies have shown that lithology exerts a major control on runoff generation. The Attert catchment lies at the transition zone of contrasting bedrock lithology: the Northern part is characterized by Devonian schist of the Ardennes massif, while sedimentary deposits of sandstone and marls dominate in the south of the catchment. As a consequence of differing lithologic characteristics, hydrological processes change across scales. The schistose catchments exhibit a delayed shallow groundwater component, sandstone catchments have slow-responding year-round groundwater component, whereas flashy runoff regimes prevails in the marly catchments. Under these circumstances, the MRTs are expected to vary significantly according to lithology, and provide additional understanding in internal catchment processes and their scale dependencies. In order to test this, bi-weekly monitoring of rainfall and discharge stable water isotope composition (oxygen-18 and deuterium) has been carried out since 2007 in 10 nested sub-catchments ranging in size from 0.4 to 247 km2 in the Attert catchment. MRT was estimated using different lumped convolution integral models and sine wave functions with varying transit times distributions (TTDs). TTDs were evaluated through calibration. Further research efforts will deal with the application of conceptual models to simulate and compare TTD, using

Process-based modelling of a headwater catchment in semi-arid conditions: the influence of macropore flow

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schaik, N.L.M.B.; Bronstert, A.; Jong, S.M.; Jetten, V.G.; Dam, van J.C.; Ritsema, C.J.; Schnabel, S.

2014-01-01

Subsurface stormflow is thought to occur mainly in humid environments with steep terrains. However, in semi-arid areas, preferential flow through macropores can also result in a significant contribution of subsurface stormflow to catchment runoff for varying catchment conditions. Most hydrological

Statistical analysis of hydrological response in urbanising catchments based on adaptive sampling using inter-Amount times

NARCIS (Netherlands)

ten Veldhuis, J.A.E.; Schleiss, M.A.

2017-01-01

Urban catchments are typically characterised by a more flashy nature of the hydrological response compared to natural catchments. Predicting flow changes associated with urbanisation is not straightforward, as they are influenced by interactions between impervious cover, basin size, drainage

Assessing the role of urban developments on storm runoff response through multi-scale catchment experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Mark; Owen, Gareth; Geris, Josie; Soulsby, Chris; Quinn, Paul

2015-04-01

Many communities across the world face the increasing challenge of balancing water quantity and quality issues with accommodating new growth and urban development. Urbanisation is typically associated with detrimental changes in water quality, sediment delivery, and effects on water storage and flow pathways (e.g. increases in flooding). In particular for mixed rural and urban catchments where the spatio-temporal variability of hydrological responses is high, there remains a key research challenge in evaluating the timing and magnitude of storage and flow pathways at multiple scales. This is of crucial importance for appropriate catchment management, for example to aid the design of Green Infrastructure (GI) to mitigate the risk of flooding, among other multiple benefits. The aim of this work was to (i) explore spatio-temporal storm runoff generation characteristics in multi-scale catchment experiments that contain rural and urban land use zones, and (ii) assess the (preliminary) impact of Sustainable Drainage (SuDs) as GI on high flow and flood characteristics. Our key research catchment, the Ouseburn in Northern England (55km2), has rural headwaters (15%) and an urban zone (45%) concentrated in the lower catchment area. There is an intermediate and increasingly expanding peri-urban zone (currently 40%), which is defined here as areas where rural and urban features coexist, alongside GIs. Such a structure is typical for most catchments with urban developments. We monitored spatial precipitation and multiscale nested (five gauges) runoff response, in addition to the storage dynamics in GIs for a period of 6 years (2007-2013). For a range of events, we examined the multiscale nested runoff characteristics (lag time and magnitude) of the rural and urban flow components, assessed how these integrated with changing land use and increasing scale, and discussed the implications for flood management in the catchment. The analyses indicated three distinctly different

A catchment scale evaluation of multiple stressor effects in headwater streams

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, J. J.; McKnight, Ursula S.; Loinaz, Maria Christina

2013-01-01

studied 11 headwater streams in the Hove catchment in the Copenhagen region. All sites had substantial physical habitat and water quality impairments due to anthropogenic influence (intensive agriculture, urban settlements, contaminated sites and low base-flow due to water abstraction activities...... insecticides were probably essential contributors to the overall ecological impairment of these streams. Our results suggest that headwater streams should be considered in future management and mitigation plans. Catchment-based management is necessary because several anthropogenic stressors exceeded...

Using isotopes to constrain water flux and age estimates in snow-influenced catchments using the STARR (Spatially distributed Tracer-Aided Rainfall–Runoff model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Ala-aho

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Tracer-aided hydrological models are increasingly used to reveal fundamentals of runoff generation processes and water travel times in catchments. Modelling studies integrating stable water isotopes as tracers are mostly based in temperate and warm climates, leaving catchments with strong snow influences underrepresented in the literature. Such catchments are challenging, as the isotopic tracer signals in water entering the catchments as snowmelt are typically distorted from incoming precipitation due to fractionation processes in seasonal snowpack. We used the Spatially distributed Tracer-Aided Rainfall–Runoff (STARR model to simulate fluxes, storage, and mixing of water and tracers, as well as estimating water ages in three long-term experimental catchments with varying degrees of snow influence and contrasting landscape characteristics. In the context of northern catchments the sites have exceptionally long and rich data sets of hydrometric data and – most importantly – stable water isotopes for both rain and snow conditions. To adapt the STARR model for sites with strong snow influence, we used a novel parsimonious calculation scheme that takes into account the isotopic fractionation through snow sublimation and snowmelt. The modified STARR setup simulated the streamflows, isotope ratios, and snow pack dynamics quite well in all three catchments. From this, our simulations indicated contrasting median water ages and water age distributions between catchments brought about mainly by differences in topography and soil characteristics. However, the variable degree of snow influence in catchments also had a major influence on the stream hydrograph, storage dynamics, and water age distributions, which was captured by the model. Our study suggested that snow sublimation fractionation processes can be important to include in tracer-aided modelling for catchments with seasonal snowpack, while the influence of fractionation during snowmelt

A numerical solution to define channel heads and hillslope parameters from digital topography of glacially conditioned catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Salcher, Bernhard; Baumann, Sebastian; Kober, Florian; Robl, Jörg; Heiniger, Lukas

2016-04-01

The analysis of the slope-area relationship in bedrock streams is a common way for discriminating the channel from the hillslope domain and associated landscape processes. Spatial variations of these domains are important indicators of landscape change. In fluvial catchments, this relationship is a function of contributing drainage area, channel slope and the threshold drainage area for fluvial erosion. The resulting pattern is related to climate, tectonic and underlying bedrock. These factors may become secondary in catchments affected by glacial erosion, as it is the case in many mid- to high-latitude mountain belts. The perturbation (i.e. the destruction) of an initial steady state fluvial bedrock morphology (where uplift is balanced by surface lowering rates) will tend to become successively larger if the repeated action of glacial processes exceeds the potential of fluvial readjustment during deglaciated periods. Topographic change is associated with a decrease and fragmentation of the channel network and an extension of the hillslope domain. In case of glacially conditioned catchments discrimination of the two domains remains problematic and a discrimination inconsistent. A definition is therefore highly needed considering that (i) a spatial shift in the domains affect the process and rate of erosion and (ii) topographic classifications of alpine catchments often base on channel and hillslope parameters (i.e.channel or hillslope relief). Here we propose a novel numerical approach to topographically define channel heads from digital topography in glacially conditioned mountain range catchments in order to discriminate the channel from the hillslope domain. We analyzed the topography of the southern European Central Alps, a region which (i) has been glaciated multiple times during the Quaternary, shows (ii) little lithological variations, is (iii) home of very low erodible rocks and is (iv) known as a region were tectonic processes have largely ceased. The

Spatial characterization of catchment dispersion mechanisms in an urban context

Science.gov (United States)

Rossel, Florian; Gironás, Jorge; Mejía, Alfonso; Rinaldo, Andrea; Rodriguez, Fabrice

2014-12-01

Previous studies have examined in-depth the dispersion mechanisms in natural catchments. In contrast, these dispersion mechanisms have been studied little in urban catchments, where artificial transport elements and morphological arrangements are expected to modify travel times and mobilize excess rainfall from spatially distributed impervious sites. This has the ability to modify the variance of the catchment's travel times and hence the total dispersion. This work quantifies the dispersion mechanisms in an urban catchment using the theory of transport by travel times as represented by the Urban Morpho-climatic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (U-McIUH) model. The U-McIUH computes travel times based on kinematic wave theory and accounts explicitly for the path heterogeneities and altered connectivity patterns characteristic of an urban drainage network. The analysis is illustrated using the Aubinière urban catchment in France as a case study. We found that kinematic dispersion is dominant for small rainfall intensities, whereas geomorphologic dispersion becomes more dominant for larger intensities. The total dispersion scales with the drainage area in a power law fashion. The kinematic dispersion is dominant across spatial scales up to a threshold of approximately 2-3 km2, after which the geomorphologic dispersion becomes more dominant. Overall, overland flow is responsible for most of the dispersion in the catchment, while conduits tend to counteract the increase of the geomorphologic dispersion with a negative kinematic dispersion. Further study with other catchments is needed to asses if the latter is a general feature of urban drainage networks.

Integrating terrestrial through aquatic processing of water, carbon and nitrogen over hot, cold and lukewarm moments in mixed land use catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Band, L. E.; Lin, L.; Duncan, J. M.

2017-12-01

A major challenge in understanding and managing freshwater volumes and quality in mixed land use catchments is the detailed heterogeneity of topography, soils, canopy, and inputs of water and biogeochemicals. The short space and time scale dynamics of sources, transport and processing of water, carbon and nitrogen in natural and built environments can have a strong influence on the timing and magnitude of watershed runoff and nutrient production, ecosystem cycling and export. Hydroclimate variability induces a functional interchange of terrestrial and aquatic environments across their transition zone with the temporal and spatial expansion and contraction of soil wetness, standing and flowing water over seasonal, diurnal and storm event time scales. Variation in sources and retention of nutrients at these scales need to be understood and represented to design optimal mitigation strategies. This paper discusses the conceptual framework used to design both simulation and measurement approaches, and explores these dynamics using an integrated terrestrial-aquatic watershed model of coupled water-carbon-nitrogen processes at resolutions necessary to resolve "hot spot/hot moment" phenomena in two well studied catchments in Long Term Ecological Research sites. The potential utility of this approach for design and assessment of urban green infrastructure and stream restoration strategies is illustrated.

Impact of climate seasonality on catchment yield: A parameterization for commonly-used water balance formulas

Science.gov (United States)

de Lavenne, Alban; Andréassian, Vazken

2018-03-01

This paper examines the hydrological impact of the seasonality of precipitation and maximum evaporation: seasonality is, after aridity, a second-order determinant of catchment water yield. Based on a data set of 171 French catchments (where aridity ranged between 0.2 and 1.2), we present a parameterization of three commonly-used water balance formulas (namely, Turc-Mezentsev, Tixeront-Fu and Oldekop formulas) to account for seasonality effects. We quantify the improvement of seasonality-based parameterization in terms of the reconstitution of both catchment streamflow and water yield. The significant improvement obtained (reduction of RMSE between 9 and 14% depending on the formula) demonstrates the importance of climate seasonality in the determination of long-term catchment water balance.

The Catchment Feature Model: A Device for Multimodal Fusion and a Bridge between Signal and Sense

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francis Quek

2004-09-01

Full Text Available The catchment feature model addresses two questions in the field of multimodal interaction: how we bridge video and audio processing with the realities of human multimodal communication, and how information from the different modes may be fused. We argue from a detailed literature review that gestural research has clustered around manipulative and semaphoric use of the hands, motivate the catchment feature model psycholinguistic research, and present the model. In contrast to “whole gesture” recognition, the catchment feature model applies a feature decomposition approach that facilitates cross-modal fusion at the level of discourse planning and conceptualization. We present our experimental framework for catchment feature-based research, cite three concrete examples of catchment features, and propose new directions of multimodal research based on the model.

How does landscape structure influence catchment transit time across different geomorphic provinces?

Science.gov (United States)

Tetzlaff, D.; Seibert, J.; McGuire, K.J.; Laudon, H.; Burns, Douglas A.; Dunn, S.M.; Soulsby, C.

2009-01-01

Despite an increasing number of empirical investigations of catchment transit times (TTs), virtually all are based on individual catchments and there are few attempts to synthesize understanding across different geographical regions. Uniquely, this paper examines data from 55 catchments in five geomorphic provinces in northern temperate regions (Scotland, United States of America and Sweden). The objective is to understand how the role of catchment topography as a control on the TTs differs in contrasting geographical settings. Catchment inverse transit time proxies (ITTPs) were inferred by a simple metric of isotopic tracer damping, using the ratio of standard deviation of ??18O in streamwater to the standard deviation of ??18O in precipitation. Quantitative landscape analysis was undertaken to characterize the catchments according to hydrologically relevant topographic indices that could be readily determined from a digital terrain model (DTM). The nature of topographic controls on transit times varied markedly in different geomorphic regions. In steeper montane regions, there are stronger gravitational influences on hydraulic gradients and TTs tend to be lower in the steepest catchments. In provinces where terrain is more subdued, direct topographic control weakened; in particular, where flatter areas with less permeable soils give rise to overland flow and lower TTs. The steeper slopes within this flatter terrain appear to have a greater coverage of freely draining soils, which increase sub-surface flow, therefore increasing TTs. Quantitative landscape analysis proved a useful tool for intercatchment comparison. However, the critical influence of sub-surface permeability and connectivity may limit the transferability of predictive tools of hydrological function based on topographic parameters alone. Copyright ?? 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management: towards hydrosolidarity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Falkenmark

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to clarify key biophysical issues and the problems involved in the ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management. The issue in managing complex systems is to live with unavoidable change while securing the capacity of the ecohydrological system of the catchment to sustain vital ecological goods and services, aquatic as well as terrestrial, on which humanity depends ultimately. Catchment management oriented to sustainability has to be based on ethical principles: human rights, international conventions, sustaining crucial ecological goods and services, and protecting ecosystem resilience, all of which have water linkages. Many weaknesses have to be identified, assessed and mitigated to improve the tools by which the ethical issues can be addressed and solved: a heritage of constraining tunnel vision in both science and management; inadequate shortcuts made in modern scientific system analyses (e.g. science addressing sustainability issues; simplistic technical-fix approaches to water and ecosystems in land/water/ecosystem management; conventional tools for evaluation of scientific quality with its focus on “doing the thing right” rather than “doing the right thing”. The new ethics have to incorporate principles that, on a catchment basis, allow for proper attention to the hungry and poor, upstream and downstream, to descendants, and to sites and habitats that need to be protected. Keywords: catchment, hydrosolidarity, ecosystem, water determinants, resilience, green water, blue water, sustainability science

USLE-Based Assessment of Soil Erosion by Water in the Nyabarongo River Catchment, Rwanda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fidele Karamage

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Soil erosion has become a serious problem in recent decades due to unhalted trends of unsustainable land use practices. Assessment of soil erosion is a prominent tool in planning and conservation of soil and water resource ecosystems. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE was applied to Nyabarongo River Catchment that drains about 8413.75 km2 (33% of the total Rwanda coverage and a small part of the Southern Uganda (about 64.50 km2 using Geographic Information Systems (GIS and Remote Sensing technologies. The estimated total annual actual soil loss was approximately estimated at 409 million tons with a mean erosion rate of 490 t·ha−1·y−1 (i.e., 32.67 mm·y−1. The cropland that occupied 74.85% of the total catchment presented a mean erosion rate of 618 t·ha−1·y−1 (i.e., 41.20 mm·y−1 and was responsible for 95.8% of total annual soil loss. Emergency soil erosion control is required with a priority accorded to cropland area of 173,244 ha, which is extremely exposed to actual soil erosion rate of 2222 t·ha−1·y−1 (i.e., 148.13 mm·y−1 and contributed to 96.2% of the total extreme soil loss in the catchment. According to this study, terracing cultivation method could reduce the current erosion rate in cropland areas by about 78%. Therefore, the present study suggests the catchment management by constructing check dams, terracing, agroforestry and reforestation of highly exposed areas as suitable measures for erosion and water pollution control within the Nyabarongo River Catchment and in other regions facing the same problems.

USLE-Based Assessment of Soil Erosion by Water in the Nyabarongo River Catchment, Rwanda.

Science.gov (United States)

Karamage, Fidele; Zhang, Chi; Kayiranga, Alphonse; Shao, Hua; Fang, Xia; Ndayisaba, Felix; Nahayo, Lamek; Mupenzi, Christophe; Tian, Guangjin

2016-08-20

Soil erosion has become a serious problem in recent decades due to unhalted trends of unsustainable land use practices. Assessment of soil erosion is a prominent tool in planning and conservation of soil and water resource ecosystems. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was applied to Nyabarongo River Catchment that drains about 8413.75 km² (33%) of the total Rwanda coverage and a small part of the Southern Uganda (about 64.50 km²) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing technologies. The estimated total annual actual soil loss was approximately estimated at 409 million tons with a mean erosion rate of 490 t·ha(-1)·y(-1) (i.e., 32.67 mm·y(-1)). The cropland that occupied 74.85% of the total catchment presented a mean erosion rate of 618 t·ha(-1)·y(-1) (i.e., 41.20 mm·y(-1)) and was responsible for 95.8% of total annual soil loss. Emergency soil erosion control is required with a priority accorded to cropland area of 173,244 ha, which is extremely exposed to actual soil erosion rate of 2222 t·ha(-1)·y(-1) (i.e., 148.13 mm·y(-1)) and contributed to 96.2% of the total extreme soil loss in the catchment. According to this study, terracing cultivation method could reduce the current erosion rate in cropland areas by about 78%. Therefore, the present study suggests the catchment management by constructing check dams, terracing, agroforestry and reforestation of highly exposed areas as suitable measures for erosion and water pollution control within the Nyabarongo River Catchment and in other regions facing the same problems.

Modelling catchment areas for secondary care providers: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Simon; Wardlaw, Jessica; Crouch, Susan; Carolan, Michelle

2011-09-01

the catchment area of a planned new hospital, the extra level of detail provided by the gravity model may prove necessary. However, in virtually all other applications, the Proportional Flow method produced the optimal model for catchment populations in Manchester, based on several criteria: it produced the smallest RMS error; it addressed cross-boundary flows; the data used to create the catchment was readily available to SCPs; and it was simpler to reproduce than the gravity model method. Further work is needed to address how the Proportional Flow method can be used to reflect service redesign and handle OAs with zero or low activity. A next step should be the rolling out of the method across England and looking at further drill downs of data such as catchment by Healthcare Resource Group (HRG) rather than specialty level.

Correcting for catchment area nonresidency in studies based on tumor-registry data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sposto, R.; Preston, D.L.

1993-05-01

We discuss the effect of catchment area nonresidency on estimates of cancer incidence from a tumor-registry-based cohort study and demonstrate that a relatively simple correction is possible in the context of Poisson regression analysis if individual residency histories or the probabilities of residency are known. A comparison of a complete data maximum likelihood analysis with several Poisson regression analyses demonstrates the adequacy of the simple correction in a large simulated data set. We compare analyses of stomach-cancer incidence from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation tumor registry with and without the correction. We also discuss some implications of including cases identified only on the basis of death certificates. (author)

Catchment-scale Validation of a Physically-based, Post-fire Runoff and Erosion Model

Science.gov (United States)

Quinn, D.; Brooks, E. S.; Robichaud, P. R.; Dobre, M.; Brown, R. E.; Wagenbrenner, J.

2017-12-01

The cascading consequences of fire-induced ecological changes have profound impacts on both natural and managed forest ecosystems. Forest managers tasked with implementing post-fire mitigation strategies need robust tools to evaluate the effectiveness of their decisions, particularly those affecting hydrological recovery. Various hillslope-scale interfaces of the physically-based Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model have been successfully validated for this purpose using fire-effected plot experiments, however these interfaces are explicitly designed to simulate single hillslopes. Spatially-distributed, catchment-scale WEPP interfaces have been developed over the past decade, however none have been validated for post-fire simulations, posing a barrier to adoption for forest managers. In this validation study, we compare WEPP simulations with pre- and post-fire hydrological records for three forested catchments (W. Willow, N. Thomas, and S. Thomas) that burned in the 2011 Wallow Fire in Northeastern Arizona, USA. Simulations were conducted using two approaches; the first using automatically created inputs from an online, spatial, post-fire WEPP interface, and the second using manually created inputs which incorporate the spatial variability of fire effects observed in the field. Both approaches were compared to five years of observed post-fire sediment and flow data to assess goodness of fit.

Hydro-economic modelling in mining catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Ossa Moreno, J. S.; McIntyre, N.; Rivera, D.; Smart, J. C. R.

2017-12-01

Hydro-economic models are gaining momentum because of their capacity to model both the physical processes related to water supply, and socio-economic factors determining water demand. This is particularly valuable in the midst of the large uncertainty upon future climate conditions and social trends. Agriculture, urban uses and environmental flows have received a lot of attention from researchers, as these tend to be the main consumers of water in most catchments. Mine water demand, although very important in several small and medium-sized catchments worldwide, has received less attention and only few models have attempted to reproduce its dynamics with other users. This paper describes an on-going project that addresses this gap, by developing a hydro-economic model in the upper Aconcagua River in Chile. This is a mountain catchment with large scale mining and hydro-power users at high altitudes, and irrigation areas in a downstream valley. Relevant obstacles to the model included the lack of input climate data, which is a common feature in several mining areas, the complex hydrological processes in the area and the difficulty of quantifying the value of water used by mines. A semi-distributed model developed within the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP), was calibrated to reproduce water supply, and this was complemented with an analysis of the value of water for mining based on two methods; water markets and an analysis of its production processes. Agriculture and other users were included through methods commonly used in similar models. The outputs help understanding the value of water in the catchment, and its sensitivity to changes in climate variables, market prices, environmental regulations and changes in the production of minerals, crops and energy. The results of the project highlight the importance of merging hydrology and socio-economic calculations in mining regions, in order to better understand trade-offs and cost of opportunity of using

Drivers of plant species composition in siliceous spring ecosystems: groundwater chemistry, catchment traits or spatial factors?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carl BEIERKUHNLEIN

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Spring water reflects the hydrochemistry of the aquifer in the associated catchments. On dense siliceous bedrock, the nearsurface groundwater flow is expected to be closely related to the biogeochemical processes of forest ecosystems, where the impact of land use is also low. We hypothesize that the plant species composition of springs mainly reflects hydrochemical conditions. Therefore, springs may serve as indicator systems for biogeochemical processes in complex forest ecosystems. To test this hypothesis, we investigate the influence of spring water chemical properties, catchment traits, and spatial position on plant species composition for 73 springs in forested catchments in central Germany, using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS, Mantel tests, and path analyses. Partial Mantel tests and path analyses reveal that vegetation is more greatly influenced by spring water chemistry than by catchment traits. Consequently, the catchment's influence on vegetation is effective in an indirect way, via spring water. When considering spatial aspects (in particular altitude in addition, the explanatory power of catchment traits for spring water properties is reduced almost to zero. As vegetation shows the highest correlation with the acidity gradient, we assume that altitude acts as a sum parameter that incorporates various acidifying processes in the catchment. These processes are particularly related to altitude – through bedrock, climatic parameters and forest vegetation. The species composition of undisturbed springs is very sensitive in reflecting such conditions and may serve as an integrative tool for detecting complex ecological processes.

Climate-vegetation-soil interactions and long-term hydrologic partitioning: signatures of catchment co-evolution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. A. Troch

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Budyko (1974 postulated that long-term catchment water balance is controlled to first order by the available water and energy. This leads to the interesting question of how do landscape characteristics (soils, geology, vegetation and climate properties (precipitation, potential evaporation, number of wet and dry days interact at the catchment scale to produce such a simple and predictable outcome of hydrological partitioning? Here we use a physically-based hydrologic model separately parameterized in 12 US catchments across a climate gradient to decouple the impact of climate and landscape properties to gain insight into the role of climate-vegetation-soil interactions in long-term hydrologic partitioning. The 12 catchment models (with different paramterizations are subjected to the 12 different climate forcings, resulting in 144 10 yr model simulations. The results are analyzed per catchment (one catchment model subjected to 12 climates and per climate (one climate filtered by 12 different model parameterization, and compared to water balance predictions based on Budyko's hypothesis (E/P = ϕ (Ep/P; E: evaporation, P: precipitation, Ep: potential evaporation. We find significant anti-correlation between average deviations of the evaporation index (E/P computed per catchment vs. per climate, compared to that predicted by Budyko. Catchments that on average produce more E/P have developed in climates that on average produce less E/P, when compared to Budyko's prediction. Water and energy seasonality could not explain these observations, confirming previous results reported by Potter et al. (2005. Next, we analyze which model (i.e., landscape filter characteristics explain the catchment's tendency to produce more or less E/P. We find that the time scale that controls subsurface storage release explains the observed trend. This time scale combines several geomorphologic and hydraulic soil properties. Catchments with relatively longer

The Skogaryd Research Catchment - an infrastructure to integrate terrestrial and aquatic greenhouse gas fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Klemedtsson, Leif; Weslien, Per; Bastviken, David; Natchimuthu, Sivakiruthika; Wallin, Marcus

2015-04-01

The Skogaryd Research Catchment (SRC; 58°23'N, 12°09'E, hemiboreal) is part of the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES, www.fieldsites.se). SITES is a national coordinated infrastructure for terrestrial and limnological field research, consisting of nine research stations covering the different landscapes and climatic regions in Sweden. The SITES initiative is a long-term effort founded by the Swedish Research Council and the station owners. Researchers regardless of affiliation are welcome use the stations including the infrastructure in their research and perform experiments (after approval) or outsource tasks which are managed by the stations. Data collected in both background monitoring programs and previous and ongoing projects at the stations are also intended to support past, present and future research. Ecological, biogeochemical, and environmental research often focus on a specific ecosystem or have strict habitat boundaries. However, the growing awareness of systems interactions, feedbacks and large scale consequences calls for approaches that integrate across ecosystems and habitats to consider whole catchments, landscapes and regions. Thus there is an urgent need for long-term field sites that support integrative and cross-habitat-boundary research. Our aim at SRC is to develop methodologies to quantify GHG balances at the landscape scale in forested regions that include land-atmosphere, land-water, and water-atmosphere exchange of CO2, CH4 and N2O. Another aim is to promote investigations to elucidate the undelaying regulation of the biogeochemical processes. The SRC harbor several main habitats including mires, forests at different growth stages, lakes, and streams. The fluxes of greenhouse gases (GHG) are measured to a large extent according to ICOS protocol for the Eddy Covariance (EC) methodology for CO2, H2O, and CH4, as well as axillary data for habitats where such protocols exist. For aquatic habitats lacking such protocols

Constraining Distributed Catchment Models by Incorporating Perceptual Understanding of Spatial Hydrologic Behaviour

Science.gov (United States)

Hutton, Christopher; Wagener, Thorsten; Freer, Jim; Han, Dawei

2016-04-01

Distributed models offer the potential to resolve catchment systems in more detail, and therefore simulate the hydrological impacts of spatial changes in catchment forcing (e.g. landscape change). Such models tend to contain a large number of poorly defined and spatially varying model parameters which are therefore computationally expensive to calibrate. Insufficient data can result in model parameter and structural equifinality, particularly when calibration is reliant on catchment outlet discharge behaviour alone. Evaluating spatial patterns of internal hydrological behaviour has the potential to reveal simulations that, whilst consistent with measured outlet discharge, are qualitatively dissimilar to our perceptual understanding of how the system should behave. We argue that such understanding, which may be derived from stakeholder knowledge across different catchments for certain process dynamics, is a valuable source of information to help reject non-behavioural models, and therefore identify feasible model structures and parameters. The challenge, however, is to convert different sources of often qualitative and/or semi-qualitative information into robust quantitative constraints of model states and fluxes, and combine these sources of information together to reject models within an efficient calibration framework. Here we present the development of a framework to incorporate different sources of data to efficiently calibrate distributed catchment models. For each source of information, an interval or inequality is used to define the behaviour of the catchment system. These intervals are then combined to produce a hyper-volume in state space, which is used to identify behavioural models. We apply the methodology to calibrate the Penn State Integrated Hydrological Model (PIHM) at the Wye catchment, Plynlimon, UK. Outlet discharge behaviour is successfully simulated when perceptual understanding of relative groundwater levels between lowland peat, upland peat

Lithogenic and cosmogenic tracers in catchment hydrology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nimz, G.J.

1995-01-01

A variety of physical processes affect solute concentrations within catchment waters. The isotopic compositions of the solutes can indicate which processes have determined the observed concentrations. These processes together constitute the physical history of the water, which is one of the primary concerns in hydrology. Many groundwater solutes are derived as a result of interaction between the water and the rock and/or soil within the system. These are termed open-quotes lithogenicclose quotes solutes. The isotopic compositions of these solutes provide information regarding rock-water interactions. Many other solutes have their isotopic compositions determined both internally and externally to the catchment system. Important members of this group include solutes that have isotopic compositions produced by atomic particle interactions with other nuclides. The source of the atomic particles can be cosmic radiation (producing open-quotes cosmogenicclose quotes nuclides in the atmosphere and land surface), anthropogenic nuclear reactions (producing open-quotes thermonuclearclose quotes nuclides), or radioactive and fission decay of naturally-occurring elements, such as U and Th (producing open-quotes in-situclose quotes lithogenic nuclides in the deep subsurface). Current language usage often combines all of the atomic particle-produced nuclides under the heading open-quotes cosmogenic nuclidesclose quotes, and for simplicity we will often follow that usage, although always clearly indicating which variety is being discussed. This paper addresses the processes that affect the lithogenic and cosmogenic solute compositions in groundwater, and how these compositions can therefore be used in integrative ways to understand the physical history of groundwater within a catchment system

Modeling of facade leaching in urban catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Coutu, S.; Del Giudice, D.; Rossi, L.; Barry, D. A.

2012-12-01

Building facades are protected from microbial attack by incorporation of biocides within them. Flow over facades leaches these biocides and transports them to the urban environment. A parsimonious water quantity/quality model applicable for engineered urban watersheds was developed to compute biocide release from facades and their transport at the urban basin scale. The model couples two lumped submodels applicable at the basin scale, and a local model of biocide leaching at the facade scale. For the facade leaching, an existing model applicable at the individual wall scale was utilized. The two lumped models describe urban hydrodynamics and leachate transport. The integrated model allows prediction of biocide concentrations in urban rivers. It was applied to a 15 km2urban hydrosystem in western Switzerland, the Vuachère river basin, to study three facade biocides (terbutryn, carbendazim, diuron). The water quality simulated by the model matched well most of the pollutographs at the outlet of the Vuachère watershed. The model was then used to estimate possible ecotoxicological impacts of facade leachates. To this end, exceedance probabilities and cumulative pollutant loads from the catchment were estimated. Results showed that the considered biocides rarely exceeded the relevant predicted no-effect concentrations for the riverine system. Despite the heterogeneities and complexity of (engineered) urban catchments, the model application demonstrated that a computationally "light" model can be employed to simulate the hydrograph and pollutograph response within them. It thus allows catchment-scale assessment of the potential ecotoxicological impact of biocides on receiving waters.

Lithogenic and cosmogenic tracers in catchment hydrology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nimz, G.J.

1995-01-01

A variety of physical processes affect solute concentrations within catchment waters. The isotopic compositions of the solutes can indicate which processes have determined the observed concentrations. These processes together constitute the physical history of the water, which is one of the primary concerns in hydrology. Many groundwater solutes are derived as a result of interaction between the water and the rock and/or soil within the system. These are termed {open_quotes}lithogenic{close_quotes} solutes. The isotopic compositions of these solutes provide information regarding rock-water interactions. Many other solutes have their isotopic compositions determined both internally and externally to the catchment system. Important members of this group include solutes that have isotopic compositions produced by atomic particle interactions with other nuclides. The source of the atomic particles can be cosmic radiation (producing {open_quotes}cosmogenic{close_quotes} nuclides in the atmosphere and land surface), anthropogenic nuclear reactions (producing {open_quotes}thermonuclear{close_quotes} nuclides), or radioactive and fission decay of naturally-occurring elements, such as U and Th (producing {open_quotes}in-situ{close_quotes} lithogenic nuclides in the deep subsurface). Current language usage often combines all of the atomic particle-produced nuclides under the heading {open_quotes}cosmogenic nuclides{close_quotes}, and for simplicity we will often follow that usage, although always clearly indicating which variety is being discussed. This paper addresses the processes that affect the lithogenic and cosmogenic solute compositions in groundwater, and how these compositions can therefore be used in integrative ways to understand the physical history of groundwater within a catchment system.

Assessing catchment connectivity using hysteretic loops

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Jason; Masselink, Rens; Goni, Mikel; Gimenez, Rafael; Casali, Javier; Seeger, Manuel; Keesstra, Saskia

2017-04-01

Storm events mobilize large proportions of sediments in catchment systems. Therefore understanding catchment sediment dynamics throughout the continuity of storms and how initial catchment states act as controls on the transport of sediment to catchment outlets is important for effective catchment management. Sediment connectivity is a concept which can explain the origin, pathways and sinks of sediments within catchments (Baartman et al., 2013; Parsons et al., 2015; Masselink et al., 2016a,b; Mekonnen et al., 2016). However, sediment connectivity alone does not provide a practicable mechanism by which the catchment's initial state - and thus the location of entrained sediment in the sediment transport cascade - can be characterized. Studying the dynamic relationship between water discharge (Q) and suspended sediment (SS) at the catchment outlet can provide a valuable research tool to infer the likely source areas and flow pathways contributing to sediment transport because the relationship can be characterized by predictable hysteresis patterns. Hysteresis is observed when the sediment concentration associated with a certain flow rate is different depending on the direction in which the analysis is performed - towards the increase or towards the diminution of the flow. However, the complexity of the phenomena and factors which determine the hysteresis make its interpretation ambiguous. Previous work has described various types of hysteretic loops as well as the cause for the shape of the loop, mainly pointing to the origin of the sediments. The data set for this study comes from four experimental watersheds in Navarre (Spain), owned and maintained by the Government of Navarre. These experimental watersheds have been monitored and studied since 1996 (La Tejería and Latxaga) and 2001 (Oskotz principal and Oskotz woodland). La Tejería and Latxaga watersheds are similar to each other regarding size (approximately 200 ha), geology (marls and sandstones), soils (fine

Water and salt balance modelling to predict the effects of land-use changes in forested catchments. 3. The large catchment model

Science.gov (United States)

Sivapalan, Murugesu; Viney, Neil R.; Jeevaraj, Charles G.

1996-03-01

This paper presents an application of a long-term, large catchment-scale, water balance model developed to predict the effects of forest clearing in the south-west of Western Australia. The conceptual model simulates the basic daily water balance fluxes in forested catchments before and after clearing. The large catchment is divided into a number of sub-catchments (1-5 km2 in area), which are taken as the fundamental building blocks of the large catchment model. The responses of the individual subcatchments to rainfall and pan evaporation are conceptualized in terms of three inter-dependent subsurface stores A, B and F, which are considered to represent the moisture states of the subcatchments. Details of the subcatchment-scale water balance model have been presented earlier in Part 1 of this series of papers. The response of any subcatchment is a function of its local moisture state, as measured by the local values of the stores. The variations of the initial values of the stores among the subcatchments are described in the large catchment model through simple, linear equations involving a number of similarity indices representing topography, mean annual rainfall and level of forest clearing.The model is applied to the Conjurunup catchment, a medium-sized (39·6 km2) catchment in the south-west of Western Australia. The catchment has been heterogeneously (in space and time) cleared for bauxite mining and subsequently rehabilitated. For this application, the catchment is divided into 11 subcatchments. The model parameters are estimated by calibration, by comparing observed and predicted runoff values, over a 18 year period, for the large catchment and two of the subcatchments. Excellent fits are obtained.

Simulating hydrological processes of a typical small mountainous catchment in Tibetan Plateau

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Y. P.; Bai, Z.; Fu, Q.; Pan, S.; Zhu, C.

2017-12-01

Water cycle of small watersheds with seasonal/permanent frozen soil and snow pack in Tibetan Plateau is seriously affected by climate change. The objective of this study is to find out how much and in what way the frozen soil and snow pack will influence the hydrology of small mountainous catchments in cold regions and how can the performance of simulation by a distributed hydrological model be improved. The Dong catchment, a small catchment located in Tibetan Plateau, is used as a case study. Two measurement stations are set up to collect basic meteorological and hydrological data for the modeling purpose. Annual and interannual variations of runoff indices are first analyzed based on historic data series. The sources of runoff in dry periods and wet periods are analyzed respectively. Then, a distributed hydrology soil vegetation model (DHSVM) is adopted to simulate the hydrological process of Dong catchment based on limited data set. Global sensitivity analysis is applied to help determine the important processes of the catchment. Based on sensitivity analysis results, the Epsilon-Dominance Non-Dominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm II (ɛ-NSGAII) is finally added into the hydrological model to calibrate the hydrological model in a multi-objective way and analyze the performance of DHSVM model. The performance of simulation is evaluated with several evaluation indices. The final results show that frozen soil and snow pack do play an important role in hydrological processes in cold mountainous region, in particular in dry periods without precipitation, while in wet periods precipitation is often the main source of runoff. The results also show that although the DHSVM hydrological model has the potential to model the hydrology well in small mountainous catchments with very limited data in Tibetan Plateau, the simulation of hydrology in dry periods is not very satisfactory due to the model's insufficiency in simulating seasonal frozen soil.

Assessment of runoff contributing catchment areas in rainfall runoff modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thorndahl, Søren; Johansen, C.; Schaarup-Jensen, Kjeld

2006-01-01

In numerical modelling of rainfall caused runoff in urban sewer systems an essential parameter is the hydrological reduction factor which defines the percentage of the impervious area contributing to the surface flow towards the sewer. As the hydrological processes during a rainfall are difficult...... to determine with significant precision the hydrological reduction factor is implemented to account all hydrological losses except the initial loss. This paper presents an inconsistency between calculations of the hydrological reduction factor, based on measurements of rainfall and runoff, and till now...... recommended literature values for residential areas. It is proven by comparing rainfall-runoff measurements from four different residential catchments that the literature values of the hydrological reduction factor are over-estimated for this type of catchment. In addition, different catchment descriptions...

Modeling flash floods in ungauged mountain catchments of China: A decision tree learning approach for parameter regionalization

Science.gov (United States)

Ragettli, S.; Zhou, J.; Wang, H.; Liu, C.

2017-12-01

Flash floods in small mountain catchments are one of the most frequent causes of loss of life and property from natural hazards in China. Hydrological models can be a useful tool for the anticipation of these events and the issuing of timely warnings. Since sub-daily streamflow information is unavailable for most small basins in China, one of the main challenges is finding appropriate parameter values for simulating flash floods in ungauged catchments. In this study, we use decision tree learning to explore parameter set transferability between different catchments. For this purpose, the physically-based, semi-distributed rainfall-runoff model PRMS-OMS is set up for 35 catchments in ten Chinese provinces. Hourly data from more than 800 storm runoff events are used to calibrate the model and evaluate the performance of parameter set transfers between catchments. For each catchment, 58 catchment attributes are extracted from several data sets available for whole China. We then use a data mining technique (decision tree learning) to identify catchment similarities that can be related to good transfer performance. Finally, we use the splitting rules of decision trees for finding suitable donor catchments for ungauged target catchments. We show that decision tree learning allows to optimally utilize the information content of available catchment descriptors and outperforms regionalization based on a conventional measure of physiographic-climatic similarity by 15%-20%. Similar performance can be achieved with a regionalization method based on spatial proximity, but decision trees offer flexible rules for selecting suitable donor catchments, not relying on the vicinity of gauged catchments. This flexibility makes the method particularly suitable for implementation in sparsely gauged environments. We evaluate the probability to detect flood events exceeding a given return period, considering measured discharge and PRMS-OMS simulated flows with regionalized parameters

Assessment of the water and energy budget in a peatland catchment of the Alps using the process based GEOtop hydrological model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pullens, Johannes Wilhelmus Maria; Sottocornola, M.; Kiely, G.

2018-01-01

close interdependence of the carbon and water cycles in peatland ecosystems signal the importance of understanding the water cycle to the functioning of peatlands. With this aim, the water and energy cycle of an alpine catchment in Italy, which includes a peatland, was studied using the process......-based hydrological model GEOtop and a set of in situ measurements over 4 years (2012-2015). This is a challenging modelling exercise that has not been tried before with GEOtop. The catchment is heterogenous with land covers of peatland, grassland, scree and bare rock in a mountainous area. The GEOtop model was able...

N fluxes in two nitrogen saturated forested catchments in Germany: dynamics and modelling with INCA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J.-J. Langusch

2002-01-01

Full Text Available The N cycle in forests of the temperate zone in Europe has been changed substantially by the impact of atmospheric N deposition. Here, the fluxes and concentrations of mineral N in throughfall, soil solution and runoff in two German catchments, receiving high N inputs are investigated to test the applicability of an Integrated Nitrogen Model for European Catchments (INCA to small forested catchments. The Lehstenbach catchment (419 ha is located in the German Fichtelgebirge (NO Bavaria, 690-871 m asl. and is stocked with Norway spruce (Picea abies (L. Karst. of different ages. The Steinkreuz catchment (55 ha with European beech (Fagus sylvatica L. as the dominant tree species is located in the Steigerwald (NW Bavaria, 400-460 m asl.. The mean annual N fluxes with throughfall were slightly higher at the Lehstenbach (24.6 kg N ha-1 than at the Steinkreuz (20.4 kg N ha-1. In both catchments the N fluxes in the soil are dominated by NO3. At Lehstenbach, the N output with seepage at 90 cm soil depth was similar to the N flux with throughfall. At Steinkreuz more than 50 % of the N deposited was retained in the upper soil horizons. In both catchments, the NO3 fluxes with runoff were lower than those with seepage. The average annual NO3 concentrations in runoff in both catchments were between 0.7 to 1.4 mg NO3-N L-1 and no temporal trend was observed. The N budgets at the catchment scale indicated similar amounts of N retention (Lehstenbach: 19 kg N ha-1yr-1 ; Steinkreuz: 17 kg N ha-1yr-1. The parameter settings of the INCA model were simplified to reduce the model complexity. In both catchments, the NO3 concentrations and fluxes in runoff were matched well by the model. The seasonal patterns with lower NO3 runoff concentrations in summer at the Lehstenbach catchment were replicated. INCA underestimated the increased N3 concentrations during short periods of rewetting in late autumn at the Steinkreuz catchment. The model will be a helpful tool for the

A physically-based parsimonious hydrological model for flash floods in Mediterranean catchments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Roux

2011-09-01

Full Text Available A spatially distributed hydrological model, dedicated to flood simulation, is developed on the basis of physical process representation (infiltration, overland flow, channel routing. Estimation of model parameters requires data concerning topography, soil properties, vegetation and land use. Four parameters are calibrated for the entire catchment using one flood event. Model sensitivity to individual parameters is assessed using Monte-Carlo simulations. Results of this sensitivity analysis with a criterion based on the Nash efficiency coefficient and the error of peak time and runoff are used to calibrate the model. This procedure is tested on the Gardon d'Anduze catchment, located in the Mediterranean zone of southern France. A first validation is conducted using three flood events with different hydrometeorological characteristics. This sensitivity analysis along with validation tests illustrates the predictive capability of the model and points out the possible improvements on the model's structure and parameterization for flash flood forecasting, especially in ungauged basins. Concerning the model structure, results show that water transfer through the subsurface zone also contributes to the hydrograph response to an extreme event, especially during the recession period. Maps of soil saturation emphasize the impact of rainfall and soil properties variability on these dynamics. Adding a subsurface flow component in the simulation also greatly impacts the spatial distribution of soil saturation and shows the importance of the drainage network. Measures of such distributed variables would help discriminating between different possible model structures.

Sediment fingerprinting in agricultural catchments: A critical re-examination of source discrimination and data corrections

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Hugh G.; Blake, William H.

2014-01-01

Fine sediment source fingerprinting techniques have been widely applied in agricultural river catchments. Successful source discrimination in agricultural environments depends on the key assumption that land-use source signatures imprinted on catchment soils are decipherable from those due to other landscape factors affecting soil and sediment properties. In this study, we re-examine this critical assumption by investigating (i) the physical and chemical basis for source discrimination and (ii) potential factors that may confound source un-mixing in agricultural catchments, including particle size and organic matter effects on tracer properties. The study is situated in the River Tamar, a predominantly agricultural catchment (920 km2) in south-west England that has also been affected by mining. Source discrimination focused on pasture and cultivated land uses and channel banks. Monthly, time-integrated suspended sediment samples were collected across seven catchments for a 12-month period. Physical and chemical properties measured in source soils and sediment included fallout radionuclides (137Cs, excess 210Pb), major and minor element geochemical constituents, total organic carbon and particle size. Source discrimination was entirely dependent on differences in tracer property concentrations between surface and sub-surface soils. This is based on fallout radionuclide concentrations that are surface-elevated, while many geochemical properties are surface-depleted due to weathering and pedogenetic effects, although surface soil contamination can reverse this trend. However, source discrimination in the study catchments was limited by (i) rotation of cultivated and pasture fields resulting in reduced differences between these two sources, and (ii) the cultivated source signature resembling a mix of the pasture and channel bank sources for many tracer properties. Furthermore, a combination of metal pollution from abandoned historic mines and organic enrichment of

Isotope hydrology of catchment basins: lithogenic and cosmogenic isotopic systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nimz, G. J., LLNL

1998-06-01

A variety of physical processes affect solute concentrations within catchment waters. The isotopic compositions of the solutes can indicate which processes have determined the observed concentrations. These processes together constitute the physical history of the water. Many solutes in natural waters are derived from the interaction between the water and the rock and/or soil within the system - these are termed `lithogenic` solutes. The isotopic compositions of these solutes provide information regarding rock-water interactions. Many other solutes have their isotopic compositions determined both within and outside of the catchment - i.e., in addition to being derived from catchment rock and soil, they are solutes that are also transported into the catchment. Important members of this group include solutes that have isotopic compositions produced by atomic particle interactions with other nuclides. The source of the atomic particles can be cosmic radiation (producing `cosmogenic` nuclides in the atmosphere and land surface), anthropogenic nuclear reactions (producing `thermonuclear` nuclides), or radioactive and fission decay of naturally-occurring elements, principally {sup 238}U (producing `in-situ` lithogenic nuclides in the deep subsurface). Current language usage often combines all of the atomic particle-produced nuclides under the heading `cosmogenic nuclides`, and for simplicity we will often follow that usage here, although always indicating which variety is being discussed. This paper addresses the processes that affect the lithogenic and cosmogenic solute concentrations in catchment waters, and how the isotopic compositions of the solutes can be used in integrative ways to identify these processes, thereby revealing the physical history of the water within a catchment system. The concept of a `system` is important in catchment hydrology. A catchment is the smallest landscape unit that can both participate in all of the aspects of the hydrologic cycle and

Typecasting catchments: Classification, directionality, and the pursuit of universality

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Tyler; Marshall, Lucy; McGlynn, Brian

2018-02-01

Catchment classification poses a significant challenge to hydrology and hydrologic modeling, restricting widespread transfer of knowledge from well-studied sites. The identification of important physical, climatological, or hydrologic attributes (to varying degrees depending on application/data availability) has traditionally been the focus for catchment classification. Classification approaches are regularly assessed with regard to their ability to provide suitable hydrologic predictions - commonly by transferring fitted hydrologic parameters at a data-rich catchment to a data-poor catchment deemed similar by the classification. While such approaches to hydrology's grand challenges are intuitive, they often ignore the most uncertain aspect of the process - the model itself. We explore catchment classification and parameter transferability and the concept of universal donor/acceptor catchments. We identify the implications of the assumption that the transfer of parameters between "similar" catchments is reciprocal (i.e., non-directional). These concepts are considered through three case studies situated across multiple gradients that include model complexity, process description, and site characteristics. Case study results highlight that some catchments are more successfully used as donor catchments and others are better suited as acceptor catchments. These results were observed for both black-box and process consistent hydrologic models, as well as for differing levels of catchment similarity. Therefore, we suggest that similarity does not adequately satisfy the underlying assumptions being made in parameter regionalization approaches regardless of model appropriateness. Furthermore, we suggest that the directionality of parameter transfer is an important factor in determining the success of parameter regionalization approaches.

Integrated assessment indicator for watercourses. Perspectives and possibilities; Inngrepsindikator for vassdrag. Perspektiver og muligheter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Voksoe, A.; Homstvedt, S. [eds.; Aalbu, Oe.; Valland, N.; Yndesdal, N.; Pettersen, S.; Eikenes, O.; Hoeifoedt, H.; Taugboel, G.

1996-12-31

This publication presents the result of a project aiming at developing a GIS (Geographical Information System) -based procedure to assess the integrated effect of various encroachments in and along watercourses. Four major catchments in Norway have been investigated. The GIS-method has been developed using existing data and data from detailed field registrations of encroachments in two catchments. Using existing data only, two other catchments have been analysed to test the validity of the proposed procedure. The various types of encroachments were assigned different weights and areal influences according to their estimated deteriorating effect on the natural situation. Applying the GIS-procedure the integrated effect is determined, giving a representative picture of the total situation. The results of the project are an interactive Windows-based application to operate the GIS-tool and produce maps as well as recommendations as to which categories of encroachments are to be considered. The method is proposed as a tool to obtain a consistent national management of preserved watersheds. 16 figs., 4 tabs.

Catchment coevolution: A useful framework for improving predictions of hydrological change?

Science.gov (United States)

Troch, Peter A.

2017-04-01

The notion that landscape features have co-evolved over time is well known in the Earth sciences. Hydrologists have recently called for a more rigorous connection between emerging spatial patterns of landscape features and the hydrological response of catchments, and have termed this concept catchment coevolution. In this presentation we present a general framework of catchment coevolution that could improve predictions of hydrologic change. We first present empirical evidence of the interaction and feedback of landscape evolution and changes in hydrological response. From this review it is clear that the independent drivers of catchment coevolution are climate, geology, and tectonics. We identify common currency that allows comparing the levels of activity of these independent drivers, such that, at least conceptually, we can quantify the rate of evolution or aging. Knowing the hydrologic age of a catchment by itself is not very meaningful without linking age to hydrologic response. Two avenues of investigation have been used to understand the relationship between (differences in) age and hydrological response: (i) one that is based on relating present landscape features to runoff processes that are hypothesized to be responsible for the current fingerprints in the landscape; and (ii) one that takes advantage of an experimental design known as space-for-time substitution. Both methods have yielded significant insights in the hydrologic response of landscapes with different histories. If we want to make accurate predictions of hydrologic change, we will also need to be able to predict how the catchment will further coevolve in association with changes in the activity levels of the drivers (e.g., climate). There is ample evidence in the literature that suggests that whole-system prediction of catchment coevolution is, at least in principle, plausible. With this imperative we outline a research agenda that implements the concepts of catchment coevolution for building

Understanding catchment behaviour through model concept improvement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fenicia, F.

2008-01-01

This thesis describes an approach to model development based on the concept of iterative model improvement, which is a process where by trial and error different hypotheses of catchment behaviour are progressively tested, and the understanding of the system proceeds through a combined process of

Hydrologic comparison between a lowland catchment (Kielstau, Germany and a mountainous catchment (XitaoXi, China using KIDS model in PCRaster

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Fohrer

2009-08-01

Full Text Available The KIDS model (Kielstau Discharge Simulation model is a simple rainfall-runoff model developed originally for the Kielstau catchment. To extend its range of application we applied it to a completely different catchment, the XitaoXi catchment in China. Kielstau is a small (51 km² lowland basin in Northern Germany, with large proportion of wetland area. And XitaoXi is a mesoscale (2271 km² mountainous basin in the south of China. Both catchments differ greatly in size, topography, landuse, soil properties, and weather conditions. We compared two catchments in these features and stress on the analysis how the specific catchment characteristics could guide the adaptation of KIDS model and the parameter estimation for streamflow simulation. The Nash and Sutcliffe coefficient was 0.73 for Kielstau and 0.65 for XitaoXi. The results suggest that the application of KIDS model may require adjustments according to the specific physical background of the study basin.

An operational ensemble prediction system for catchment rainfall over eastern Africa spanning multiple temporal and spatial scales

Science.gov (United States)

Riddle, E. E.; Hopson, T. M.; Gebremichael, M.; Boehnert, J.; Broman, D.; Sampson, K. M.; Rostkier-Edelstein, D.; Collins, D. C.; Harshadeep, N. R.; Burke, E.; Havens, K.

2017-12-01

While it is not yet certain how precipitation patterns will change over Africa in the future, it is clear that effectively managing the available water resources is going to be crucial in order to mitigate the effects of water shortages and floods that are likely to occur in a changing climate. One component of effective water management is the availability of state-of-the-art and easy to use rainfall forecasts across multiple spatial and temporal scales. We present a web-based system for displaying and disseminating ensemble forecast and observed precipitation data over central and eastern Africa. The system provides multi-model rainfall forecasts integrated to relevant hydrological catchments for timescales ranging from one day to three months. A zoom-in features is available to access high resolution forecasts for small-scale catchments. Time series plots and data downloads with forecasts, recent rainfall observations and climatological data are available by clicking on individual catchments. The forecasts are calibrated using a quantile regression technique and an optimal multi-model forecast is provided at each timescale. The forecast skill at the various spatial and temporal scales will discussed, as will current applications of this tool for managing water resources in Sudan and optimizing hydropower operations in Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Effects of distributed and centralized stormwater best management practices and land cover on urban stream hydrology at the catchment scale

Science.gov (United States)

Loperfido, J. V.; Noe, Gregory B.; Jarnagin, S. Taylor; Hogan, Dianna M.

2014-11-01

Urban stormwater runoff remains an important issue that causes local and regional-scale water quantity and quality issues. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) have been widely used to mitigate runoff issues, traditionally in a centralized manner; however, problems associated with urban hydrology have remained. An emerging trend is implementation of BMPs in a distributed manner (multi-BMP treatment trains located on the landscape and integrated with urban design), but little catchment-scale performance of these systems have been reported to date. Here, stream hydrologic data (March, 2011-September, 2012) are evaluated in four catchments located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: one utilizing distributed stormwater BMPs, two utilizing centralized stormwater BMPs, and a forested catchment serving as a reference. Among urban catchments with similar land cover, geology and BMP design standards (i.e. 100-year event), but contrasting placement of stormwater BMPs, distributed BMPs resulted in: significantly greater estimated baseflow, a higher minimum precipitation threshold for stream response and maximum discharge increases, better maximum discharge control for small precipitation events, and reduced runoff volume during an extreme (1000-year) precipitation event compared to centralized BMPs. For all catchments, greater forest land cover and less impervious cover appeared to be more important drivers than stormwater BMP spatial pattern, and caused lower total, stormflow, and baseflow runoff volume; lower maximum discharge during typical precipitation events; and lower runoff volume during an extreme precipitation event. Analysis of hydrologic field data in this study suggests that both the spatial distribution of stormwater BMPs and land cover are important for management of urban stormwater runoff. In particular, catchment-wide application of distributed BMPs improved stream hydrology compared to centralized BMPs, but not enough to fully replicate forested

Effects of distributed and centralized stormwater best management practices and land cover on urban stream hydrology at the catchment scale

Science.gov (United States)

Loperfido, John V.; Noe, Gregory B.; Jarnagin, S. Taylor; Hogan, Dianna M.

2014-01-01

Urban stormwater runoff remains an important issue that causes local and regional-scale water quantity and quality issues. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) have been widely used to mitigate runoff issues, traditionally in a centralized manner; however, problems associated with urban hydrology have remained. An emerging trend is implementation of BMPs in a distributed manner (multi-BMP treatment trains located on the landscape and integrated with urban design), but little catchment-scale performance of these systems have been reported to date. Here, stream hydrologic data (March, 2011–September, 2012) are evaluated in four catchments located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: one utilizing distributed stormwater BMPs, two utilizing centralized stormwater BMPs, and a forested catchment serving as a reference. Among urban catchments with similar land cover, geology and BMP design standards (i.e. 100-year event), but contrasting placement of stormwater BMPs, distributed BMPs resulted in: significantly greater estimated baseflow, a higher minimum precipitation threshold for stream response and maximum discharge increases, better maximum discharge control for small precipitation events, and reduced runoff volume during an extreme (1000-year) precipitation event compared to centralized BMPs. For all catchments, greater forest land cover and less impervious cover appeared to be more important drivers than stormwater BMP spatial pattern, and caused lower total, stormflow, and baseflow runoff volume; lower maximum discharge during typical precipitation events; and lower runoff volume during an extreme precipitation event. Analysis of hydrologic field data in this study suggests that both the spatial distribution of stormwater BMPs and land cover are important for management of urban stormwater runoff. In particular, catchment-wide application of distributed BMPs improved stream hydrology compared to centralized BMPs, but not enough to fully replicate forested

The Environmental Virtual Observatory (EVO) local exemplar: A cloud based local landscape learning visualisation tool for communicating flood risk to catchment stakeholders

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Mark; Beven, Keith; Brewer, Paul; El-khatib, Yehia; Gemmell, Alastair; Haygarth, Phil; Mackay, Ellie; Macklin, Mark; Marshall, Keith; Quinn, Paul; Stutter, Marc; Thomas, Nicola; Vitolo, Claudia

2013-04-01

Today's world is dominated by a wide range of informatics tools that are readily available to a wide range of stakeholders. There is growing recognition that the appropriate involvement of local communities in land and water management decisions can result in multiple environmental, economic and social benefits. Therefore, local stakeholder groups are increasingly being asked to participate in decision making alongside policy makers, government agencies and scientists. As such, addressing flooding issues requires new ways of engaging with the catchment and its inhabitants at a local level. To support this, new tools and approaches are required. The growth of cloud based technologies offers new novel ways to facilitate this process of exchange of information in earth sciences. The Environmental Virtual Observatory Pilot project (EVOp) is a new initiative from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) designed to deliver proof of concept for new tools and approaches to support the challenges as outlined above (http://www.evo-uk.org/). The long term vision of the Environmental Virtual Observatory is to: • Make environmental data more visible and accessible to a wide range of potential users including public good applications; • Provide tools to facilitate the integrated analysis of data, greater access to added knowledge and expert analysis and visualisation of the results; • Develop new, added-value knowledge from public and private sector data assets to help tackle environmental challenges. As part of the EVO pilot, an interactive cloud based tool has been developed with local stakeholders. The Local Landscape Visualisation Tool attempts to communicate flood risk in local impacted communities. The tool has been developed iteratively to reflect the needs, interests and capabilities of a wide range of stakeholders. This tool (assessable via a web portal) combines numerous cloud based tools and services, local catchment datasets, hydrological models and

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 (Version 2.1) Catchments for the Conterminous United States: Base Flow Index

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This dataset represents the base flow index values within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds. Attributes of the landscape...

Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources in Three Representative Ukrainian Catchments Using Eco-Hydrological Modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iulii Didovets

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The information about climate change impact on river discharge is vitally important for planning adaptation measures. The future changes can affect different water-related sectors. The main goal of this study was to investigate the potential water resource changes in Ukraine, focusing on three mesoscale river catchments (Teteriv, Upper Western Bug, and Samara characteristic for different geographical zones. The catchment scale watershed model—Soil and Water Integrated Model (SWIM—was setup, calibrated, and validated for the three catchments under consideration. A set of seven GCM-RCM (General Circulation Model-Regional Climate Model coupled climate scenarios corresponding to RCPs (Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5 were used to drive the hydrological catchment model. The climate projections, used in the study, were considered as three combinations of low, intermediate, and high end scenarios. Our results indicate the shifts in the seasonal distribution of runoff in all three catchments. The spring high flow occurs earlier as a result of temperature increases and earlier snowmelt. The fairly robust trend is an increase in river discharge in the winter season, and most of the scenarios show a potential decrease in river discharge in the spring.

Regional-scale lateral carbon transport and CO2 evasion in temperate stream catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Magin, Katrin; Somlai-Haase, Celia; Schäfer, Ralf B.; Lorke, Andreas

2017-11-01

Inland waters play an important role in regional to global-scale carbon cycling by transporting, processing and emitting substantial amounts of carbon, which originate mainly from their catchments. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between terrestrial net primary production (NPP) and the rate at which carbon is exported from the catchments in a temperate stream network. The analysis included more than 200 catchment areas in southwest Germany, ranging in size from 0.8 to 889 km2 for which CO2 evasion from stream surfaces and downstream transport with stream discharge were estimated from water quality monitoring data, while NPP in the catchments was obtained from a global data set based on remote sensing. We found that on average 13.9 g C m-2 yr-1 (corresponding to 2.7 % of terrestrial NPP) are exported from the catchments by streams and rivers, in which both CO2 evasion and downstream transport contributed about equally to this flux. The average carbon fluxes in the catchments of the study area resembled global and large-scale zonal mean values in many respects, including NPP, stream evasion and the carbon export per catchment area in the fluvial network. A review of existing studies on aquatic-terrestrial coupling in the carbon cycle suggests that the carbon export per catchment area varies in a relatively narrow range, despite a broad range of different spatial scales and hydrological characteristics of the study regions.

Proximate and ultimate controls on carbon and nutrient dynamics of small agricultural catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Zahra; Abbott, Benjamin W.; Troccaz, Olivier; Baudry, Jacques; Pinay, Gilles

2016-03-01

Direct and indirect effects from human activity have dramatically increased nutrient loading to aquatic inland and estuarine ecosystems. Despite an abundance of studies investigating the impact of agricultural activity on water quality, our understanding of what determines the capacity of a watershed to remove or retain nutrients remains limited. The goal of this study was to identify proximate and ultimate controls on dissolved organic carbon and nutrient dynamics in small agricultural catchments by investigating the relationship between catchment characteristics, stream discharge, and water chemistry. We analyzed a 5-year, high-frequency water chemistry data set from three catchments in western France ranging from 2.3 to 10.8 km2. The relationship between hydrology and solute concentrations differed between the three catchments and was associated with hedgerow density, agricultural activity, and geology. The catchment with thicker soil and higher surface roughness had relatively invariant carbon and nutrient chemistry across hydrologic conditions, indicating high resilience to human disturbance. Conversely, the catchments with smoother, thinner soils responded to both intra- and interannual hydrologic variation with high concentrations of phosphate (PO43-) and ammonium (NH4+) in streams during low flow conditions and strong increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC), sediment, and particulate organic matter during high flows. Despite contrasting agricultural activity between catchments, the physical context (geology, topography, and land-use configuration) appeared to be the most important determinant of catchment solute dynamics based on principle components analysis. The influence of geology and accompanying topographic and geomorphological factors on water quality was both direct and indirect because the distribution of agricultural activity in these catchments is largely a consequence of the geologic and topographic context. This link between inherent

A Conceptual Framework for the Mission of the NIE Research and Development Center for Teacher Quality and Effectiveness: Final Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawley, Willis D.; And Others

This report presents a conceptual framework for the mission of the National Institute of Education (NIE) Research and Development Center for Teacher Quality and Effectiveness. Several important issues that should be the focus of the Center are identified, and the theoretical foundations to guide the research and development activities to study…

Catchment scale multi-objective flood management

Science.gov (United States)

Rose, Steve; Worrall, Peter; Rosolova, Zdenka; Hammond, Gene

2010-05-01

Rural land management is known to affect both the generation and propagation of flooding at the local scale, but there is still a general lack of good evidence that this impact is still significant at the larger catchment scale given the complexity of physical interactions and climatic variability taking place at this level. The National Trust, in partnership with the Environment Agency, are managing an innovative project on the Holnicote Estate in south west England to demonstrate the benefits of using good rural land management practices to reduce flood risk at the both the catchment and sub-catchment scales. The Holnicote Estate is owned by the National Trust and comprises about 5,000 hectares of land, from the uplands of Exmoor to the sea, incorporating most of the catchments of the river Horner and Aller Water. There are nearly 100 houses across three villages that are at risk from flooding which could potentially benefit from changes in land management practices in the surrounding catchment providing a more sustainable flood attenuation function. In addition to the contribution being made to flood risk management there are a range of other ecosystems services that will be enhanced through these targeted land management changes. Alterations in land management will create new opportunities for wildlife and habitats and help to improve the local surface water quality. Such improvements will not only create additional wildlife resources locally but also serve the landscape response to climate change effects by creating and enhancing wildlife networks within the region. Land management changes will also restore and sustain landscape heritage resources and provide opportunities for amenity, recreation and tourism. The project delivery team is working with the National Trust from source to sea across the entire Holnicote Estate, to identify and subsequently implement suitable land management techniques to manage local flood risk within the catchments. These

Alpine Ecohydrology Across Scales: Propagating Fine-scale Heterogeneity to the Catchment and Beyond

Science.gov (United States)

Mastrotheodoros, T.; Pappas, C.; Molnar, P.; Burlando, P.; Hadjidoukas, P.; Fatichi, S.

2017-12-01

In mountainous ecosystems, complex topography and landscape heterogeneity govern ecohydrological states and fluxes. Here, we investigate topographic controls on water, energy and carbon fluxes across different climatic regimes and vegetation types representative of the European Alps. We use an ecohydrological model to perform fine-scale numerical experiments on a synthetic domain that comprises a symmetric mountain with eight catchments draining along the cardinal and intercardinal directions. Distributed meteorological model input variables are generated using observations from Switzerland. The model computes the incoming solar radiation based on the local topography. We implement a multivariate statistical framework to disentangle the impact of landscape heterogeneity (i.e., elevation, aspect, flow contributing area, vegetation type) on the simulated water, carbon, and energy dynamics. This allows us to identify the sensitivities of several ecohydrological variables (including leaf area index, evapotranspiration, snow-cover and net primary productivity) to topographic and meteorological inputs at different spatial and temporal scales. We also use an alpine catchment as a real case study to investigate how the natural variability of soil and land cover affects the idealized relationships that arise from the synthetic domain. In accordance with previous studies, our analysis shows a complex pattern of vegetation response to radiation. We find also different patterns of ecosystem sensitivity to topography-driven heterogeneity depending on the hydrological regime (i.e., wet vs. dry conditions). Our results suggest that topography-driven variability in ecohydrological variables (e.g. transpiration) at the fine spatial scale can exceed 50%, but it is substantially reduced ( 5%) when integrated at the catchment scale.

Benefits of incorporating spatial organisation of catchments for a semi-distributed hydrological model

Science.gov (United States)

Schumann, Andreas; Oppel, Henning

2017-04-01

To represent the hydrological behaviour of catchments a model should reproduce/reflect the hydrologically most relevant catchment characteristics. These are heterogeneously distributed within a watershed but often interrelated and subject of a certain spatial organisation. Since common models are mostly based on fundamental assumptions about hydrological processes, the reduction of variance of catchment properties as well as the incorporation of the spatial organisation of the catchment is desirable. We have developed a method that combines the idea of the width-function used for determination of the geomorphologic unit hydrograph with information about soil or topography. With this method we are able to assess the spatial organisation of selected catchment characteristics. An algorithm was developed that structures a watershed into sub-basins and other spatial units to minimise its heterogeneity. The outcomes of this algorithm are used for the spatial setup of a semi-distributed model. Since the spatial organisation of a catchment is not bound to a single characteristic, we have to embed information of multiple catchment properties. For this purpose we applied a fuzzy-based method to combine the spatial setup for multiple single characteristics into a union, optimal spatial differentiation. Utilizing this method, we are able to propose a spatial structure for a semi-distributed hydrological model, comprising the definition of sub-basins and a zonal classification within each sub-basin. Besides the improved spatial structuring, the performed analysis ameliorates modelling in another way. The spatial variability of catchment characteristics, which is considered by a minimum of heterogeneity in the zones, can be considered in a parameter constrained calibration scheme in a case study both options were used to explore the benefits of incorporating the spatial organisation and derived parameter constraints for the parametrisation of a HBV-96 model. We use two benchmark

Large catchment area recharges Titan's Ontario Lacus

Science.gov (United States)

Dhingra, Rajani D.; Barnes, Jason W.; Yanites, Brian J.; Kirk, Randolph L.

2018-01-01

We seek to address the question of what processes are at work to fill Ontario Lacus while other, deeper south polar basins remain empty. Our hydrological analysis indicates that Ontario Lacus has a catchment area spanning 5.5% of Titan's surface and a large catchment area to lake surface area ratio. This large catchment area translates into large volumes of liquid making their way to Ontario Lacus after rainfall. The areal extent of the catchment extends to at least southern mid-latitudes (40°S). Mass conservation calculations indicate that runoff alone might completely fill Ontario Lacus within less than half a Titan year (1 Titan year = 29.5 Earth years) assuming no infiltration. Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) observations of clouds over the southern mid and high-latitudes are consistent with precipitation feeding Ontario's large catchment area. This far-flung rain may be keeping Ontario Lacus filled, making it a liquid hydrocarbon oasis in the relatively dry south polar region.

The ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management: towards hydrosolidarity

Science.gov (United States)

Falkenmark, M.; Folke, Carl

This paper attempts to clarify key biophysical issues and the problems involved in the ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management. The issue in managing complex systems is to live with unavoidable change while securing the capacity of the ecohydrological system of the catchment to sustain vital ecological goods and services, aquatic as well as terrestrial, on which humanity depends ultimately. Catchment management oriented to sustainability has to be based on ethical principles: human rights, international conventions, sustaining crucial ecological goods and services, and protecting ecosystem resilience, all of which have water linkages. Many weaknesses have to be identified, assessed and mitigated to improve the tools by which the ethical issues can be addressed and solved: a heritage of constraining tunnel vision in both science and management; inadequate shortcuts made in modern scientific system analyses (e.g. science addressing sustainability issues); simplistic technical-fix approaches to water and ecosystems in land/water/ecosystem management; conventional tools for evaluation of scientific quality with its focus on "doing the thing right" rather than "doing the right thing". The new ethics have to incorporate principles that, on a catchment basis, allow for proper attention to the hungry and poor, upstream and downstream, to descendants, and to sites and habitats that need to be protected.

Can spatial statistical river temperature models be transferred between catchments?

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Faye L.; Fryer, Robert J.; Hannah, David M.; Malcolm, Iain A.

2017-09-01

There has been increasing use of spatial statistical models to understand and predict river temperature (Tw) from landscape covariates. However, it is not financially or logistically feasible to monitor all rivers and the transferability of such models has not been explored. This paper uses Tw data from four river catchments collected in August 2015 to assess how well spatial regression models predict the maximum 7-day rolling mean of daily maximum Tw (Twmax) within and between catchments. Models were fitted for each catchment separately using (1) landscape covariates only (LS models) and (2) landscape covariates and an air temperature (Ta) metric (LS_Ta models). All the LS models included upstream catchment area and three included a river network smoother (RNS) that accounted for unexplained spatial structure. The LS models transferred reasonably to other catchments, at least when predicting relative levels of Twmax. However, the predictions were biased when mean Twmax differed between catchments. The RNS was needed to characterise and predict finer-scale spatially correlated variation. Because the RNS was unique to each catchment and thus non-transferable, predictions were better within catchments than between catchments. A single model fitted to all catchments found no interactions between the landscape covariates and catchment, suggesting that the landscape relationships were transferable. The LS_Ta models transferred less well, with particularly poor performance when the relationship with the Ta metric was physically implausible or required extrapolation outside the range of the data. A single model fitted to all catchments found catchment-specific relationships between Twmax and the Ta metric, indicating that the Ta metric was not transferable. These findings improve our understanding of the transferability of spatial statistical river temperature models and provide a foundation for developing new approaches for predicting Tw at unmonitored locations across

North Putrajaya Catchment Area Putrajaya, Malaysia-Challenges in Water Quality Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohd Zamri Daud; Pereira, J.J.; Mazlin Mokhtar

2011-01-01

The Putrajaya Administrative area covers 70 % of the Putrajaya Lake catchment area. Development work carried out within the Putrajaya area abides by the rules and regulations set by the Putrajaya Corporation to ensure that the quality of the lake water and wetland within the Putrajaya area meets the stipulated benchmark standards. However, 30 % of the Putrajaya lake and wetland catchment area is located outside of administration and prerogative of the Putrajaya Corporation. The North Putrajaya catchment area which originates from the Sg. Chuau River contributes the bulk of the water that flows into the lake and wetlands of Putrajaya. Water quality data collected by the Putrajaya Corporation for the period of 2002 to 2005 has been analysed to identify major issues in the Putrajaya Wetland North Catchment area. Data from 2002 shows average percentage parameter of non-compliance Putrajaya Standard for ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 3 -N) at 43.7 %, E. coli at 31.3 % and TSS at 12.5 % while the DO and COD are both 6.2 %. For 2003, the average percentage parameter of non compliance for NH 3 -N was at 23.7 %, E. coli at 18.4 %, total coliform at 18.4 %, TSS at 2.6 %, DO at 13.2 %, COD at 13.2 % and BOD at 10.5 %. For 2004, the average percentage parameter of non complying for NH 3 -N was at 35.5 %, E. coli at 22.6 %, total coliform at 12.9 %, TSS at 9.7 %, COD at 3.2 % and BOD at 16.1 %. For 2005, the average percentage parameter of non compliance were at is 36.4 % for E. coli, 22.7 % for NH 3 -N, 18.2 % for total coliform, 13.6 % for BOD and 4.5 % for both DO and COD. In conclusion the analysed data within the four year period showed that the NH 3 -N and E. coli discharge from the north catchment area did not comply with the Putrajaya Standard. The main factors of water quality issues in the Putrajaya Wetland North Catchment area include the failure of integrating the management of the catchment areas and the stake holders attitude of total disregard of the management and

The Value of Long-Term Research at the Five USGS WEBB Catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Shanley, J. B.; Murphy, S. F.; Scholl, M. A.; Wickland, K.; Aulenbach, B. T.; Hunt, R.; Clow, D. W.

2017-12-01

Long-term catchment studies are sentinel sites for detecting, documenting, and understanding ecosystem processes and environmental change. The small catchment approach fosters in-depth site-based hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological process understanding, while a collective network of catchment observatories offers a broader context to synthesize understanding across a range of climates and geologies. The USGS Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program is a network of five sites established in 1991 to assess the impact of climate and environmental change on hydrology and biogeochemistry. Like other networks, such as the USDA - Forest Service Experimental Forests and the Czech Geomon network, WEBB exploits gradients of climate, geology, and topography to understand controls on biogeochemical processes. We present examples from each site and some cross-site syntheses to demonstrate how WEBB has advanced catchment science and informed resource management and policy. WEBB has relied on strong academic partnerships, providing long-term continuity for shorter-term academic grants, which have offered rich graduate educational opportunities. Like other sites and networks, the long-term datasets and process understanding of WEBB provide context to detect and interpret change. Without this backdrop, we have no baseline to quantify effects of droughts, floods, and extreme events, and no test sites to validate process-based models. In an era of lean budgets for science funding, the long-term continuity of WEBB and other catchment networks is in jeopardy, as is the critical scientific value and societal benefits they embody.

Examination of catchment areas for public transport

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Landex, Alex; Hansen, Stephen; Andersen, Jonas Lohmann Elkjær

2006-01-01

The paper presents a method to examine the catchment areas for stops in high quality public transport systems based on the street network in the examined area. This is achieved by implementing the Service Area functions from the ArcGIS extension Network Analyst. The method is compared to a more...

Development of an integrated model for the Campaspe catchment: a tool to help improve understanding of the interaction between society, policy, farming decision, ecology, hydrology and climate

Science.gov (United States)

Iwanaga, Takuya; Zare, Fateme; Croke, Barry; Fu, Baihua; Merritt, Wendy; Partington, Daniel; Ticehurst, Jenifer; Jakeman, Anthony

2018-06-01

Management of water resources requires understanding of the hydrology and hydrogeology, as well as the policy and human drivers and their impacts. This understanding requires relevant inputs from a wide range of disciplines, which will vary depending on the specific case study. One approach to gain understanding of the impact of climate and society on water resources is through the use of an integrated modelling process that engages stakeholders and experts in specifics of problem framing, co-design of the underpinning conceptual model, and discussion of the ensuing results. In this study, we have developed such an integrated modelling process for the Campaspe basin in northern Victoria, Australia. The numerical model built has a number of components: - Node/link based surface water hydrology module based on the IHACRES rainfall-streamflow model - Distributed groundwater model for the lower catchment (MODFLOW) - Farm decision optimisation module (to determine irrigation requirements) - Policy module (setting conditions on availability of water based on existing rules) - Ecology module (determining the impacts of available streamflow on platypus, fish and river red gum trees) The integrated model is component based and has been developed in Python, with the MODFLOW and surface water hydrology model run in external programs, controlled by the master program (in Python). The integrated model has been calibrated using historical data, with the intention of exploring the impact of various scenarios (future climate scenarios, different policy options, water management options) on the water resources. The scenarios were selected based on workshops with, and a social survey of, stakeholders in the basin regarding what would be socially acceptable and physically plausible options for changes in management. An example of such a change is the introduction of a managed aquifer recharge system to capture dam overflows, and store at least a portion of this in the aquifer

Hydrology of prairie wetlands: Understanding the integrated surface-water and groundwater processes

Science.gov (United States)

Hayashi, Masaki; van der Kamp, Garth; Rosenberry, Donald O.

2016-01-01

Wetland managers and policy makers need to make decisions based on a sound scientific understanding of hydrological and ecological functions of wetlands. This article presents an overview of the hydrology of prairie wetlands intended for managers, policy makers, and researchers new to this field (e.g., graduate students), and a quantitative conceptual framework for understanding the hydrological functions of prairie wetlands and their responses to changes in climate and land use. The existence of prairie wetlands in the semi-arid environment of the Prairie-Pothole Region (PPR) depends on the lateral inputs of runoff water from their catchments because mean annual potential evaporation exceeds precipitation in the PPR. Therefore, it is critically important to consider wetlands and catchments as highly integrated hydrological units. The water balance of individual wetlands is strongly influenced by runoff from the catchment and the exchange of groundwater between the central pond and its moist margin. Land-use practices in the catchment have a sensitive effect on runoff and hence the water balance. Surface and subsurface storage and connectivity among individual wetlands controls the diversity of pond permanence within a wetland complex, resulting in a variety of eco-hydrological functionalities necessary for maintaining the integrity of prairie-wetland ecosystems.

Aquifers Characterization and Productivity in Ellala Catchment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

Aquifers Characterization and Productivity in Ellala Catchment, Tigray, ... using geological and hydrogeological methods in Ellala catchment (296.5km. 2. ) ... Current estimates put the available groundwater ... Aquifer characterization takes into.

Physically-Based Assessment of Intrinsic Groundwater Resource Vulnerability in AN Urban Catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Graf, T.; Therrien, R.; Lemieux, J.; Molson, J. W.

2013-12-01

integrated Van-Genuchten function. The model setup and optimisation turn out to be the most challenging part because of the non-trivial nature (due to the highly non-linear PDEs) of the coupling procedure between the surface and subsurface domain, while keeping realistic parameter ranges and obtaining realistic simulation results in both domains. The model calibration is based on water level monitoring as well as daily mean river discharge measurement at different gauge stations within the catchment. It is intended to create multiple model outcomes for the numerical modelling of the groundwater vulnerability to take into account uncertainty due to the model input data. The next step of the overall vulnerability assessment consists in modelling future vulnerability scenario(s), applying realistic changes to the model by using PEST with SENSAN for subsequent sensitivity analysis. The PEST model could also potentially be used for a model recalibration as a function of the model parameters sensitivity (simple perturbation method). Preliminary results showing a good fit between the observed and simulated water levels and hydrographs. However the simulated water depth at the overland flow domain as well as the simulated saturation distribution in the porous media domain are still showing room for improvement of the numerical model.

Geological controls on isotopic signatures of streamflow: results from a nested catchment experiment in Luxembourg (Europe)

Science.gov (United States)

Pfister, Laurent; McDonnell, Jeffrey J.; Hissler, Christophe; Martinez-Carreras, Nuria; Gourdol, Laurent; Klaus, Julian; François Iffly, Jean; Barnich, François; Stewart, Mike K.

2014-05-01

Controls of geology and topography on hydrological metrics, like summer low flow (Grant and Tague, 2004) or dynamic storage (Sayama et al., 2011), have been identified in nested catchment experiments. However, most tracer-based studies on streamflow generation have been carried out in small (10 km2) homogenous catchments (Klaus and McDonnell, 2013). The controlling effects of catchment physiography on how catchments store and release water, and how this eventually controls stream isotope behaviour over a large range of scale are poorly understood. Here, we present results from a nested catchment analysis in the Alzette River basin (Luxembourg, Europe). Our hydro-climatological network consists of 16 recording streamgauges and 21 pluviographs. Catchment areas range from 0.47 to 285 km2, with clean and mixed combinations of distinct geologies ranging from schists to marls, sandstone, dolomite and limestone. Our objective was to identify geological controls on (i) winter runoff ratios, (ii) maximum storage and (iii) isotopic signatures in streamflow. For each catchment we determined average runoff ratios from winter season precipitation-discharge double-mass curves. Maximum catchment storage was based on the dynamic storage change approach of Sayama et al. (2011). Changes in isotopic signatures of streamflow were documented along individual catchment flow duration curves. We found strong correlations between average winter runoff ratios, maximum storage and the prevailing geological settings. Catchments with impermeable bedrock (e.g. marls or schists) were characterised by small storage potential and high average filling ratios. As a consequence, these catchments also exhibited the highest average runoff ratios. In catchments underlain by permeable bedrock (e.g. sandstone), storage potential was significantly higher and runoff ratios were considerably smaller. The isotopic signatures of streamflow showed large differences between catchments. In catchments dominated by

Evaluating the impact of farm scale innovation at catchment scale

Science.gov (United States)

van Breda, Phelia; De Clercq, Willem; Vlok, Pieter; Querner, Erik

2014-05-01

Hydrological modelling lends itself to other disciplines very well, normally as a process based system that acts as a catalogue of events taking place. These hydrological models are spatial-temporal in their design and are generally well suited for what-if situations in other disciplines. Scaling should therefore be a function of the purpose of the modelling. Process is always linked with scale or support but the temporal resolution can affect the results if the spatial scale is not suitable. The use of hydrological response units tends to lump area around physical features but disregards farm boundaries. Farm boundaries are often the more crucial uppermost resolution needed to gain more value from hydrological modelling. In the Letaba Catchment of South Africa, we find a generous portion of landuses, different models of ownership, different farming systems ranging from large commercial farms to small subsistence farming. All of these have the same basic right to water but water distribution in the catchment is somewhat of a problem. Since water quantity is also a problem, the water supply systems need to take into account that valuable production areas not be left without water. Clearly hydrological modelling should therefore be sensitive to specific landuse. As a measure of productivity, a system of small farmer production evaluation was designed. This activity presents a dynamic system outside hydrological modelling that is generally not being considered inside hydrological modelling but depends on hydrological modelling. For sustainable development, a number of important concepts needed to be aligned with activities in this region, and the regulatory actions also need to be adhered to. This study aimed at aligning the activities in a region to the vision and objectives of the regulatory authorities. South Africa's system of socio-economic development planning is complex and mostly ineffective. There are many regulatory authorities involved, often with unclear

Simulating CRN derived erosion rates in a transient Andean catchment using the TTLEM model

Science.gov (United States)

Campforts, Benjamin; Vanacker, Veerle; Herman, Frédéric; Schwanghart, Wolfgang; Tenrorio Poma, Gustavo; Govers, Gerard

2017-04-01

Assessing the impact of mountain building and erosion on the earth surface is key to reconstruct and predict terrestrial landscape evolution. Landscape evolution models (LEMs) are an essential tool in this research effort as they allow to integrate our growing understanding of physical processes governing erosion and transport of mass across the surface. The recent development of several LEMs opens up new areas of research in landscape evolution. Here, we want to seize this opportunity by answering a fundamental research question: does a model designed to simulate landscape evolution over geological timescales allows to simulate spatially varying erosion rates at a millennial timescale? We selected the highly transient Paute catchment in the Southeastern Ecuadorian Andes as a study area. We found that our model (TTLEM) is capable to better explain the spatial patterns of ca. 30 Cosmogenic Radio Nuclide (CRN) derived catchment wide erosion rates in comparison to a classical, statistical approach. Thus, the use of process-based landscape evolution models may not only be of great help to understand long-term landscape evolution but also in understanding spatial and temporal variations in sediment fluxes at the millennial time scale.

Hypothesis testing in the Maimai Catchments, Westland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stewart, M.K.

1993-01-01

Seven experiments were carried out on the Maimai Catchments, Westland, to test assumptions about the nature of unsaturated zone waters flows in this humid environment. Hypotheses tested were: 1) that the deuterium (D) content of base flow water sources in small streams are constant at any given time, 2) that different soil moisture sampling methods give the same D contents, 3) that throughfall has the same D content as rainfall, 4) that saturation overland flow is mainly composed of current event rainfall, 5) that macropores are not connected into pipe networks, 6) that the underlying substrate (Old Man Gravel conglomerate) does not deliver water to the stream during rainfall events, and 7) that different near-stream water sources have the same D contents at a given time. Over 570 samples were collected of which 300 were analysed for deuterium in 1992-1993. This report gives the background, rationale, methods and brief results of the experiments. The results will be integrated with other measurements and written up in one or more papers for journal publication. (author). 18 refs.; 4 figs.; 1 tab

Predicting Surface Runoff from Catchment to Large Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongxia Li

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Predicting surface runoff from catchment to large region is a fundamental and challenging task in hydrology. This paper presents a comprehensive review for various studies conducted for improving runoff predictions from catchment to large region in the last several decades. This review summarizes the well-established methods and discusses some promising approaches from the following four research fields: (1 modeling catchment, regional and global runoff using lumped conceptual rainfall-runoff models, distributed hydrological models, and land surface models, (2 parameterizing hydrological models in ungauged catchments, (3 improving hydrological model structure, and (4 using new remote sensing precipitation data.

Identifying the Dynamic Catchment Storage That Does Not Drive Runoff

Science.gov (United States)

Dralle, D.; Hahm, W. J.; Rempe, D.; Karst, N.; Thompson, S. E.; Dietrich, W. E.

2017-12-01

The central importance of subsurface water storage in hydrology has resulted in numerous attempts to develop hydrograph and mass balance based techniques to quantify catchment storage state or capacity. In spite of these efforts, relatively few studies have linked catchment scale storage metrics to Critical Zone (CZ) structure and the status of water in hillslopes. Elucidating these relationships would increase the interpretability of catchment storage metrics, and aid the development of hydrologic models. Here, we propose that catchment storage consists of a dynamic component that varies on seasonal timescales, and a static component with negligible time variation. Discharge is assumed to be explicitly sensitive to changes in some fraction of the dynamic storage, while the remaining dynamic storage varies without directly influencing flow. We use a coupled mass balance and storage-discharge function approach to partition dynamic storage between these driving and non-driving storage pools, and compare inferences with direct observations of saturated and unsaturated dynamic water storages at two field sites in Northern California. We find that most dynamic catchment water storage does not drive streamflow in both sites, even during the wettest times of year. Moreover, the physical character of non-driving dynamic storage depends strongly on catchment CZ structure. At a site with a deep profile of weathered rock, the dynamic storage that drives streamflow occurs as a seasonally perched groundwater table atop fresh bedrock, and that which does not drive streamflow resides as seasonally dynamic unsaturated water in shallow soils and deep, weathered rock. At a second site with a relatively thin weathered zone, water tables rapidly rise to intersect the ground surface with the first rains of the wet season, yet only a small fraction of this dynamic saturated zone storage drives streamflow. Our findings emphasize how CZ structure governs the overlap in time and space of

Effect of the spatiotemporal variability of rainfall inputs in water quality integrated catchment modelling for dissolved oxygen concentrations

Science.gov (United States)

Moreno Ródenas, Antonio Manuel; Cecinati, Francesca; ten Veldhuis, Marie-Claire; Langeveld, Jeroen; Clemens, Francois

2016-04-01

Maintaining water quality standards in highly urbanised hydrological catchments is a worldwide challenge. Water management authorities struggle to cope with changing climate and an increase in pollution pressures. Water quality modelling has been used as a decision support tool for investment and regulatory developments. This approach led to the development of integrated catchment models (ICM), which account for the link between the urban/rural hydrology and the in-river pollutant dynamics. In the modelled system, rainfall triggers the drainage systems of urban areas scattered along a river. When flow exceeds the sewer infrastructure capacity, untreated wastewater enters the natural system by combined sewer overflows. This results in a degradation of the river water quality, depending on the magnitude of the emission and river conditions. Thus, being capable of representing these dynamics in the modelling process is key for a correct assessment of the water quality. In many urbanised hydrological systems the distances between draining sewer infrastructures go beyond the de-correlation length of rainfall processes, especially, for convective summer storms. Hence, spatial and temporal scales of selected rainfall inputs are expected to affect water quality dynamics. The objective of this work is to evaluate how the use of rainfall data from different sources and with different space-time characteristics affects modelled output concentrations of dissolved oxygen in a simplified ICM. The study area is located at the Dommel, a relatively small and sensitive river flowing through the city of Eindhoven (The Netherlands). This river stretch receives the discharge of the 750,000 p.e. WWTP of Eindhoven and from over 200 combined sewer overflows scattered along its length. A pseudo-distributed water quality model has been developed in WEST (mikedhi.com); this is a lumped-physically based model that accounts for urban drainage processes, WWTP and river dynamics for several

Study on Runoff Debit in the Catchment Area of Waduk Gajah Mungkur Wonogiri

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Alif Noor Anna

2004-01-01

Water resource is one of natural resources, that is very vital. It needed to be used and to be kept throughly. For those purposes need good and directed plan, in which one of the basic component of it plan have to be supported by available a complete hydrological data and it analysis. One of hydrological data analysis is to estimate runoff of catchement area, which can be used for planning the hydrologi construction. This research aim: 1 to calculate the run off discharge by thornwaite Mather Method, monthly, annualy, and the average on the catchment through a sample of Keduang, Temon, Alang, and Wuryantoro areas; 2 to analyze the difference of the run off discharge (at no. 1 by observation resulted from trend analysis. Based on the calculation, it appears, thornwaite-mather method showed that high discharge (moreover limit 0 in dry month. From the research result, it appears, that calculation discharge graphic had lower differentation than observation discharge graphic. From sample of catchment areas that have been investigated, from the highest to the lowest deviation was Wuryantoro catchment area (78,8%, Temon catchment area (47,38%, Alang catchment area (46,45%, and Keduang catchment area (24,98% respectively. The condition like above caused by intervation of man. Not only did he influence vegetatively, but he influenced technically as well. From these conservation, technical conservation (flood and construction and reservoir was the highest influence to run off discharge calculation. The run off discharge that was calculated by thornthwite-Mather Method based on air temperate, rainy, altitude, and water holding capacity only, but groundwater supply didn’t be calculated.

Analysis of streamflow variability in Alpine catchments at multiple spatial and temporal scales

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Pérez Ciria, T.; Chiogna, G.

2017-12-01

Alpine watersheds play a pivotal role in Europe for water provisioning and for hydropower production. In these catchments, temporal fluctuations of river discharge occur at multiple temporal scales due to natural as well as anthropogenic driving forces. In the last decades, modifications of the flow regime have been observed and their origin lies in the complex interplay between construction of dams for hydro power production, changes in water management policies and climatic changes. The alteration of the natural flow has negative impacts on the freshwater biodiversity and threatens the ecosystem integrity of the Alpine region. Therefore, understanding the temporal and spatial variability of river discharge has recently become a particular concern for environmental protection and represents a crucial contribution to achieve sustainable water resources management in the Alps. In this work, time series analysis is conducted for selected gauging stations in the Inn and the Adige catchments, which cover a large part of the central and eastern region of the Alps. We analyze the available time series using the continuous wavelet transform and change-point analyses for determining how and where changes have taken place. Although both catchments belong to different climatic zones of the Greater Alpine Region, streamflow properties share some similar characteristics. The comparison of the collected streamflow time series in the two catchments permits detecting gradients in the hydrological system dynamics that depend on station elevation, longitudinal location in the Alps and catchment area. This work evidences that human activities (e.g., water management practices and flood protection measures, changes in legislation and market regulation) have major impacts on streamflow and should be rigorously considered in hydrological models.

Assessing the impacts of Best Management Practices on nitrate pollution in an agricultural dominated lowland catchment considering environmental protection versus economic development.

Science.gov (United States)

Haas, Marcelo B; Guse, Björn; Fohrer, Nicola

2017-07-01

Water quality is strongly affected by nitrate inputs in agricultural catchments. Best Management Practices (BMPs) are alternative practices aiming to mitigate the impacts derived from agricultural activities and to improve water quality. Management activities are influenced by different governmental policies like the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Their distinct goals can be contrasting and hamper an integrated sustainable development. Both need to be addressed in the actual conjuncture in rural areas. Ecohydrological models like the SWAT model are important tools for land cover and land use changes investigation and the assessment of BMPs implementation effects on water quality. Thus, in this study, buffer strip, fertilization reduction and alternative crops were considered as BMPs and were implemented in the SWAT model for the Treene catchment. Their efficiency in terms of nitrate loads reduction related to implementation costs at the catchment scale was investigated. The practices correspond to the catchment conditions and are based on small and mid areal changes. Furthermore, the BMPs were evaluated from the perspective of ecologic and economic policies. The results evidenced different responses of the BMPs. The critical periods in winter were addressed by most of the BMPs. However, some practices like pasture land increase need to be implemented in greater area for better results in comparison to current activities. Furthermore, there is a greater nitrate reduction potential by combining BMPs containing fertilization reduction, buffer strips and soil coverage in winter. The discussion about efficiency showed the complexity of costs stipulation and the relation with arable land and yield losses. Furthermore, as the government policies can be divergent an integrated approach considering all the involved actors is important and seeks a sustainable development. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High resolution isotope data and ensemble modelling reveal ecohydrological controls on catchment storage-discharge relationships and flux travel time distributions

Science.gov (United States)

Soulsby, C.; Kuppel, S.; Smith, A.; Tetzlaff, D.

2017-12-01

The dynamics of water storage in a catchment provides a fundamental insight into the interlinkages between input and output fluxes, and how these are affected by environmental change. Such dynamics also mediate, and help us understand, the fundamental difference of the rapid celerity of the rainfall-runoff (minutes to hours) response of catchments and the much slower velocity of water particles (months to decades) as they are transported through catchment systems. In this contribution we report an intensive, long-term (>10year), multi-scale isotope study in the Scottish Highlands that has sought to better understand these issues. We have integrated empirical data collection with diverse modelling approaches to quantify the dynamics and residence times of storage in different compartments of the hydrological system (vegetation canopies, soils, ground waters etc.) and their relationship between the magnitude and travel time distributions of output fluxes (stream flow, transpiration and evaporation). Use of conceptual, physically-based and probabilistic modelling approaches give broadly consistent perspectives on the storage-discharge relationships and the preferential selection of younger waters in runoff, evaporation and transpiration; while older waters predominate in groundwater. The work also highlighted the importance role vegetation plays in regulating fluxes in evaporation and transpiration and how this contributes to the differential ageing of water in mobile and bulk waters in the soil compartment. A separate case study shows how land use change can affect storage distributions in a catchment and radically change travel time distributions in output fluxes.

Carrying away and redistribution of radioisotopes on the Peyne catchment basin. Preliminary report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duffa, C.; Danic, F.

2006-01-01

The transfers of radioisotopes present in soils and sediments are essentially conditioned by the mobilities of the physical vectors which constitute their supports. The water is the main vector of natural transfer, radioisotopes being associated with it under dissolved or particulate shape. The rainout and the hydrous erosion are responsible in particular for the carrying away and for the redistribution of contaminants following an atmospheric deposit on a catchment basin. However their effect is not the same in any point of the catchment basin. The work begun here aims at elaborating a classification of the grounds sensitivity towards this phenomenon of radioisotopes carrying away. The different factors of sensitivity have been identified: pluviometry, slope, soils occupation and soils nature. The Peyne catchment basin, that presents an important variability of these four parameters, constitutes the experimental site for this study. On this catchment basin, we search to identify the areas the most sensitive to the carrying away of radioisotopes, by combining a theoretical predictive approach based on the cartography and a descriptive approach basing on the sampling and the analysis of soils samples. (N.C.)

Uncertainty in hydrological signatures for gauged and ungauged catchments

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Westerberg, Ida K.; Wagener, Thorsten; Coxon, Gemma; McMillan, Hilary K.; Castellarin, Attilio; Montanari, Alberto; Freer, Jim

2016-03-01

Reliable information about hydrological behavior is needed for water-resource management and scientific investigations. Hydrological signatures quantify catchment behavior as index values, and can be predicted for ungauged catchments using a regionalization procedure. The prediction reliability is affected by data uncertainties for the gauged catchments used in prediction and by uncertainties in the regionalization procedure. We quantified signature uncertainty stemming from discharge data uncertainty for 43 UK catchments and propagated these uncertainties in signature regionalization, while accounting for regionalization uncertainty with a weighted-pooling-group approach. Discharge uncertainty was estimated using Monte Carlo sampling of multiple feasible rating curves. For each sampled rating curve, a discharge time series was calculated and used in deriving the gauged signature uncertainty distribution. We found that the gauged uncertainty varied with signature type, local measurement conditions and catchment behavior, with the highest uncertainties (median relative uncertainty ±30-40% across all catchments) for signatures measuring high- and low-flow magnitude and dynamics. Our regionalization method allowed assessing the role and relative magnitudes of the gauged and regionalized uncertainty sources in shaping the signature uncertainty distributions predicted for catchments treated as ungauged. We found that (1) if the gauged uncertainties were neglected there was a clear risk of overconditioning the regionalization inference, e.g., by attributing catchment differences resulting from gauged uncertainty to differences in catchment behavior, and (2) uncertainty in the regionalization results was lower for signatures measuring flow distribution (e.g., mean flow) than flow dynamics (e.g., autocorrelation), and for average flows (and then high flows) compared to low flows.

Manufacturing Growth, Trade and Labour Market Outcomes in East Asia; Why Did the NIEs Forge so far Ahead?

OpenAIRE

Chris Manning; Alberto Posso

2008-01-01

This paper seeks to explain different real wage outcomes in two groups of East Asian economies: two New Industrialising Economies (NIEs: Korea and Taiwan), and three Southeast Asian economies (ASEAN-3: Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia), all of which grew rapidly for several decades prior to the Asian economic crisis. Drawing on international and national data sets, the paper examines dynamic interactions between manufacturing growth and labour market outcomes. It adopts the dualistic Lewis mo...

Catchments' hedging strategy on evapotranspiration for climatic variability

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, W.; Zhang, C.; Li, Y.; Tang, Y.; Wang, D.; Xu, B.

2017-12-01

Hydrologic responses to climate variability and change are important for human society. Here we test the hypothesis that natural catchments utilize hedging strategies for evapotranspiration and water storage carryover with uncertain future precipitation. The hedging strategy for evapotranspiration in catchments under different levels of water availability is analytically derived from the economic perspective. It is found that there exists hedging between evapotranspiration for current and future only with a portion of water availability. Observation data sets of 160 catchments in the United States covering the period from 1983 to 2003 demonstrate the existence of hedging in catchment hydrology and validate the proposed hedging strategies. We also find that more water is allocated to carryover storage for hedging against the future evapotranspiration risk in the catchments with larger aridity indexes or with larger uncertainty in future precipitation, i.e., long-term climate and precipitation variability control the degree of hedging.

Assessing ecohydrological controls on catchment water storage, flux and age dynamics using tracers in a physically-based, spatially distributed model

Science.gov (United States)

Kuppel, S.; Tetzlaff, D.; Maneta, M. P.; Soulsby, C.

2017-12-01

Stable water isotope tracing has been extensively used in a wide range of geographical environments as a means to understand the sources, flow paths and ages of water stored and exiting a landscape via evapotranspiration, surface runoff and/or stream flow. Comparisons of isotopic signatures of precipitation and water in streams, soils, groundwater and plant xylem facilitates the assessment of how plant water use may affect preferential hydrologic pathways, storage dynamics and transit times in the critical zone. While tracers are also invaluable for testing model structure and accuracy, in most cases the measured isotopic signatures have been used to guide the calibration of conceptual runoff models with simplified vegetation and energy balance representation, which lacks sufficient detail to constrain key ecohydrological controls on flow paths and water ages. Here, we use a physically-based, distributed ecohydrological model (EcH2O) which we have extended to track 2H and 18O (including fractionation processes), and water age. This work is part of the "VeWa" project which aims at understanding ecohydrological couplings across climatic gradients in the wider North, where the hydrological implications of projected environmental change are essentially unknown though expected to be high. EcH2O combines a hydrologic scheme with an explicit representation of plant growth and phenology while resolving the energy balance across the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum. We focus on a montane catchment in Scotland, where unique long-term, high resolution hydrometric, ecohydrological and isotopic data allows for extensive model testing and projections. Results show the importance of incorporating soil fractionation processes to explain stream isotope dynamics, particularly seasonal enrichment in this humid, energy-limited catchment. This generic process-based approach facilitates analysis of dynamics in isotopes, storage and ages for the different hydrological compartments

Functional Lycopene Cyclase (CruA) in Cyanobacterium, Arthrospira platensis NIES-39, and its Role in Carotenoid Synthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugiyama, Kenjiro; Ebisawa, Masashi; Yamada, Masaharu; Nagashima, Yoshiki; Suzuki, Hideyuki; Maoka, Takashi; Takaichi, Shinichi

2017-04-01

The genus Arthrospira is filamentous, non-nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria that is commercially important. We identified the molecular structures of carotenoids in Arthrospira platensis NIES-39. The major carotenoid identified was β-carotene. In addition, the hydroxyl derivatives of β-cryptoxanthin and (3R,3'R)-zeaxanthin were also found to be present. The carotenoid glycosides were identified as (3R,2'S)-myxol 2'-methylpentoside and oscillol 2,2'-dimethylpentoside. The methylpentoside moiety was a mixture of fucoside and chinovoside in an approximate ratio of 1 : 4. Trace amounts of the ketocarotenoid 3'-hydroxyechinenone were also found. Three types of lycopene cyclases have been functionally confirmed in carotenogenesis organisms. In cyanobacteria, the functional lycopene cyclases (CrtL, CruA and CruP) have only been found in four species. In this study, we found that CruA exhibited lycopene cyclase activity in transformed Escherichia coli, which contains lycopene, but CruP exhibited no lycopene cyclase activity and crtL was absent. This is the third cyanobacterial species in which CruA activity has been confirmed. Neurosporene was not a substrate of CruA in E. coli, whereas lycopene cyclases of CrtY (bacteria), CrtL (plants) and CrtYB (fungi) have been reported to convert neurosporene to 7,8-dihydro-β-carotene. β-Carotene hydroxylase (CrtR) was found to convert β-carotene to zeaxanthin in transformed E. coli, which contains β-carotene. Among the β-carotene hydroxylases, bacterial CrtZ and eukaryotic CrtR and BCH have similarities, whereas cyanobacterial CrtR appears to belong to another clade. Based on the identification of the carotenoids and the completion of the entire nucleotide sequence of the A. platensis NIES-39 genome, we propose a biosynthetic pathway for the carotenoids as well as the corresponding genes and enzymes. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved

Response of floodplain sedimentation to catchment disturbances in different environments

Science.gov (United States)

Notebaert, B.; Houbrechts, G.; Verstraeten, G.; Petit, F.

2009-04-01

Holocene floodplain sediments are an important environmental archive, that can be accesed for reconstructing the past landscape dynamics either qualitatively (e.g. palynology) and quantitatively (e.g. sediment budgeting). In this study Holocene alluvial sediment deposition in two contrasting Belgian catchments was quantified and dated: the Lienne (148 km2) in the Ardennes massif and the Dijle (750 km2) in the loess region. These catchments experienced a comparable Holocene climatic variation, but differ in topography and geology with highest relief energy in the Lienne catchment. Land use history also differs with high land use intensities in the Dijle catchment since Roman times, but at least since the Middle Ages there were also large deforestations in the Lienne catchment. Detailed cumulative Holocene sediment deposition was assessed for each catchment using more then 1000 hand augerings. Detailed radiocarbon dating of fluvial deposits was performed in the Dijle catchment, while iron slag was used as a tracer for sediments deposited after 1350 AD in the Lienne catchment. Results show that sediment deposition is much larger in the Dijle catchment (~4.5 Mg ha-1 catchment area) then in the Lienne catchment (~0.2 Mg ha-1 catchment area). Dating results from the Dijle catchment show an increase of sediment deposition in the late Holocene, first starting in the colluvial valleys and later on prograding towards the main valleys. Variations in sedimentation rates can clearly be related to anthropogenous land use pressure, and the majority of the sediments found in colluvial and alluvial valleys were deposited in the last 4000 years, and in many cases even in the last 1000 years. Variations in sediment deposition within the catchment can partially be explained by differences in river valley physical settings (mainly valley slope), while in other cases hill slope sediment delivery (upstream erosion, connectivity between hill slopes and the river system) is the explaining

Estimation of catchment averaged sensible heat fluxes using a large aperture scintillometer

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Samain Bruno

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Evapotranspiration rates at the catchment scale are very difficult to quantify. One possible manner to continuously observe this variable could be the estimation of sensible heat fluxes (H across large distances (in the order of kilometers using a large aperture scintillometer (LAS, and inverting these observations into evapotranspiration rates, under the assumption that the LAS observations are representative for the entire catchment. The objective of this paper is to assess whether measured sensible heat fluxes from a LAS over a long distance (9.5 km can be assumed to be valid for a 102.3 km2 heterogeneous catchment. Therefore, a fully process-based water and energy balance model with a spatial resolution of 50 m has been thoroughly calibrated and validated for the Bellebeek catchmentin Belgium. A footprint analysis has been performed. In general, the sensible heat fluxes from the LAS compared well with the modeled sensible heat fluxes within the footprint. Moreover, as the modeled Hwithin the footprint has been found to be almost equal to the modeled catchment averaged H, it can be concluded that the scintillometer measurements over a distance of 9.5 km and an effective heightof 68 m are representative for the entire catchment.

Sediment yield and alternatives soil conservation practices of teak catchments

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Tyas Mutiara Basuki

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Quantifying sediment is essential to determine its sources and reduce its negative impacts. A study was conducted to quantify suspended sediments of catchments covering by teak plantation and to provide alternatives soil conservation practices. Five catchments with old teak coverages of 82; 82; 74; 70; and 53 % were chosen. At the outlet of each catchment was installed tide gauge to monitor stream water level (SWL. Water samples for sediment analyses were taken for every increament of SWL. Sediment yield was calculated based on rating curves of sediment discharge. The results showed that the sources of sediment in the streams were dryland agricultural and streambank erosion. The mean annual sediment yield during the study were 9.3; 10; 15; 53.3; and 22.5 t/ha for catchments covered by old teak plantation of 82, 82, 74, 70, and 53 %, respectively. To reduce sediment yield some soil conservation practices must be applied. Conservation of soil organic matter is important in order to stabilize soil aggregate and prevent clay dispersion which causes erosion and sedimentation. Green firebreaks or making channels are needed to prevent fire during dry season and organic matter loss. Stabilization of streambank is neccesary, either using vegetative method or civil technics.

Changes in stream nitrate concentrations due to land management practices, ecological succession, and climate: Developing a system approach to integrated catchment response

Science.gov (United States)

F. Worrall; Wayne T. Swank; T. P. Burt

2003-01-01

This study uses time series analysis to examine long-term stream water nitrate concentration records from a pair of forested catchments at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, North Carolina, USA. Monthly average concentrations were available from 1970 through 1997 for two forested catchments, one of which was clear-felled in 1977 and the other maintained as a control....

Implementing integrated catchment management in the Limpopo River Basin Phase 1: Situational assessment

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mwenge Kahinda, Jean-Marc

2012-10-01

Full Text Available reaches of the main stem of the Limpopo River. Much of the surface water exploitation in the basin states relies on storage reservoirs built on tributary rivers. Surface water use is directed primarily to irrigated agriculture, afforestation... and the pool storages located in the A63E and A71L catchments. The riverine gallery forest (Figure 6) is an aquifer-dependent ecosystem situated on the same aquifer used by the Venetia Mine and recharged by the Limpopo River main stem. The isolated...

Sediment yield model implementation based on check dam infill stratigraphy in a semiarid Mediterranean catchment

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G. Bussi

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Soil loss and sediment transport in Mediterranean areas are driven by complex non-linear processes which have been only partially understood. Distributed models can be very helpful tools for understanding the catchment-scale phenomena which lead to soil erosion and sediment transport. In this study, a modelling approach is proposed to reproduce and evaluate erosion and sediment yield processes in a Mediterranean catchment (Rambla del Poyo, Valencia, Spain. Due to the lack of sediment transport records for model calibration and validation, a detailed description of the alluvial stratigraphy infilling a check dam that drains a 12.9 km2 sub-catchment was used as indirect information of sediment yield data. These dam infill sediments showed evidences of at least 15 depositional events (floods over the time period 1990–2009. The TETIS model, a distributed conceptual hydrological and sediment model, was coupled to the Sediment Trap Efficiency for Small Ponds (STEP model for reproducing reservoir retention, and it was calibrated and validated using the sedimentation volume estimated for the depositional units associated with discrete runoff events. The results show relatively low net erosion rates compared to other Mediterranean catchments (0.136 Mg ha−1 yr−1, probably due to the extensive outcrops of limestone bedrock, thin soils and rather homogeneous vegetation cover. The simulated sediment production and transport rates offer model satisfactory results, further supported by in-site palaeohydrological evidences and spatial validation using additional check dams, showing the great potential of the presented data assimilation methodology for the quantitative analysis of sediment dynamics in ungauged Mediterranean basins.

Predicting the occurrence of channelized debris flow by an integrated cascading model: A case study of a small debris flow-prone catchment in Zhejiang Province, China

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Zhen-lei; Xu, Yue-Ping; Sun, Hong-yue; Xie, Wei; Wu, Gang

2018-05-01

Excessive water in a channel is an important factor that triggers channelized debris flows. Floods and debris flows often occur in a cascading manner, and thus, calculating the amount of runoff accurately is important for predicting the occurrence of debris flows. In order to explore the runoff-rainfall relationship, we placed two measuring facilities at the outlet of a small, debris flow-prone headwater catchment to explore the hydrological response of the catchment. The runoff responses generally consisted of a rapid increase in runoff followed by a slower decrease. The peak runoff often occurred after the rainfall ended. The runoff discharge data were simulated by two different modeling approaches, i.e., the NAM model and the Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) model. The results showed that the NAM model performed better than the HEC-HMS model. The NAM model provided acceptable simulations, while the HEC-HMS model did not. Then, we coupled the calculated results of the NAM model with an empirically based debris flow initiation model to obtain a new integrated cascading disaster modeling system to provide improved disaster preparedness and hazard management. In this case study, we found that the coupled model could correctly predict the occurrence of debris flows. Furthermore, we evaluated the effect of the range of input parameter values on the hydrographical shape of the runoff. We also used the grey relational analysis to conduct a sensitivity analysis of the parameters of the model. This study highlighted the important connections between rainfall, hydrological processes, and debris flow, and it provides a useful prototype model system for operational forecasting of debris flows.

Fluvial organic carbon flux from an eroding peatland catchment, southern Pennines, UK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. R. Pawson

2008-03-01

Full Text Available This study investigates for the first time the relative importance of dissolved organic carbon (DOC and particulate organic carbon (POC in the fluvial carbon flux from an actively eroding peatland catchment in the southern Pennines, UK. Event scale variability in DOC and POC was examined and the annual flux of fluvial organic carbon was estimated for the catchment. At the event scale, both DOC and POC were found to increase with discharge, with event based POC export accounting for 95% of flux in only 8% of the time. On an annual cycle, exports of 35.14 t organic carbon (OC are estimated from the catchment, which represents an areal value of 92.47 g C m⁻² a⁻¹. POC was the most significant form of organic carbon export, accounting for 80% of the estimated flux. This suggests that more research is required on both the fate of POC and the rates of POC export in eroding peatland catchments.

Methodology for Developing Hydrological Models Based on an Artificial Neural Network to Establish an Early Warning System in Small Catchments

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Ivana Sušanj

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In some situations, there is no possibility of hazard mitigation, especially if the hazard is induced by water. Thus, it is important to prevent consequences via an early warning system (EWS to announce the possible occurrence of a hazard. The aim and objective of this paper are to investigate the possibility of implementing an EWS in a small-scale catchment and to develop a methodology for developing a hydrological prediction model based on an artificial neural network (ANN as an essential part of the EWS. The methodology is implemented in the case study of the Slani Potok catchment, which is historically recognized as a hazard-prone area, by establishing continuous monitoring of meteorological and hydrological parameters to collect data for the training, validation, and evaluation of the prediction capabilities of the ANN model. The model is validated and evaluated by visual and common calculation approaches and a new evaluation for the assessment. This new evaluation is proposed based on the separation of the observed data into classes based on the mean data value and the percentages of classes above or below the mean data value as well as on the performance of the mean absolute error.

Re-examining the basis for source discrimination and data corrections used by sediment fingerprinting studies in agricultural catchments

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Smith, Hugh; Blake, Will

2014-05-01

The sediment fingerprinting technique has been widely used in agricultural catchments to quantify fine sediment contributions from various land use sources. This application of the technique depends on the key assumption that land-use source signatures imprinted on catchment soils are decipherable from those due to other landscape factors affecting soil and sediment properties. We re-examine this key assumption by investigating (i) the physical and chemical basis for source discrimination and (ii) potential factors that may confound source un-mixing in agricultural catchments, including particle size and organic matter effects on tracer properties. The study is situated in the River Tamar, a predominantly agricultural catchment in south-west England that has also been affected by mining. Source discrimination focused on pasture and cultivated land uses and channel banks. Monthly, time-integrated suspended sediment samples were collected across seven catchments for a 12-month period. Physical and chemical properties measured in source soils and sediment included fallout radionuclides, major and minor element geochemical constituents, total organic carbon and particle size. Source discrimination was entirely dependent on differences in tracer property concentrations between surface and sub-surface soils. This is based on fallout radionuclide concentrations that are surface-elevated, while many geochemical properties are surface-depleted due to weathering and pedogenetic effects, although surface soil contamination can reverse this trend. Source discrimination in the study catchments was limited by (i) rotation of cultivated and pasture fields resulting in reduced differences between these two sources and (ii) the cultivated source signature resembling a mix of the pasture and channel bank sources for many tracer properties. Furthermore, metal pollution from abandoned historic mines and organic enrichment of sediment from areas of peaty soil resulted in the non

Simulations of future runoff conditions for glacierized catchments in the Ötztal Alps (Austria) using the physically based hydroclimatological model AMUNDSEN

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Hanzer, Florian; Förster, Kristian; Marke, Thomas; Strasser, Ulrich

2016-04-01

Assessing the amount of water resources stored in mountain catchments as snow and ice as well as the timing of meltwater production and the resulting streamflow runoff is of high interest for glaciohydrological investigations and hydropower production. Climate change induced seasonal shifts in snow and ice melt will alter the hydrological regimes in glacierized catchments in terms of both timing and magnitude of discharge. We present the setup of the hydroclimatological model AMUNDSEN for a highly glacierized (24 %) 558 km2 large study area (1760-3768 m a.s.l.) in the Ötztal Alps (Austria), and first results of simulated future runoff conditions. The study region comprises the headwater catchments of the valleys Ötztal, Pitztal, and Kaunertal, which contribute to the streamflow of the river Inn. AMUNDSEN is a fully distributed physically based model designed to quantify the energy and mass balance of snow and ice surfaces in complex topography as well as streamflow generation for a given catchment. The model has been extensively validated for past conditions and has been extended by an empirical glacier evolution model (Δh approach) for the present study. Statistically downscaled EURO-CORDEX climate simulations covering the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios are used as the meteorological forcing for the period 2006-2050. Model results are evaluated in terms of magnitude and change of the contributions of the individual runoff components (snowmelt, ice melt, rain) in the subcatchments as well as the change in glacier volume and area.

Probabilistic risk assessment of diuron and prometryn in the Gwydir River catchment, Australia, with the input of a novel bioassay based on algal growth.

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Shi, Yajuan; Burns, Mitchell; Ritchie, Raymond J; Crossan, Angus; Kennedy, Ivan R

2014-08-01

A probabilistic risk assessment of the selected herbicides (diuron and prometryn) in the Gwydir River catchment was conducted, with the input of the EC₅₀ values derived from both literature and a novel bioassay. Laboratory test based on growth of algae exposed to herbicides assayed with a microplate reader was used to examine the toxicity of diuron and prometryn on the growth of Chlorella vulgaris. Both herbicides showed concentration dependent toxicity in inhibiting the growth of Chlorella during the exposure period of 18-72 h. Diuron caused more toxicity as judged by growth rates than prometryn. Thalaba Creek at Merrywinebone was identified as the 'hotspot' for diuron and prometryn risk in the Gwydir catchment. The use of microplate assays coupled with probabilistic risk assessment is recommended for rapid assessment of ecotoxicity of indigenous species, allowing identification of locations in river catchments requiring environmental management. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multisource data assimilation in a Richards equation-based integrated hydrological model: a real-world application to an experimental hillslope

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Camporese, M.; Botto, A.

2017-12-01

Data assimilation is becoming increasingly popular in hydrological and earth system modeling, as it allows for direct integration of multisource observation data in modeling predictions and uncertainty reduction. For this reason, data assimilation has been recently the focus of much attention also for integrated surface-subsurface hydrological models, whereby multiple terrestrial compartments (e.g., snow cover, surface water, groundwater) are solved simultaneously, in an attempt to tackle environmental problems in a holistic approach. Recent examples include the joint assimilation of water table, soil moisture, and river discharge measurements in catchment models of coupled surface-subsurface flow using the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). Although the EnKF has been specifically developed to deal with nonlinear models, integrated hydrological models based on the Richards equation still represent a challenge, due to strong nonlinearities that may significantly affect the filter performance. Thus, more studies are needed to investigate the capabilities of EnKF to correct the system state and identify parameters in cases where the unsaturated zone dynamics are dominant. Here, the model CATHY (CATchment HYdrology) is applied to reproduce the hydrological dynamics observed in an experimental hillslope, equipped with tensiometers, water content reflectometer probes, and tipping bucket flow gages to monitor the hillslope response to a series of artificial rainfall events. We assimilate pressure head, soil moisture, and subsurface outflow with EnKF in a number of assimilation scenarios and discuss the challenges, issues, and tradeoffs arising from the assimilation of multisource data in a real-world test case, with particular focus on the capability of DA to update the subsurface parameters.

An integrated study to evaluate debris flow hazard in alpine environment

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Tiranti, Davide; Crema, Stefano; Cavalli, Marco; Deangeli, Chiara

2018-05-01

Debris flows are among the most dangerous natural processes affecting the alpine environment due to their magnitude (volume of transported material) and the long runout. The presence of structures and infrastructures on alluvial fans can lead to severe problems in terms of interactions between debris flows and human activities. Risk mitigation in these areas requires identifying the magnitude, triggers, and propagation of debris flows. Here, we propose an integrated methodology to characterize these phenomena. The methodology consists of three complementary procedures. Firstly, we adopt a classification method based on the propensity of the catchment bedrocks to produce clayey-grained material. The classification allows us to identify the most likely rheology of the process. Secondly, we calculate a sediment connectivity index to estimate the topographic control on the possible coupling between the sediment source areas and the catchment channel network. This step allows for the assessment of the debris supply, which is most likely available for the channelized processes. Finally, with the data obtained in the previous steps, we modelled the propagation and depositional pattern of debris flows with a 3D code based on Cellular Automata. The results of the numerical runs allow us to identify the depositional patterns and the areas potentially involved in the flow processes. This integrated methodology is applied to a test-bed catchment located in Northwestern Alps. The results indicate that this approach can be regarded as a useful tool to estimate debris flow related potential hazard scenarios in an alpine environment in an expeditious way without possessing an exhaustive knowledge of the investigated catchment, including data on historical debris flow events.

An Integrated Study to Evaluate Debris Flow Hazard in Alpine Environment

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Davide Tiranti

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Debris flows are among the most dangerous natural processes affecting the alpine environment due to their magnitude (volume of transported material and the long runout. The presence of structures and infrastructures on alluvial fans can lead to severe problems in terms of interactions between debris flows and human activities. Risk mitigation in these areas requires identifying the magnitude, triggers, and propagation of debris flows. Here, we propose an integrated methodology to characterize these phenomena. The methodology consists of three complementary procedures. Firstly, we adopt a classification method based on the propensity of the catchment bedrocks to produce clayey-grained material. The classification allows us to identify the most likely rheology of the process. Secondly, we calculate a sediment connectivity index to estimate the topographic control on the possible coupling between the sediment source areas and the catchment channel network. This step allows for the assessment of the debris supply, which is most likely available for the channelized processes. Finally, with the data obtained in the previous steps, we modeled the propagation and depositional pattern of debris flows with a 3D code based on Cellular Automata. The results of the numerical runs allow us to identify the depositional patterns and the areas potentially involved in the flow processes. This integrated methodology is applied to a test-bed catchment located in Northwestern Alps. The results indicate that this approach can be regarded as a useful tool to estimate debris flow related potential hazard scenarios in an alpine environment in an expeditious way without possessing an exhaustive knowledge of the investigated catchment, including data on historical debris flow events.

Integrated modeling of agricultural scenarios (IMAS) to support pesticide action plans: the case of the Coulonge drinking water catchment area (SW France).

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Vernier, Françoise; Leccia-Phelpin, Odile; Lescot, Jean-Marie; Minette, Sébastien; Miralles, André; Barberis, Delphine; Scordia, Charlotte; Kuentz-Simonet, Vanessa; Tonneau, Jean-Philippe

2017-03-01

-economic conditions for developing alternative agricultural systems or targeting mitigation measures. Our integrated assessment of these scenarios combines the calculation of spatialized environmental indicators with integrated bio-economic modeling. The latter is achieved by a combined use of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeling with our own purpose-built land use generator module (Generator of Land Use version 2 (GenLU2)) and an economic model developed using General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) for cost-effectiveness assessment. This integrated approach is applied to two embedded catchment areas (total area of 360,000 ha) within the Charente river basin (SW France). Our results show that it is possible to differentiate scenarios based on their effectiveness, represented by either evolution of pressure (agro-environmental indicators) or transport into waters (pesticide concentrations). By analyzing the implementation costs borne by farmers, it is possible to identify the most cost-effective scenarios at sub-basin and other aggregated levels (WFD hydrological entities, sensitive areas). Relevant results and indicators are fed into a specifically designed database. Data warehousing is used to provide analyses and outputs at all thematic, temporal, or spatial aggregated levels, defined by the stakeholders (type of crops, herbicides, WFD areas, years), using Spatial On-Line Analytical Processing (SOLAP) tools. The aim of this approach is to allow public policy makers to make more informed and reasoned decisions when managing sensitive areas and/or implementing mitigation measures.

Susceptibility of Shallow Landslide in Fraser Hill Catchment, Pahang Malaysia

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Wan Nor Azmin Sulaiman

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In tropical areas especially during monsoon seasons intense precipitation is the main caused that trigger the natural shallow landslide phenomena. This phenomenon can be disastrous and widespread in occurrence even in undisturbed forested catchment. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the susceptibility of natural hill slopes to failure for a popular hill resort area, the Fraser Hill Catchment under different rainfall regimes and soil thickness. A Digital Elevation Model (DEM was prepared for the 8.2 km2 catchment. A GIS based deterministic model was then applied to predict the spatial landslide occurrence within catchment. Model input parameters include bulk density, friction angle, cohesion and hydraulic conductivity were gathered through in situ and lab analysis as well as from previous soil analysis records. Landslides locations were recorded using GPS as well as previous air photos and satellite imagery to establish landslide source areas inventory. The landslide susceptibility map was produced under different precipitation event’s simulation to see the effects of precipitation to stability of the hill slopes of the catchment. The results were categorized into naturally unstable (Defended, Upper Threshold, Lower Threshold, marginal instability (Quasi Stable and stable area (Moderately Stable and Stable. Results of the simulation indicated notable change in precipitation effect on Defended area is between 10mm to 40mm range in a single storm event. However, when storm event is exceeded 120mm, the result on Defended area produced by the model tends to be constant further on. For area categorized as naturally unstable (Factor of Safety, SF<1, with 110 mm of precipitation in a single storm event and soil depth at 2 meters and 4 meters could affect 69.51% and 69.88% respectively of the catchment area fall under that class. In addition, the model was able to detect 4% more of the landslide inventory under shallower soil depth of

Organic carbon efflux from a deciduous forest catchment in Korea

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S. J. Kim

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Soil infiltration and surface discharge of precipitation are critical processes that affect the efflux of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC and Particulate Organic Carbon (POC in forested catchments. Concentrations of DOC and POC can be very high in the soil surface in most forest ecosystems and their efflux may not be negligible particularly under the monsoon climate. In East Asia, however, there are little data available to evaluate the role of such processes in forest carbon budget. In this paper, we address two basic questions: (1 how does stream discharge respond to storm events in a forest catchment? and (2 how much DOC and POC are exported from the catchment particularly during the summer monsoon period? To answer these questions, we collected hydrological data (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture, runoff discharge, groundwater level and conducted hydrochemical analyses (including DOC, POC, and six tracers in a deciduous forest catchment in Gwangneung National Arboretum in west-central Korea. Based on the end-member mixing analysis of the six storm events during the summer monsoon in 2005, the surface discharge was estimated as 30 to 80% of the total runoff discharge. The stream discharge responded to precipitation within 12 h during these storm events. The annual efflux of DOC and POC from the catchment was estimated as 0.04 and 0.05 t C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively. Approximately 70% of the annual organic carbon efflux occurred during the summer monsoon period. Overall, the annual efflux of organic carbon was estimated to be about 10% of the Net Ecosystem carbon Exchange (NEE obtained by eddy covariance measurement at the same site. Considering the current trends of increasing intensity and amount of summer rainfall and the large interannual variability in NEE, ignoring the organic carbon efflux from forest catchments would result in an inaccurate estimation of the carbon sink strength of forest ecosystems in the monsoon

The impact of changing climate conditions on the hydrological behavior of several Mediterranean sub-catchments in Crete

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Eirini Vozinaki, Anthi; Tapoglou, Evdokia; Tsanis, Ioannis

2017-04-01

Climate change, although is already happening, consists of a big threat capable of causing lots of inconveniences in future societies and their economies. In this work, the climate change impact on the hydrological behavior of several Mediterranean sub-catchments, in Crete, is presented. The sensitivity of these hydrological systems to several climate change scenarios is also provided. The HBV hydrological model has been used, calibrated and validated for the study sub-catchments against measured weather and streamflow data and inputs. The impact of climate change on several hydro-meteorological parameters (i.e. precipitation, streamflow etc.) and hydrological signatures (i.e. spring flood peak, length and volume, base flow, flow duration curves, seasonality etc.) have been statistically elaborated and analyzed, defining areas of increased probability risk associated additionally to flooding or drought. The potential impacts of climate change on current and future water resources have been quantified by driving HBV model with current and future scenarios, respectively, for specific climate periods. This work aims to present an integrated methodology for the definition of future climate and hydrological risks and the prediction of future water resources behavior. Future water resources management could be rationally effectuated, in Mediterranean sub-catchments prone to drought or flooding, using the proposed methodology. The research reported in this paper was fully supported by the Project "Innovative solutions to climate change adaptation and governance in the water management of the Region of Crete - AQUAMAN" funded within the framework of the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014.

Sedimentation studies at MUDA catchment area, Kedah, Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamarudin Samuding; Juhari Yusuf; Wan Abdul Aziz; Juhari Latiff

2000-01-01

A study on the sediment size distribution and determination of sediment density profile in the selected area of Muda dam catchment area, Kedah is presented. The objective of the study was to establish a base line data of the input sedimentation with regards to the effects of development within the catchment in the future. Three main sampling locations were identified namely at Sungai Teliang, Sungai Muda and Muda reservoir. Measurement of sediment thickness was performed by using nuclear gauges i.e. direct transmission and backscattering methods. Results showed that the grain size distribution of sediment ranges from gravel to clay sizes. In the reservoir and downstream of the river, most of the samples studied consisting of fine sediment i.e silt and clay sizes (<63,um). However, sediment distribution in the upstream section of Sungai Teliang mainly consist of fine to coarse sand. Sediment density profiles in the reservoir showed little changes, whereas bed sediment profiles in the river cross-sectional areas exhibit some changes. The results also showed that thickness of bedload sediment were different from one location to another, in which the thickness may achieve up to 0.75 metre in some areas. Based on the sediment distribution profile analysis, the study site could be divided into two parts comprising of dynamic area (region) covering selected locations along the river and deposited sediment in the reservoir. Basic information derived from this study may provide as one of the important inputs for the MADA reservoir management authority in monitoring, supervising y and identifying rate and source of sediment in the catchment area

THE HYDROLOGIC RESPONSE OF A SMALL CATCHMENT TO CLEAR-CUTTING

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We simulated how a landscape disturbance (e.g., fire or clear-cutting) alters hillslope and catchment hydrologic processes. Specifically, we simulated how the pattern and magnitude of tree removal in a catchment increases downslope transport of water and alters catchment soil moi...

A free tool integrating GIS features and workflows to evaluate sediment connectivity in alpine catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Crema, Stefano; Schenato, Luca; Goldin, Beatrice; Marchi, Lorenzo; Cavalli, Marco

2014-05-01

The increased interest in sediment connectivity has brought the geomorphologists' community to focus on sediment fluxes as a key process (Cavalli et al., 2013; Heckmann and Schwanghart, 2013). The challenge of dealing with erosion-related processes in alpine catchments is of primary relevance for different fields of investigations and applications, including, but not limited to natural hazards, hydraulic structures design, ecology and stream restoration. The present work focuses on the development of a free tool for sediment connectivity assessment as described in Cavalli et al. (2013), introducing some novel improvements. The choice of going for a free software is motivated by the need of widening the access and improving participation beyond the restrictions on algorithms customization, typical of commercial software. A couple of features further enhance the tool: being completely free and adopting a user-friendly interface, its target audience includes researchers and stakeholders (e.g., local managers and civil protection authorities in charge of planning the priorities of intervention in the territory), being written in Python programming language, it can benefit from optimized algorithms for high-resolution DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) handling and for propagation workflows implementation; these two factors make the tool computationally competitive with the most recent commercial GIS products. The overall goal of this tool is supporting the analysis of sediment connectivity, facing the challenge of widening, as much as possible, the users' community among scientists and stakeholders. This aspect is crucial, as future improvement of this tool will benefit of feedbacks from users in order to improve the quantitative assessment of sediment connectivity as a major input information for the optimal management of mountain areas. References: Cavalli, M., Trevisani, S., Comiti, F., Marchi, L., 2013. Geomorphometric assessment of spatial sediment connectivity in

Reach‐scale river metabolism across contrasting sub‐catchment geologies: Effect of light and hydrology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rovelli, Lorenzo; Attard, Karl; Binley, Andrew

2017-01-01

and reaches followed a general linear relationship with increasing stream light availability. Sub‐catchment specific NEM proved to be linearly related to the local hydrological connectivity, quantified as the ratio between base flow and stream discharge, and expressed on a timescale of 9 d on average....... This timescale apparently represents the average period of hydrological imprint for carbon turnover within the reaches. Combining a general light response and sub‐catchment specific base flow ratio provided a robust functional relationship for predicting NEM at the reach scale. The novel approach proposed...

Water quality improvements from afforestation in an agricultural catchment in Denmark illustrated with the INCA model

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A. Bastrup-Birk

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Intensive agricultural land use across Europe has altered nitrogen (N budget of catchments substantially, causing widespread N pollution of freshwater. Although the N cycle in forests has changed due to increased N deposition, most forest soil waters in Europe have low nitrate concentrations. The protective function of forests on water quality has led to increasing interest in the planting of new forests on arable land as a measure to protect valuable or sensitive freshwater resources. The paper illustrates the effects of afforestation on water and N cycling using the Integrated Nitrogen Catchment (INCA model. The model was calibrated on the Horndrup catchment in the eastern part of Jutland, Denmark, which is dominated by agricultural land use but also covered by 18% of forest land. The dynamics of nitrate concentrations in the stream water were simulated successfully by INCA over a three-year period. The simulation of the dynamics of nitrate concentrations in the soil water is closely linked to the simulation of the hydrological dynamics and especially to the rainfall. The best fit was achieved for both arable and forest land during the wettest year of the study period. The model was then used to simulate the effect of afforestation of a catchment dominated by agriculture on N fluxes with seepage and runoff. Scenarios of whole catchment conversion to forest were run, based on observations of evapotranspiration and N deposition from other Danish sites. The simulated conversion to mature forest reduced runoff by 30–45% and reduced the nitrate concentrations in the soil water by 50–70%. The simulated effect of afforestation on N leaching was an almost direct reflection of the change in the N input: substantial changes in the plant demand and soil N dynamics over the afforestation period were not simulated. To simulate the N dynamics over longer time-scales, appropriate for the study of afforestation, it is suggested that the INCA model be run

Prediction of Hydrologic Characteristics for Ungauged Catchments to Support Hydroecological Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Bond, Nick R.; Kennard, Mark J.

2017-11-01

Hydrologic variability is a fundamental driver of ecological processes and species distribution patterns within river systems, yet the paucity of gauges in many catchments means that streamflow data are often unavailable for ecological survey sites. Filling this data gap is an important challenge in hydroecological research. To address this gap, we first test the ability to spatially extrapolate hydrologic metrics calculated from gauged streamflow data to ungauged sites as a function of stream distance and catchment area. Second, we examine the ability of statistical models to predict flow regime metrics based on climate and catchment physiographic variables. Our assessment focused on Australia's largest catchment, the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). We found that hydrologic metrics were predictable only between sites within ˜25 km of one another. Beyond this, correlations between sites declined quickly. We found less than 40% of fish survey sites from a recent basin-wide monitoring program (n = 777 sites) to fall within this 25 km range, thereby greatly limiting the ability to utilize gauge data for direct spatial transposition of hydrologic metrics to biological survey sites. In contrast, statistical model-based transposition proved effective in predicting ecologically relevant aspects of the flow regime (including metrics describing central tendency, high- and low-flows intermittency, seasonality, and variability) across the entire gauge network (median R2 ˜ 0.54, range 0.39-0.94). Modeled hydrologic metrics thus offer a useful alternative to empirical data when examining biological survey data from ungauged sites. More widespread use of these statistical tools and modeled metrics could expand our understanding of flow-ecology relationships.

Using artificial soil sediment mixtures for calibrating fingerprinting techniques at catchment scale

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torres Astorga, Romina; Martin, Osvaldo A.; Velasco, Ricardo Hugo; Santos-Villalobos, Sergio de los; Mabit, Lionel; Dercon, Gerd

2016-01-01

Soil erosion and related sediment transportation and deposition are key environmental problems in Central Argentina. Certain land use practices, such as intensive grazing, are considered particularly harmful in causing erosion and sediment mobilization. In our studied catchment, Sub Catchment Estancia Grande (630 hectares), 23 km north east from San Luis, characterized by erosive loess soils, we tested sediment source fingerprinting techniques to identify critical hot spots of land degradation, based on the concentration of 43 elements determined by Energy Dispersive X Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF).

Integrating petrography, mineralogy and hydrochemistry to constrain the influence and distribution of groundwater contributions to baseflow in poorly productive aquifers: insights from Gortinlieve catchment, Co. Donegal, NW Ireland.

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Caulfield, John; Chelliah, Merlyn; Comte, Jean-Christophe; Cassidy, Rachel; Flynn, Raymond

2014-12-01

Identifying groundwater contributions to baseflow forms an essential part of surface water body characterisation. The Gortinlieve catchment (5 km(2)) comprises a headwater stream network of the Carrigans River, itself a tributary of the River Foyle, NW Ireland. The bedrock comprises poorly productive metasediments that are characterised by fracture porosity. We present the findings of a multi-disciplinary study that integrates new hydrochemical and mineralogical investigations with existing hydraulic, geophysical and structural data to identify the scales of groundwater flow and the nature of groundwater/bedrock interaction (chemical denudation). At the catchment scale, the development of deep weathering profiles is controlled by NE-SW regional scale fracture zones associated with mountain building during the Grampian orogeny. In-situ chemical denudation of mineral phases is controlled by micro- to meso-scale fractures related to Alpine compression during Palaeocene to Oligocene times. The alteration of primary muscovite, chlorite (clinochlore) and albite along the surfaces of these small-scale fractures has resulted in the precipitation of illite, montmorillonite and illite-montmorillonite clay admixtures. The interconnected but discontinuous nature of these small-scale structures highlights the role of larger scale faults and fissures in the supply and transportation of weathering solutions to/from the sites of mineral weathering. The dissolution of primarily mineral phases releases the major ions Mg, Ca and HCO3 that are shown to subsequently form the chemical makeup of groundwaters. Borehole groundwater and stream baseflow hydrochemical data are used to constrain the depths of groundwater flow pathways influencing the chemistry of surface waters throughout the stream profile. The results show that it is predominantly the lower part of the catchment, which receives inputs from catchment/regional scale groundwater flow, that is found to contribute to the

Representing macropore flow at the catchment scale: a comparative modeling study

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Liu, D.; Li, H. Y.; Tian, F.; Leung, L. R.

2017-12-01

Macropore flow is an important hydrological process that generally enhances the soil infiltration capacity and velocity of subsurface water. Up till now, macropore flow is mostly simulated with high-resolution models. One possible drawback of this modeling approach is the difficulty to effectively represent the overall typology and connectivity of the macropore networks. We hypothesize that modeling macropore flow directly at the catchment scale may be complementary to the existing modeling strategy and offer some new insights. Tsinghua Representative Elementary Watershed model (THREW model) is a semi-distributed hydrology model, where the fundamental building blocks are representative elementary watersheds (REW) linked by the river channel network. In THREW, all the hydrological processes are described with constitutive relationships established directly at the REW level, i.e., catchment scale. In this study, the constitutive relationship of macropore flow drainage is established as part of THREW. The enhanced THREW model is then applied at two catchments with deep soils but distinct climates, the humid Asu catchment in the Amazon River basin, and the arid Wei catchment in the Yellow River basin. The Asu catchment has an area of 12.43km2 with mean annual precipitation of 2442mm. The larger Wei catchment has an area of 24800km2 but with mean annual precipitation of only 512mm. The rainfall-runoff processes are simulated at a hourly time step from 2002 to 2005 in the Asu catchment and from 2001 to 2012 in the Wei catchment. The role of macropore flow on the catchment hydrology will be analyzed comparatively over the Asu and Wei catchments against the observed streamflow, evapotranspiration and other auxiliary data.

Cascade-pond System Health Assessment Based on Macroinvertebrate Indices and Its Relationship with Impervious Cover and Aquatic Buffer Zone in Urbanized Catchments

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Zulkarnain Faris

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A cascade-pond system consists of six ponds located at Universitas Indonesia Campus, Depok. Its catchment area is dominated by high density urban area with moderate to high imperviousness. Some of riparian buffers surrounds six ponds are also occupied by high imperviousness that may lead some ecohydrological problems i.e. water quality degradation, declining freshwater biodiversity and food web changes. The aim of this study is assessing the current state of cascade-pond system health. The assessment of macroinvertebrate indices is based on SingScore that have been developed by Public Utilities Board of Singapore for macroinvertebrate biotic index. Impervious cover data is obtained from high-resolution imageries and processed using ArcGIS 10.5. Qualitative statistics methods, Chi-squared test describes the relationship of macroinvertebrate indices with catchment area imperviousness and aquatic buffer zone. The health assessment based on macroinvertebrates indices shows that the lower ponds are relatively healthier than the upper one. There is also any significant relationship between macroinvertebrate indices with impervious cover based on chi square test and cross tabulation analysis.

Parameterization of a Hydrological Model for a Large, Ungauged Urban Catchment

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Gerald Krebs

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Urbanization leads to the replacement of natural areas by impervious surfaces and affects the catchment hydrological cycle with adverse environmental impacts. Low impact development tools (LID that mimic hydrological processes of natural areas have been developed and applied to mitigate these impacts. Hydrological simulations are one possibility to evaluate the LID performance but the associated small-scale processes require a highly spatially distributed and explicit modeling approach. However, detailed data for model development are often not available for large urban areas, hampering the model parameterization. In this paper we propose a methodology to parameterize a hydrological model to a large, ungauged urban area by maintaining at the same time a detailed surface discretization for direct parameter manipulation for LID simulation and a firm reliance on available data for model conceptualization. Catchment delineation was based on a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM and model parameterization relied on a novel model regionalization approach. The impact of automated delineation and model regionalization on simulation results was evaluated for three monitored study catchments (5.87–12.59 ha. The simulated runoff peak was most sensitive to accurate catchment discretization and calibration, while both the runoff volume and the fit of the hydrograph were less affected.

Soft Water Level Sensors for Characterizing the Hydrological Behaviour of Agricultural Catchments

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François Garnier

2011-04-01

Full Text Available An innovative soft water level sensor is proposed to characterize the hydrological behaviour of agricultural catchments by measuring rainfall and stream flows. This sensor works as a capacitor coupled with a capacitance to frequency converter and measures water level at an adjustable time step acquisition. It was designed to be handy, minimally invasive and optimized in terms of energy consumption and low-cost fabrication so as to multiply its use on several catchments under natural conditions. It was used as a stage recorder to measure water level dynamics in a channel during a runoff event and as a rain gauge to measure rainfall amount and intensity. Based on the Manning equation, a method allowed estimation of water discharge with a given uncertainty and hence runoff volume at an event or annual scale. The sensor was tested under controlled conditions in the laboratory and under real conditions in the field. Comparisons of the sensor to reference devices (tipping bucket rain gauge, hydrostatic pressure transmitter limnimeter, Venturi channels… showed accurate results: rainfall intensities and dynamic responses were accurately reproduced and discharges were estimated with an uncertainty usually acceptable in hydrology. Hence, it was used to monitor eleven small agricultural catchments located in the Mediterranean region. Both catchment reactivity and water budget have been calculated. Dynamic response of the catchments has been studied at the event scale through the rising time determination and at the annual scale by calculating the frequency of occurrence of runoff events. It provided significant insight into catchment hydrological behaviour which could be useful for agricultural management perspectives involving pollutant transport, flooding event and global water balance.

Quantifying navigational information: The catchment volumes of panoramic snapshots in outdoor scenes.

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Trevor Murray

Full Text Available Panoramic views of natural environments provide visually navigating animals with two kinds of information: they define locations because image differences increase smoothly with distance from a reference location and they provide compass information, because image differences increase smoothly with rotation away from a reference orientation. The range over which a given reference image can provide navigational guidance (its 'catchment area' has to date been quantified from the perspective of walking animals by determining how image differences develop across the ground plane of natural habitats. However, to understand the information available to flying animals there is a need to characterize the 'catchment volumes' within which panoramic snapshots can provide navigational guidance. We used recently developed camera-based methods for constructing 3D models of natural environments and rendered panoramic views at defined locations within these models with the aim of mapping navigational information in three dimensions. We find that in relatively open woodland habitats, catchment volumes are surprisingly large extending for metres depending on the sensitivity of the viewer to image differences. The size and the shape of catchment volumes depend on the distance of visual features in the environment. Catchment volumes are smaller for reference images close to the ground and become larger for reference images at some distance from the ground and in more open environments. Interestingly, catchment volumes become smaller when only above horizon views are used and also when views include a 1 km distant panorama. We discuss the current limitations of mapping navigational information in natural environments and the relevance of our findings for our understanding of visual navigation in animals and autonomous robots.

Quantifying navigational information: The catchment volumes of panoramic snapshots in outdoor scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Trevor; Zeil, Jochen

2017-01-01

Panoramic views of natural environments provide visually navigating animals with two kinds of information: they define locations because image differences increase smoothly with distance from a reference location and they provide compass information, because image differences increase smoothly with rotation away from a reference orientation. The range over which a given reference image can provide navigational guidance (its 'catchment area') has to date been quantified from the perspective of walking animals by determining how image differences develop across the ground plane of natural habitats. However, to understand the information available to flying animals there is a need to characterize the 'catchment volumes' within which panoramic snapshots can provide navigational guidance. We used recently developed camera-based methods for constructing 3D models of natural environments and rendered panoramic views at defined locations within these models with the aim of mapping navigational information in three dimensions. We find that in relatively open woodland habitats, catchment volumes are surprisingly large extending for metres depending on the sensitivity of the viewer to image differences. The size and the shape of catchment volumes depend on the distance of visual features in the environment. Catchment volumes are smaller for reference images close to the ground and become larger for reference images at some distance from the ground and in more open environments. Interestingly, catchment volumes become smaller when only above horizon views are used and also when views include a 1 km distant panorama. We discuss the current limitations of mapping navigational information in natural environments and the relevance of our findings for our understanding of visual navigation in animals and autonomous robots.

Direct runoff assessment using modified SME method in catchments in the Upper Vistula River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Wałęga, A.; Rutkowska, A.; Grzebinoga, M.

2017-04-01

Correct determination of direct runoff is crucial for proper and safe dimensioning of hydroengineering structures. It is commonly assessed using SCS-CN method developed in the United States. However, due to deficiencies of this method, many improvements and modifications have been proposed. In this paper, a modified Sahu-Mishra-Eldo (SME) method was introduced and tested for three catchments located in the upper Vistula basin. Modification of SME method involved a determination of maximum potential retention S based on CN parameter derived from SCS-CN method. The modified SME method yielded direct runoff values very similar to those observed in the investigated catchments. Moreover, it generated significantly smaller errors in the direct runoff estimation as compared with SCS-CN and SME methods in the analyzed catchments. This approach may be used for estimating the runoff in uncontrolled catchments.

Managing runoff and flow pathways in a small rural catchment to reduce flood risk with other multi-purpose benefits

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Mark; Welton, Phil; Kerr, Peter; Quinn, Paul; Jonczyk, Jennine

2010-05-01

From 2000 to 2009 there have been a high number of flood events throughout Northern Europe. Meanwhile, there is a demand for land in which to construct homes and businesses on, which is encroaching on land which is prone to flooding. Nevertheless, flood defences usually protect us from this hazard. However, the severity of floods and this demand for land has increased the number of homes which have been flooded in the past ten years. Public spending on flood defences can only go so far which targets the large populations first. Small villages and communities, where in many cases normal flood defences are not cost effective, tend to wait longer for flood mitigation strategies. The Belford Burn (Northumberland, UK) catchment is a small rural catchment that drains an area of 6 km2. It flows through the village of Belford. There is a history of flooding in Belford, with records of flood events dating back to 1877. Normal flood defences are not suitable for this catchment as it failed the Environment Agency (EA) cost benefit criteria for support. There was a desire by the local EA Flood Levy Team and the Northumbria Regional Flood Defence Committee at the Environment Agency to deliver an alternative catchment-based solution to the problem. The EA North East Flood Levy team and Newcastle University have created a partnership to address the flood problem using soft engineered runoff management features. Farm Integrated Runoff Management (FIRM) plans manage flow paths directly by storing slowing and filtering runoff at source on farms. The features are multipurpose addressing water quality, trapping sediment, creating new habitats and storing and attenuating flood flow. Background rainfall and stream stage data have been collected since November 2007. Work on the first mitigation features commenced in July 2008. Since that date five flood events have occurred in the catchment. Two of these flood events caused widespread damage in other areas of the county. However, in

Machine learning and linear regression models to predict catchment-level base cation weathering rates across the southern Appalachian Mountain region, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholas A. Povak; Paul F. Hessburg; Todd C. McDonnell; Keith M. Reynolds; Timothy J. Sullivan; R. Brion Salter; Bernard J. Crosby

2014-01-01

Accurate estimates of soil mineral weathering are required for regional critical load (CL) modeling to identify ecosystems at risk of the deleterious effects from acidification. Within a correlative modeling framework, we used modeled catchment-level base cation weathering (BCw) as the response variable to identify key environmental correlates and predict a continuous...

Streamflow variation of forest covered catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Gribovszki, Z.; Kalicz, P.; Kucsara, M.

2003-04-01

Rainfall concentration and runoff, otherwise rainfall-runoff processes, which cause river water discharge fluctuation, is one of the basic questions of hydrology. Several social-economy demands have a strong connection with small or bigger rivers from the point of view both quantity and quality of the water. Gratification or consideration of these demands is complicated substantially that we have still poor knowledge about our stream-flow regime. Water resources mainly stem from upper watersheds. These upper watersheds are the basis of the water concentration process; therefore we have to improve our knowledge about hydrological processes coming up in these territories. In this article we present runoff regime of two small catchments on the basis of one year data. Both catchments have a similar magnitude 0.6 and 0.9 km^2. We have been analyzed in detail some hydrological elements: features of rainfall, discharge, rainfall induced flooding waves and basic discharge in rainless periods. Variances of these parameters have been analyzed in relation to catchments surface, vegetation coverage and forest management. Result data set well enforce our knowledge about small catchments hydrological processes. On the basis of these fundamentals we can plan more established the management of these lands (forest practices, civil engineering works, and usage of natural water resources).

Modelling daily sediment yield from a meso-scale catchment, a case study in SW Poland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keesstra, S. D.; Schoorl, J.; Temme, A. J. A. M.

2009-01-01

For management purposes it is important to be able to assess the sediment yield of a catchment. however, at this moment models designed for estimating sediment yield are only capable to give either very detailed storm-based information or year averages. The storm-based models require input data that are not available for most catchment. However, models that estimate yearly averages, ignore a lot of other detailed information, like daily discharge and precipitation data. There are currently no models available that model sediment yield on the temporal scale of one day and the spatial scale of a meso-scale catchment, without making use of very detailed input data. To fill this scientific and management gap, landscape evolution model LAPSUS has been adapted to model sediment yield on a daily basis. This model has the water balance as a base. To allow calibration with the discharge at the outlet, a subsurface flow module has been added to the model. (Author) 12 refs.

Modelling daily sediment yield from a meso-scale catchment, a case study in SW Poland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keesstra, S. D.; Schoorl, J.; Temme, A. J. A. M.

2009-07-01

For management purposes it is important to be able to assess the sediment yield of a catchment. however, at this moment models designed for estimating sediment yield are only capable to give either very detailed storm-based information or year averages. The storm-based models require input data that are not available for most catchment. However, models that estimate yearly averages, ignore a lot of other detailed information, like daily discharge and precipitation data. There are currently no models available that model sediment yield on the temporal scale of one day and the spatial scale of a meso-scale catchment, without making use of very detailed input data. To fill this scientific and management gap, landscape evolution model LAPSUS has been adapted to model sediment yield on a daily basis. This model has the water balance as a base. To allow calibration with the discharge at the outlet, a subsurface flow module has been added to the model. (Author) 12 refs.

Circulation pattern-based assessment of projected climate change for a catchment in Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Hoshin V.; Sapriza-Azuri, Gonzalo; Jódar, Jorge; Carrera, Jesús

2018-01-01

We present an approach for evaluating catchment-scale hydro-meteorological impacts of projected climate change based on the atmospheric circulation patterns (ACPs) of a region. Our approach is motivated by the conjecture that GCMs are especially good at simulating the atmospheric circulation patterns that control moisture transport, and which can be expected to change in response to global warming. In support of this, we show (for the late 20th century) that GCMs provide much better simulations of ACPs than those of precipitation amount for the Upper Guadiana Basin in central Spain. For the same period, four of the twenty GCMs participating in the most recent (5th) IPCC Assessment provide quite accurate representations of the spatial patterns of mean sea level pressure, the frequency distribution of ACP type, the 'number of rainy days per month', and the daily 'probability of rain' (they also reproduce the trend of 'wet day amount', though not the actual magnitudes). A consequent analysis of projected trends and changes in hydro-climatic ACPology between the late 20th and 21st Centuries indicates that (1) actual changes appear to be occurring faster than predicted by the models, and (2) for two greenhouse gas emission scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) the expected decline in precipitation volume is associated mainly with a few specific ACPs (primarily directional flows from the Atlantic Ocean and Cantabric Sea), and with decreasing probability of rain (linked to increasing temperatures) rather than wet day amount. Our approach is a potentially more insightful alternative for catchment-scale climate impacts assessments than the common approach of statistical downscaling and bias correction.

Impact of Catchment Area Activities on Water Quality in Small Retention Reservoirs

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Oszczapińska Katarzyna

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study was to evaluate catchment area impact on small water reservoirs condition in Podlasie. The researches were conducted in two different catchment areas. Topiło reservoir, located in Podlasie area in the south-east of Białowieża Forest, has typical sylvan catchment. Second reservoir, Dojlidy, is located also in Podlasie, in the south-east of Białystok as a part of Dojlidy Ponds. In contrast to Topiło, Dojlidy has agricultural catchment. Water samples collected from five sites along each reservoir were analysed for the presence of total nitrogen and phosphorus, chlorophyll “a”, reaction, turbidity and conductivity. Researches took place in spring, summer and autumn 2013 (Topiło Lake and 2014/2015 (Dojlidy. The lowest trophic state was observed in autumn and the highest in summer. Because of the high loads of phosphorus received by the reservoirs, this element did not limit primary production. Calculated TSI values based on total phosphorus were always markedly higher than calculated on chlorophyll-a and total nitrogen. Both reservoirs demonstrated TSI indexes specific to hypertrophic lakes due to large amount of total phosphorus.

Impact of Catchment Area Activities on Water Quality in Small Retention Reservoirs

Science.gov (United States)

Oszczapińska, Katarzyna; Skoczko, Iwona; Szczykowska, Joanna

2018-02-01

The aim of the study was to evaluate catchment area impact on small water reservoirs condition in Podlasie. The researches were conducted in two different catchment areas. Topiło reservoir, located in Podlasie area in the south-east of Białowieża Forest, has typical sylvan catchment. Second reservoir, Dojlidy, is located also in Podlasie, in the south-east of Białystok as a part of Dojlidy Ponds. In contrast to Topiło, Dojlidy has agricultural catchment. Water samples collected from five sites along each reservoir were analysed for the presence of total nitrogen and phosphorus, chlorophyll "a", reaction, turbidity and conductivity. Researches took place in spring, summer and autumn 2013 (Topiło Lake) and 2014/2015 (Dojlidy). The lowest trophic state was observed in autumn and the highest in summer. Because of the high loads of phosphorus received by the reservoirs, this element did not limit primary production. Calculated TSI values based on total phosphorus were always markedly higher than calculated on chlorophyll-a and total nitrogen. Both reservoirs demonstrated TSI indexes specific to hypertrophic lakes due to large amount of total phosphorus.

Pollution indicators in groundwater of two agricultural catchments in Lower Silesia (Poland)

Science.gov (United States)

Kasperczyk, Lidia; Modelska, Magdalena; Staśko, Stanisław

2016-12-01

The article discusses the content and source of mineral nitrogen compounds in groundwater, based on the data collected in two river catchments in two series (spring and autumn 2014). The study area comprises two catchments located in Lower Silesia, Poland - Cicha Woda and Sąsiecznica. Both catchments are characterised agricultural character of development. In the both researched areas, the points of State Environmental Monitoring (SEM) are located but only the Cicha Woda area is classified as nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ). To analyse and compare the contamination of Quaternary and Neogene aquifers, the concentration of nitrates, nitrites, ammonium and potassium ions was measured primarily. Results showed the exceedance of nitrogen mineral forms of shallow groundwater Quaternary aquifer in both basins. The concentration of nitrates range from 0.08 to 142.12 mgNO3 -/dm3 (Cicha Woda) and from 2.6 to 137.65 mg NO3 -/dm3 (Sąsiecznica). The major source of pollution is probably the intensive agriculture activity. It causes a degradation of the shallow groundwater because of nitrate, nitrite, potassium, phosphates and ammonium contents. There was no observed contamination of anthropogenic origin in the deeper Neogene aquifer of Cicha Woda catchment.

Comparison of Multi-Scale Digital Elevation Models for Defining Waterways and Catchments Over Large Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, B.; McDougall, K.; Barry, M.

2012-07-01

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) allow for the efficient and consistent creation of waterways and catchment boundaries over large areas. Studies of waterway delineation from DEMs are usually undertaken over small or single catchment areas due to the nature of the problems being investigated. Improvements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, software, hardware and data allow for analysis of larger data sets and also facilitate a consistent tool for the creation and analysis of waterways over extensive areas. However, rarely are they developed over large regional areas because of the lack of available raw data sets and the amount of work required to create the underlying DEMs. This paper examines definition of waterways and catchments over an area of approximately 25,000 km2 to establish the optimal DEM scale required for waterway delineation over large regional projects. The comparative study analysed multi-scale DEMs over two test areas (Wivenhoe catchment, 543 km2 and a detailed 13 km2 within the Wivenhoe catchment) including various data types, scales, quality, and variable catchment input parameters. Historic and available DEM data was compared to high resolution Lidar based DEMs to assess variations in the formation of stream networks. The results identified that, particularly in areas of high elevation change, DEMs at 20 m cell size created from broad scale 1:25,000 data (combined with more detailed data or manual delineation in flat areas) are adequate for the creation of waterways and catchments at a regional scale.

Accessibility of tertiary hospitals in Finland: A comparison of administrative and normative catchment areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Huotari, Tiina; Antikainen, Harri; Keistinen, Timo; Rusanen, Jarmo

2017-06-01

The determination of an appropriate catchment area for a hospital providing highly specialized (i.e. tertiary) health care is typically a trade-off between ensuring adequate client volumes and maintaining reasonable accessibility for all potential clients. This may pose considerable challenges, especially in sparsely inhabited regions. In Finland, tertiary health care is concentrated in five university hospitals, which provide services in their dedicated catchment areas. This study utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS), together with grid-based population data and travel-time estimates, to assess the spatial accessibility of these hospitals. The current geographical configuration of the hospitals is compared to a normative assignment, with and without capacity constraints. The aim is to define optimal catchment areas for tertiary hospitals so that their spatial accessibility is as equal as possible. The results indicate that relatively modest improvements can be achieved in accessibility by using normative assignment to determine catchment areas. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Vaal river catchment: Problems and research needs

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Braune, E

1987-01-01

Full Text Available The vaal river catchments contains South African's economic heartland, the Pretoria -Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) complex. Although the catchments only produces eight per cent of the mean annual runoff of the country it has highest concentration...

A catchment scale evaluation of multiple stressor effects in headwater streams.

Science.gov (United States)

Rasmussen, Jes J; McKnight, Ursula S; Loinaz, Maria C; Thomsen, Nanna I; Olsson, Mikael E; Bjerg, Poul L; Binning, Philip J; Kronvang, Brian

2013-01-01

Mitigation activities to improve water quality and quantity in streams as well as stream management and restoration efforts are conducted in the European Union aiming to improve the chemical, physical and ecological status of streams. Headwater streams are often characterised by impairment of hydromorphological, chemical, and ecological conditions due to multiple anthropogenic impacts. However, they are generally disregarded as water bodies for mitigation activities in the European Water Framework Directive despite their importance for supporting a higher ecological quality in higher order streams. We studied 11 headwater streams in the Hove catchment in the Copenhagen region. All sites had substantial physical habitat and water quality impairments due to anthropogenic influence (intensive agriculture, urban settlements, contaminated sites and low base-flow due to water abstraction activities in the catchment). We aimed to identify the dominating anthropogenic stressors at the catchment scale causing ecological impairment of benthic macroinvertebrate communities and provide a rank-order of importance that could help in prioritising mitigation activities. We identified numerous chemical and hydromorphological impacts of which several were probably causing major ecological impairments, but we were unable to provide a robust rank-ordering of importance suggesting that targeted mitigation efforts on single anthropogenic stressors in the catchment are unlikely to have substantial effects on the ecological quality in these streams. The SPEcies At Risk (SPEAR) index explained most of the variability in the macroinvertebrate community structure, and notably, SPEAR index scores were often very low (<10% SPEAR abundance). An extensive re-sampling of a subset of the streams provided evidence that especially insecticides were probably essential contributors to the overall ecological impairment of these streams. Our results suggest that headwater streams should be considered in

Final report on impact of catchment scale processes and climate change on cause-effect and recovery-chains

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verdonschot, P.F.M.; Keizer-Vlek, H.E.; Spears, B.; Brucet, S.; Johnson, R.; Feld, C.; Kernan, M.

2012-01-01

Catchment wide integrated basin management requires knowledge on cause-effect and recovery chains within water bodies as well as on the interactions between water bodies and categories. In the WISER WP6.4 recovery processes in rivers, lakes and estuarine and coastal waters were evaluated. The major

Oser le génie végétal en rivière de montagne – Retour d'expérience sur les ouvrages Géni'Alp

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

EVETTE, André

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Encore peu utilisées sur les cours d'eau dynamiques comme les rivières de montagne, les techniques de génie végétal représentent pourtant une solution écologique et économique pour la protection des berges. En s'appuyant sur le retour d'expérience de plusieurs chantiers pilotes en France et en Suisse, cet article s'intéresse à la capacité des techniques de génie végétal à résister sur des rivières de montagne associant contraintes climatiques, végétation et hydrologie particulière avec d'importantes contraintes physiques liées à l'eau et au transport solide.

Hydrological impacts of land use change in three diverse South African catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Warburton, Michele L.; Schulze, Roland E.; Jewitt, Graham P. W.

2012-01-01

SummaryIn order to meet society's needs for water, food, fuel and fibre, the earth's natural land cover and land use have been significantly changed. These changes have impacted on the hydrological responses and thus available water resources, as the hydrological responses of a catchment are dependent upon, and sensitive to, changes in the land use. The degree of anthropogenic modification of the land cover, the intensity of the land use changes and location of land uses within a catchment determines the extent to which land uses influences hydrological response of a catchment. The objective of the study was to improve understanding of the complex interactions between hydrological response and land use to aid in water resources planning. To achieve this, a hydrological model, viz. the ACRU agrohydrological model, which adequately represents hydrological processes and is sensitive to land use changes, was used to generate hydrological responses from three diverse, complex and operational South African catchments under both current land use and a baseline land cover. The selected catchments vary with respect to both land use and climate. The semi-arid sub-tropical Luvuvhu catchment has a large proportion of subsistence agriculture and informal residential areas, whereas in the winter rainfall Upper Breede catchment the primary land uses are commercial orchards and vineyards. The sub-humid Mgeni catchment is dominated by commercial plantation forestry in the upper reaches, commercial sugarcane and urban areas in the middle reaches, with the lower reaches dominated by urban areas. The hydrological responses of the selected catchments to land use change were complex. Results showed that the contributions of different land uses to the streamflow generated from a catchment is not proportional to the relative area of that land use, and the relative contribution of the land use to the catchment streamflow varies with the mean annual rainfall of the catchment. Furthermore

Using a Budyko Derived Index to Evaluate the Internal Hydrological Variability of Catchments in Complex Terrain

Science.gov (United States)

Dominguez, M.

2017-12-01

Headwater catchments in complex terrain typically exhibit significant variations in microclimatic conditions across slopes. This microclimatic variability in turn, modifies land surface properties presumably altering the hydrologic dynamics of these catchments. The extent to which differences in microclimate and land cover dictate the partition of water and energy fluxes within a catchment is still poorly understood. In this study, we attempt to do an assessment of the effects of aspect, elevation and latitude (which are the principal factors that define microclimate conditions) on the hydrologic behavior of the hillslopes within catchments with complex terrain. Using a distributed hydrologic model on a number of catchments at different latitudes, where data is available for calibration and validation, we estimate the different components of the water balance to obtain the aridity index (AI = PET/P) and the evaporative index (EI = AET/P) of each slope for a number of years. We use Budyko's curve as a framework to characterize the inter-annual variability in the hydrologic response of the hillslopes in the studied catchments, developing a hydrologic sensitivity index (HSi) based on the relative change in Budyko's curve components (HSi=ΔAI/ΔEI). With this method, when the HSi values of a given hillslope are larger than 1 the hydrologic behavior of that part of the catchment is considered sensitive to changes in climatic conditions, while values approaching 0 would indicate the opposite. We use this approach as a diagnostic tool to discern the effect of aspect, elevation, and latitude on the hydrologic regime of the slopes in complex terrain catchments and to try to explain observed patterns of land cover conditions on these types of catchments.

Pesticide modelling for a small catchment using SWAT-2000.

Science.gov (United States)

Kannan, Narayanan; White, Sue M; Worrall, Fred; Whelan, Mick J

2006-01-01

Pesticides in stream flow from the 142 ha Colworth catchment in Bedfordshire, UK were monitored from October 1999 to December 2000. About 47% of the catchment is tile-drained and different pesticides and cropping patterns have recently been evaluated in terms of their effect on nutrient and pesticide losses to the stream. The data from Colworth were used to test soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) 2000 predictions of pesticide concentrations at the catchment outlet. A sound model set-up to carry out pesticide modelling was created by means of hydrological modelling with proper simulation of crop growth and evapotranspiration. The pesticides terbuthylazine, terbutryn, cyanazine and bentazone were modelled. There was close agreement between SWAT-predicted pesticide concentration values and observations. Scenario trials were conducted to explore management options for reducing pesticide loads arriving at the catchment outlet. The results obtained indicate that SWAT can be used as a tool to understand pesticide behavior at the catchment scale.

Hydrological effects of fire in South-African mountain catchments

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Scott, DF

1993-10-01

Full Text Available is entirely suppressed and a deep litter mat develops giving a continuous cover with good soil protection characteristics. The timber plantations are at risk of burning as they are surrounded by fire-maintained vegetation... in vegetation type and fire characteristics. Description of the research catchments and treatments The catchments studied are all small, mountainous and with a high rainfall, each forming part of long-term experimental catchment...

Ground observations and remote sensing data for integrated modelisation of water budget in the Merguellil catchment, Tunisia

Science.gov (United States)

Mougenot, Bernard

2016-04-01

The Mediterranean region is affected by water scarcity. Some countries as Tunisia reached the limit of 550 m3/year/capita due overexploitation of low water resources for irrigation, domestic uses and industry. A lot of programs aim to evaluate strategies to improve water consumption at regional level. In central Tunisia, on the Merguellil catchment, we develop integrated water resources modelisations based on social investigations, ground observations and remote sensing data. The main objective is to close the water budget at regional level and to estimate irrigation and water pumping to test scenarios with endusers. Our works benefit from French, bilateral and European projects (ANR, MISTRALS/SICMed, FP6, FP7…), GMES/GEOLAND-ESA) and also network projects as JECAM and AERONET, where the Merguellil site is a reference. This site has specific characteristics associating irrigated and rainfed crops mixing cereals, market gardening and orchards and will be proposed as a new environmental observing system connected to the OMERE, TENSIFT and OSR systems respectively in Tunisia, Morocco and France. We show here an original and large set of ground and remote sensing data mainly acquired from 2008 to present to be used for calibration/validation of water budget processes and integrated models for present and scenarios: - Ground data: meteorological stations, water budget at local scale: fluxes tower, soil fluxes, soil and surface temperature, soil moisture, drainage, flow, water level in lakes, aquifer, vegetation parameters on selected fieds/month (LAI, height, biomass, yield), land cover: 3 times/year, bare soil roughness, irrigation and pumping estimations, soil texture. - Remote sensing data: remote sensing products from multi-platform (MODIS, SPOT, LANDSAT, ASTER, PLEIADES, ASAR, COSMO-SkyMed, TerraSAR X…), multi-wavelength (solar, micro-wave and thermal) and multi-resolution (0.5 meters to 1 km). Ground observations are used (1) to calibrate soil

Estimating emissions of PFOS and PFOA to the Danube River catchment and evaluating them using a catchment-scale chemical transport and fate model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lindim, C.; Cousins, I.T.; Gils, J. van

2015-01-01

Novel approaches for estimating the emissions of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) to surface waters are explored. The Danube River catchment is used to investigate emissions contributing to riverine loads of PFOS and PFOA and to verify the accuracy of estimates using a catchment-scale dynamic fugacity-based chemical transport and fate model (STREAM-EU; Spatially and Temporally Resolved Exposure Assessment Model for European basins). Model accuracy evaluation performed by comparing STREAM-EU predicted concentrations and monitoring data for the Danube and its tributaries shows that the best estimates for PFOS and PFOA emissions in the Danube region are obtained by considering the combined contributions of human population, wealth (based on local gross domestic product (GDP)) and wastewater treatment. Human population alone cannot explain the levels of PFOS and PFOA found in the Danube catchment waters. Introducing wealth distribution information in the form of local GDPs improves emission estimates markedly, likely by better representing emissions resulting from consumer trends, industrial and commercial sources. For compounds such as PFOS and PFOA, whose main sink and transport media is the aquatic compartment, a major source to freshwater are wastewater treatment plants. Introducing wastewater treatment information in the emission estimations also further improves emission estimates. - Highlights: • Novel approaches for estimating PFOS/PFOA emissions to surface waters are explored. • Human population alone cannot explain the levels of PFOS/PFOA found in the Danube. • Best estimates are obtained when considering population, wealth and WWTP together.

Participatory catchment management: an opportunity for South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Versfeld, DB

1995-01-01

Full Text Available offer a new opportunity for communities living within these catchments to share their knowledge and to become involved in planning and implementing the management process. This paper discusses the use of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) in a catchment...

Water quality assessment and catchment-scale nutrient flux modeling in the Ramganga River Basin in north India: An application of INCA model.

Science.gov (United States)

Pathak, Devanshi; Whitehead, Paul G; Futter, Martyn N; Sinha, Rajiv

2018-03-07

The present study analyzes the water quality characteristics of the Ramganga (a major tributary of the Ganga river) using long-term (1991-2009) monthly data and applies the Integrated Catchment Model of Nitrogen (INCA-N) and Phosphorus (INCA-P) to the catchment. The models were calibrated and validated using discharge (1993-2011), phosphate (1993-2010) and nitrate (2007-2010) concentrations. The model results were assessed based on Pearson's correlation, Nash-Sutcliffe and Percentage bias statistics along with a visual inspection of the outputs. The seasonal variation study shows high nutrient concentrations in the pre-monsoon season compared to the other seasons. High nutrient concentrations in the low flows period pose a serious threat to aquatic life of the river although the concentrations are lowered during high flows because of the dilution effect. The hydrological model is satisfactorily calibrated with R 2 and NS values ranging between 0.6-0.8 and 0.4-0.8, respectively. INCA-N and INCA-P successfully capture the seasonal trend of nutrient concentrations with R 2 >0.5 and PBIAS within ±17% for the monthly averages. Although, high concentrations are detected in the low flows period, around 50% of the nutrient load is transported by the monsoonal high flows. The downstream catchments are characterized by high nutrient transport through high flows where additional nutrient supply from industries and agricultural practices also prevail. The seasonal nitrate (R 2 : 0.88-0.94) and phosphate (R 2 : 0.62-0.95) loads in the catchment are calculated using model results and ratio estimator load calculation technique. On average, around 548tonnes of phosphorus (as phosphate) and 77,051tonnes of nitrogen (as nitrate) are estimated to be exported annually from the Ramganga River to the Ganga. Overall, the model has been able to successfully reproduce the catchment dynamics in terms of seasonal variation and broad-scale spatial variability of nutrient fluxes in the

Curve numbers for olive orchard catchments in Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Taguas, Encarnación; Yuan, Yongping; Licciardello, Feliciana; Gómez, Jose

2014-05-01

The Curve Number (CN) method (Soil Conservation Service, 1972) is widely applied around the world to estimate direct runoff and the corresponding hydrograph of a rainfall event. Its efficient and simple computation, its complete parameterization for different soils, uses and managements and its good performance justify its application. Nevertheless, apart from Romero et al. (2007) who calculated CN-values at the plot scale, there is little information on the model performance in olive orchards at the catchment scale. In this work, the CN-model has been applied in three small catchments in Spain ranging between 6 and 8 ha with different soil types (regosol, luvisol and vertisol), topography (mean slopes between 9-15%) and management practices (non-tillage with a spontaneous grass cover, minimum tillage, conventional tillage). A rainfall-runoff dataset of 6 years have been used to test the usefulness of model as well as the accuracy of its reference parameterization (CNs and of initial substraction, Ia). CN-values were adjusted, optimized and compared with reference values for orchard crops while the sensitivity of the goodness of fit to Ia was described for each catchment. Classical equations based on the use of CN-percentiles 50, 10 and 90 for determining the antecedent moisture content (AMC) provided very good results with Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients of efficiency equal to 0.73 and 0.81 in two of the catchments with an annual rainfall higher than 600 mm. The third one -with an annual rainfall lower than 400 mm and spontaneous grass cover- showed a different pattern where a multiple linear regression dependant on precipitation and temperature features, represented notably better the rainfall-runoff relationships. Although fractions of Ia on the storage (S) equal to 0.15 and 0.25 allowed to optimize the adjustments of CN, the usual reference of 0.20 is quite appropriate. Finally, significant deviations were observed on reference-CNs for sandy soils that should be

Event-based nonpoint source pollution prediction in a scarce data catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lei; Sun, Cheng; Wang, Guobo; Xie, Hui; Shen, Zhenyao

2017-09-01

Quantifying the rainfall-runoff-pollutant (R-R-P) process is key to regulating non-point source (NPS) pollution; however, the impacts of scarce measured data on R-R-P simulations have not yet been reported. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive study of scarce data that addressed both rainfall-runoff and runoff-pollutant processes, whereby the impacts of data scarcity on two commonly used methods, including Unit Hydrograph (UH) and Loads Estimator (LOADEST), were quantified. A case study was performed in a typical small catchment of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region (TGRR) of China. Based on our results, the classification of rainfall patterns should be carried out first when analyzing modeling results. Compared to data based on a missing rate and a missing location, key information generates more impacts on the simulated flow and NPS loads. When the scarcity rate exceeds a certain threshold (20% in this study), measured data scarcity level has clear impacts on the model's accuracy. As the model of total nitrogen (TN) always performs better under different data scarcity conditions, researchers are encouraged to pay more attention to continuous the monitoring of total phosphorus (TP) for better NPS-TP predictions. The results of this study serve as baseline information for hydrologic forecasting and for the further control of NPS pollutants.

Nature-based integration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pitkänen, Kati; Oratuomi, Joose; Hellgren, Daniela

Increased attention to, and careful planning of the integration of migrants into Nordic societies is ever more important. Nature based integration is a new solution to respond to this need. This report presents the results of a Nordic survey and workshop and illustrates current practices of nature...... based integration by case study descriptions from Denmark, Sweden Norway and Finland. Across Nordic countries several practical projects and initiatives have been launched to promote the benefits of nature in integration and there is also growing academic interest in the topic. Nordic countries have...... the potential of becoming real forerunners in nature based integration even at the global scale....

A simple rainfall-runoff model based on hydrological units applied to the Teba catchment (south-east Spain)

Science.gov (United States)

Donker, N. H. W.

2001-01-01

A hydrological model (YWB, yearly water balance) has been developed to model the daily rainfall-runoff relationship of the 202 km2 Teba river catchment, located in semi-arid south-eastern Spain. The period of available data (1976-1993) includes some very rainy years with intensive storms (responsible for flooding parts of the town of Malaga) and also some very dry years.The YWB model is in essence a simple tank model in which the catchment is subdivided into a limited number of meaningful hydrological units. Instead of generating per unit surface runoff resulting from infiltration excess, runoff has been made the result of storage excess. Actual evapotranspiration is obtained by means of curves, included in the software, representing the relationship between the ratio of actual to potential evapotranspiration as a function of soil moisture content for three soil texture classes.The total runoff generated is split between base flow and surface runoff according to a given baseflow index. The two components are routed separately and subsequently joined. A large number of sequential years can be processed, and the results of each year are summarized by a water balance table and a daily based rainfall runoff time series. An attempt has been made to restrict the amount of input data to the minimum.Interactive manual calibration is advocated in order to allow better incorporation of field evidence and the experience of the model user. Field observations allowed for an approximate calibration at the hydrological unit level.

Langue, pouvoir et politique au regard de la schizophrénie et de la paranoïa

OpenAIRE

Guyard , Hubert; De Guibert , Clément

2009-01-01

Réunies traditionnellement sous l'appellation de psychose, la paranoïa et la schizophrénie semblent constituer en même temps des conditions pathologiques opposées du point de vue de la responsabilité et du pouvoir. De manière résumée et descriptive, le paranoïaque est envahissant, procédurier et " interventionniste " ; il délire " en actes " dans le sens de l'exercice ou du combat d'une puissance effective (persécution, préjudice, jalousie...) dont il est le sujet dominateur ou dominé. Les en...

Technical Note: A comparison of model and empirical measures of catchment-scale effective energy and mass transfer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Rasmussen

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Recent work suggests that a coupled effective energy and mass transfer (EEMT term, which includes the energy associated with effective precipitation and primary production, may serve as a robust prediction parameter of critical zone structure and function. However, the models used to estimate EEMT have been solely based on long-term climatological data with little validation using direct empirical measures of energy, water, and carbon balances. Here we compare catchment-scale EEMT estimates generated using two distinct approaches: (1 EEMT modeled using the established methodology based on estimates of monthly effective precipitation and net primary production derived from climatological data, and (2 empirical catchment-scale EEMT estimated using data from 86 catchments of the Model Parameter Estimation Experiment (MOPEX and MOD17A3 annual net primary production (NPP product derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS. Results indicated positive and significant linear correspondence (R2 = 0.75; P −2 yr−1. Modeled EEMT values were consistently greater than empirical measures of EEMT. Empirical catchment estimates of the energy associated with effective precipitation (EPPT were calculated using a mass balance approach that accounts for water losses to quick surface runoff not accounted for in the climatologically modeled EPPT. Similarly, local controls on primary production such as solar radiation and nutrient limitation were not explicitly included in the climatologically based estimates of energy associated with primary production (EBIO, whereas these were captured in the remotely sensed MODIS NPP data. These differences likely explain the greater estimate of modeled EEMT relative to the empirical measures. There was significant positive correlation between catchment aridity and the fraction of EEMT partitioned into EBIO (FBIO, with an increase in FBIO as a fraction of the total as aridity increases and percentage of

Nitrogen attenuation along delivery pathways in agricultural catchments

Science.gov (United States)

McAleer, Eoin; Mellander, Per-Erik; Coxon, Catherine; Richards, Karl G.

2014-05-01

Hillslope hydrologic systems and in particular near-stream saturated zones are active sites of nitrogen (N) biogeochemical dynamics. The efficiency of N removal and the ratio of reaction products (nitrous oxide and dinitrogen) in groundwater is highly variable and depends upon aquifer hydrology, mineralogy, dissolved oxygen, energy sources and redox chemistry. There are large uncertainties in the closing of N budgets in agricultural catchments. Spatial and temporal variability in groundwater physico-chemistry, catchment hydrology and land-use gives rise to hotspots and hot moments of N attenuation. In addition the production, consumption and movement of denitrification products remains poorly understood. The focus of this study is to develop a holistic understanding of N dynamics in groundwater as it moves from the top of the hillslope to the stream. This includes saturated groundwater flow, exchange at the groundwater-surface water interface and hyporheic zone flow. This project is being undertaken in two ca. 10km2 Irish catchments, characterised by permeable soils. One catchment is dominated by arable land overlying slate bedrock and the other by grassland overlying sandstone. Multi-level monitoring wells have been installed at the upslope, midslope and bottom of each hillslope. The piezometers are screened to intercept the subsoil, weathered bedrock and competent bedrock zones. Groundwater samples for nitrate (NO3-N) nitrite (NO2-N), ammonium (NH4-N) and total nitrogen are collected on a monthly basis while dissolved gas concentrations are collected seasonally. Groundwater NO3-N profiles from monitoring data to date in both catchments differ markedly. Although the two catchments had similar 3 year mean concentrations of 6.89 mg/L (arable) and 6.24 mg/L (grassland), the grassland catchment had higher spatial and temporal variation. The arable catchment showed relatively homogenous NO3-N concentrations in all layers and zones (range: 1.2 - 12.13 mg/L, SD = 1.60 mg

A framework for managing runoff and pollution in the rural landscape using a Catchment Systems Engineering approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, M E; Quinn, P F; Barber, N J; Jonczyk, J

2014-01-15

Intense farming plays a key role in increasing local scale runoff and erosion rates, resulting in water quality issues and flooding problems. There is potential for agricultural management to become a major part of improved strategies for controlling runoff. Here, a Catchment Systems Engineering (CSE) approach has been explored to solve the above problem. CSE is an interventionist approach to altering the catchment scale runoff regime through the manipulation of hydrological flow pathways throughout the catchment. By targeting hydrological flow pathways at source, such as overland flow, field drain and ditch function, a significant component of the runoff generation can be managed in turn reducing soil nutrient losses. The Belford catchment (5.7 km(2)) is a catchment scale study for which a CSE approach has been used to tackle a number of environmental issues. A variety of Runoff Attenuation Features (RAFs) have been implemented throughout the catchment to address diffuse pollution and flooding issues. The RAFs include bunds disconnecting flow pathways, diversion structures in ditches to spill and store high flows, large wood debris structure within the channel, and riparian zone management. Here a framework for applying a CSE approach to the catchment is shown in a step by step guide to implementing mitigation measures in the Belford Burn catchment. The framework is based around engagement with catchment stakeholders and uses evidence arising from field science. Using the framework, the flooding issue has been addressed at the catchment scale by altering the runoff regime. Initial findings suggest that RAFs have functioned as designed to reduce/attenuate runoff locally. However, evidence suggested that some RAFs needed modification and new RAFs be created to address diffuse pollution issues during storm events. Initial findings from these modified RAFs are showing improvements in sediment trapping capacities and reductions in phosphorus, nitrate and suspended

High-resolution monitoring of catchment nutrient response to the end of the 2011-2012 drought in England, captured by the demonstration test catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Outram, F. N.; Lloyd, C.; Jonczyk, J.; Benskin, C. McW. H.; Grant, F.; Dorling, S. R.; Steele, C. J.; Collins, A. L.; Freer, J.; Haygarth, P. M.; Hiscock, K. M.; Johnes, P. J.; Lovett, A. L.

2013-12-01

The Demonstration Test Catchments (DTC) project is a UK Government funded initiative to test the effectiveness of on-farm mitigation measures designed to reduce agricultural pollution without compromising farm productivity. Three distinct catchments in England have been chosen to test the efficacy of mitigation measures on working farms in small tributary sub-catchments equipped with continuous water quality monitoring stations. The Hampshire Avon in the south is a mixed livestock and arable farming catchment, the River Wensum in the east is a lowland catchment with predominantly arable farming and land use in the River Eden catchment in the north-west is predominantly livestock farming. One of the many strengths of the DTC as a national research platform is that it provides the ability to investigate catchment hydrology and biogeochemical response across different landscapes and geoclimatic characteristics, with a range of differing flow behaviours, geochemistries and nutrient chemistries. Although numerous authors present studies of individual catchment responses to storms, no studies exist of multiple catchment responses to the same rainfall event captured with in situ high-resolution nutrient monitoring at a national scale. This paper brings together findings from all three DTC research groups to compare the response of the catchments to a major storm event in April 2012. This was one of the first weather fronts to track across the country following a prolonged drought period affecting much of the UK through 2011-2012, marking an unusual meteorological transition when a rapid shift from drought to flood risk occurred. The effects of the weather front on discharge and water chemistry parameters, including nitrogen species (NO3-N and NH4-N) and phosphorus fractions (total P (TP) and total reactive P (TRP)), measured at a half-hourly time step are examined. When considered in the context of one hydrological year, flow and concentration duration curves reveal that

COMPARISON OF MULTI-SCALE DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS FOR DEFINING WATERWAYS AND CATCHMENTS OVER LARGE AREAS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Harris

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Digital Elevation Models (DEMs allow for the efficient and consistent creation of waterways and catchment boundaries over large areas. Studies of waterway delineation from DEMs are usually undertaken over small or single catchment areas due to the nature of the problems being investigated. Improvements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS techniques, software, hardware and data allow for analysis of larger data sets and also facilitate a consistent tool for the creation and analysis of waterways over extensive areas. However, rarely are they developed over large regional areas because of the lack of available raw data sets and the amount of work required to create the underlying DEMs. This paper examines definition of waterways and catchments over an area of approximately 25,000 km2 to establish the optimal DEM scale required for waterway delineation over large regional projects. The comparative study analysed multi-scale DEMs over two test areas (Wivenhoe catchment, 543 km2 and a detailed 13 km2 within the Wivenhoe catchment including various data types, scales, quality, and variable catchment input parameters. Historic and available DEM data was compared to high resolution Lidar based DEMs to assess variations in the formation of stream networks. The results identified that, particularly in areas of high elevation change, DEMs at 20 m cell size created from broad scale 1:25,000 data (combined with more detailed data or manual delineation in flat areas are adequate for the creation of waterways and catchments at a regional scale.

Leaching of organic carbon and nitrogen from peatland-dominated catchments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kortelainen, P.

1992-01-01

The area of 13 study catchments is 2.5-56-3 km 2 and 37-87 % of the catchments is covered by peatlands. Ditching intensities varied from 0 to 100 %. Median total organic carbon (TOC) in runoff waters from the catchments was 10-30 mg/l - 1 and median nitrogen (N tot ) 380-1000 μg/1 -1 . The annual leaching of TOC and Ntot was calculated for five catchments for which daily runoff data was available. The range for mean annual leaching of TOC and N tot from the catchments was 4700-7300 kg/km 2 a and 190-250 kg/km -2 a -1 , respectively. The variation between different years was high and annual leaching was closely related to annual runoff. The regional variation in the leaching of TOC and N tot was small compared to the annual variation

A multi-criteria approach to Great Barrier Reef catchment (Queensland, Australia) diffuse-source pollution problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Greiner, R; Herr, A; Brodie, J; Haynes, D

2005-01-01

This paper presents a multi-criteria based tool for assessing the relative impact of diffuse-source pollution to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) from the river basins draining into the GBR lagoon. The assessment integrates biophysical and ecological data of water quality and pollutant concentrations with socio-economic information pertaining to non-point source pollution and (potential) pollutant impact. The tool generates scores for each river basin against four criteria, thus profiling the basins and enabling prioritization of management alternatives between and within basins. The results support policy development for pollution control through community participation, scientific data integration and expert knowledge contributed by people from across the catchment. The results specifically provided support for the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, released in October 2003. The aim of the plan is to provide a framework for reducing discharge of sediment, nutrient and other diffuse-source loads and (potential) impact of that discharge and for prioritising management actions both between and within river basins.

Array based Discovery of Aptamer Pairs (Open Access Publisher’s Version)

Science.gov (United States)

2014-12-11

Array-based Discovery of Aptamer Pairs Minseon Cho,†,‡ Seung Soo Oh,‡ Jeff Nie,§ Ron Stewart,§ Monte J. Radeke,⊥ Michael Eisenstein ,†,‡ Peter J...ac504076k | Anal. Chem. 2015, 87, 821−828827 (24) Cho, M.; Oh, S. S.; Nie, J.; Stewart, R.; Eisenstein , M.; Chambers, J.; Marth, J. D.; Walker, F

Estimating retention potential of headwater catchment using Tritium time series

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Harald; Cartwright, Ian; Morgenstern, Uwe

2018-06-01

Headwater catchments provide substantial streamflow to rivers even during long periods of drought. Documenting the mean transit times (MTT) of stream water in headwater catchments and therefore the retention capacities of these catchments is crucial for water management. This study uses time series of 3H activities in combination with major ion concentrations, stable isotope ratios and radon activities (222Rn) in the Lyrebird Creek catchment in Victoria, Australia to provide a unique insight into the mean transit time distributions and flow systems of this small temperate headwater catchment. At all streamflows, the stream has 3H activities (water in the stream is derived from stores with long transit times. If the water in the catchment can be represented by a single store with a continuum of ages, mean transit times of the stream water range from ∼6 up to 40 years, which indicates the large retention potential for this catchment. Alternatively, variations of 3H activities, stable isotopes and major ions can be explained by mixing between of young recent recharge and older water stored in the catchment. While surface runoff is negligible, the variation in stable isotope ratios, major ion concentrations and radon activities during most of the year is minimal (±12%) and only occurs during major storm events. This suggests that different subsurface water stores are activated during the storm events and that these cease to provide water to the stream within a few days or weeks after storm events. The stores comprise micro and macropore flow in the soils and saprolite as well as the boundary between the saprolite and the fractured bed rock. Hydrograph separations from three major storm events using Tritium, electrical conductivity and selected major ions as well a δ18O suggest a minimum of 50% baseflow at most flow conditions. We demonstrate that headwater catchments can have a significant storage capacity and that the relationship between long-water stores and

Application of Water Evaluation and Planning Model for Integrated Water Resources Management: Case Study of Langat River Basin, Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, W. K.; Lai, S. H.

2017-06-01

Due to the effects of climate change and the increasing demand on water, sustainable development in term of water resources management has become a major challenge. In this context, the application of simulation models is useful to duel with the uncertainty and complexity of water system by providing stakeholders with the best solution. This paper outlines an integrated management planning network is developed based on Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) to evaluate current and future water management system of Langat River Basin, Malaysia under various scenarios. The WEAP model is known as an integrated decision support system investigate major stresses on demand and supply in terms of water availability in catchment scale. In fact, WEAP is applicable to simulate complex systems including various sectors within a single catchment or transboundary river system. To construct the model, by taking account of the Langat catchment and the corresponding demand points, we defined the hydrological model into 10 sub-hydrological catchments and 17 demand points included the export of treated water to the major cities outside the catchment. The model is calibrated and verified by several quantitative statistics (coefficient of determination, R2; Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, NSE and Percent bias, PBIAS). The trend of supply and demand in the catchment is evaluated under three scenarios to 2050, 1: Population growth rate, 2: Demand side management (DSM) and 3: Combination of DSM and reduce non-revenue water (NRW). Results show that by reducing NRW and proper DSM, unmet demand able to reduce significantly.

Inverse Geochemical Reaction Path Modelling and the Impact of Climate Change on Hydrologic Structure in Snowmelt-Dominated Catchments in the Southwestern USA

Science.gov (United States)

Driscoll, J. M.; Meixner, T.; Molotch, N. P.; Sickman, J. O.; Williams, M. W.; McIntosh, J. C.; Brooks, P. D.

2011-12-01

contrast, during the dry year infiltration and subsequent displacement of stored water that has had longer contact time with minerals and therefore has become more geochemically evolved to produce a greater difference between snowmelt and catchment outlet hydrochemistry. The results for EMD show little distinction between albite weathering for wet and dry years (55.9g and 66.0g, relatively). A hypothesis for this lack of difference in mineral phase changes may be due to less subsurface storage capacity in EMD relative to GL4. The spatial distribution of snowmelt has also been shown to influence the integrated watershed response, and future work includes using the Alpine Hydrochemical Model (AHM) to further investigate catchment response to these spatial data. The AHM will also provide further insight of surface-groundwater interactions through a more integrated model which includes hydrochemical, biological and physical processes to elucidate catchment response to changes in snowmelt dynamics.

Prediction of dissolved reactive phosphorus losses from small agricultural catchments: calibration and validation of a parsimonious model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Hahn

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Eutrophication of surface waters due to diffuse phosphorus (P losses continues to be a severe water quality problem worldwide, causing the loss of ecosystem functions of the respective water bodies. Phosphorus in runoff often originates from a small fraction of a catchment only. Targeting mitigation measures to these critical source areas (CSAs is expected to be most efficient and cost-effective, but requires suitable tools. Here we investigated the capability of the parsimonious Rainfall-Runoff-Phosphorus (RRP model to identify CSAs in grassland-dominated catchments based on readily available soil and topographic data. After simultaneous calibration on runoff data from four small hilly catchments on the Swiss Plateau, the model was validated on a different catchment in the same region without further calibration. The RRP model adequately simulated the discharge and dissolved reactive P (DRP export from the validation catchment. Sensitivity analysis showed that the model predictions were robust with respect to the classification of soils into "poorly drained" and "well drained", based on the available soil map. Comparing spatial hydrological model predictions with field data from the validation catchment provided further evidence that the assumptions underlying the model are valid and that the model adequately accounts for the dominant P export processes in the target region. Thus, the parsimonious RRP model is a valuable tool that can be used to determine CSAs. Despite the considerable predictive uncertainty regarding the spatial extent of CSAs, the RRP can provide guidance for the implementation of mitigation measures. The model helps to identify those parts of a catchment where high DRP losses are expected or can be excluded with high confidence. Legacy P was predicted to be the dominant source for DRP losses and thus, in combination with hydrologic active areas, a high risk for water quality.

Measuring the size of an airport's catchment area

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lieshout, R.

2012-01-01

Although much empirical research exists on the factors that drive passenger airport choice, not much is known about the related topic of airport catchment area size. This paper presents a novel methodology to assess the size of airport catchment areas and the airport’s market shares therein using a

Catchment Storage and Transport on Timescales from Minutes to Millennia

Science.gov (United States)

Kirchner, J. W.

2017-12-01

Landscapes are characterized by preferential flow and pervasive heterogeneity on all scales. They therefore store and transmit water and solutes over a wide spectrum of time scales, with important implications for contaminant transport, weathering rates, and runoff chemistry. Theoretical analyses predict, and syntheses of age tracer data confirm, that waters in aquifers are older - often by orders of magnitude - than in the rivers that flow from them, and that this disconnect between water ages arises from aquifer heterogeneity. Recent theoretical studies also suggest that catchment transit time distributions are nonstationary, reflecting temporal variability in precipitation forcing, structural heterogeneity in catchments themselves, and the nonlinearity of the mechanisms controlling storage and transport in the subsurface. The challenge of empirically estimating these nonstationary transit time distributions in real-world catchments, however, has only begun to be explored. In recent years, long-term isotope time series have been collected in many research catchments, and new technologies have emerged that allow quasi-continuous measurements of isotopes in precipitation and streamflow. These new data streams create new opportunities to study how rainfall becomes streamflow following the onset of precipitation. Here I present novel methods for quantifying the fraction of current rainfall in streamflow across ensembles of precipitation events. Benchmark tests with nonstationary catchment models demonstrate that this approach quantitatively measures the short tail of the transit time distribution for a wide range of catchment response characteristics. In combination with reactive tracer time series, this approach can potentially be extended to measure short-term chemical reaction rates at the catchment scale. Applications using high-frequency tracer time series from several experimental catchments demonstrate the utility of the new approach outlined here.

Vulnerability of European freshwater catchments to climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Markovic, Danijela; Carrizo, Savrina F; Kärcher, Oskar; Walz, Ariane; David, Jonathan N W

2017-09-01

Climate change is expected to exacerbate the current threats to freshwater ecosystems, yet multifaceted studies on the potential impacts of climate change on freshwater biodiversity at scales that inform management planning are lacking. The aim of this study was to fill this void through the development of a novel framework for assessing climate change vulnerability tailored to freshwater ecosystems. The three dimensions of climate change vulnerability are as follows: (i) exposure to climate change, (ii) sensitivity to altered environmental conditions and (iii) resilience potential. Our vulnerability framework includes 1685 freshwater species of plants, fishes, molluscs, odonates, amphibians, crayfish and turtles alongside key features within and between catchments, such as topography and connectivity. Several methodologies were used to combine these dimensions across a variety of future climate change models and scenarios. The resulting indices were overlaid to assess the vulnerability of European freshwater ecosystems at the catchment scale (18 783 catchments). The Balkan Lakes Ohrid and Prespa and Mediterranean islands emerge as most vulnerable to climate change. For the 2030s, we showed a consensus among the applied methods whereby up to 573 lake and river catchments are highly vulnerable to climate change. The anthropogenic disruption of hydrological habitat connectivity by dams is the major factor reducing climate change resilience. A gap analysis demonstrated that the current European protected area network covers climate change. Priority should be placed on enhancing stakeholder cooperation at the major basin scale towards preventing further degradation of freshwater ecosystems and maintaining connectivity among catchments. The catchments identified as most vulnerable to climate change provide preliminary targets for development of climate change conservation management and mitigation strategies. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Statistical analysis of hydrological response in urbanising catchments based on adaptive sampling using inter-amount times

Science.gov (United States)

ten Veldhuis, Marie-Claire; Schleiss, Marc

2017-04-01

Urban catchments are typically characterised by a more flashy nature of the hydrological response compared to natural catchments. Predicting flow changes associated with urbanisation is not straightforward, as they are influenced by interactions between impervious cover, basin size, drainage connectivity and stormwater management infrastructure. In this study, we present an alternative approach to statistical analysis of hydrological response variability and basin flashiness, based on the distribution of inter-amount times. We analyse inter-amount time distributions of high-resolution streamflow time series for 17 (semi-)urbanised basins in North Carolina, USA, ranging from 13 to 238 km2 in size. We show that in the inter-amount-time framework, sampling frequency is tuned to the local variability of the flow pattern, resulting in a different representation and weighting of high and low flow periods in the statistical distribution. This leads to important differences in the way the distribution quantiles, mean, coefficient of variation and skewness vary across scales and results in lower mean intermittency and improved scaling. Moreover, we show that inter-amount-time distributions can be used to detect regulation effects on flow patterns, identify critical sampling scales and characterise flashiness of hydrological response. The possibility to use both the classical approach and the inter-amount-time framework to identify minimum observable scales and analyse flow data opens up interesting areas for future research.

Does estuarine health relate to catchment land-cover in the East ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Possible links between catchment and buffer zone land-cover class composition and the health of the East Kleinemonde Estuary were explored. There was a relationship between catchment land-cover and estuarine health within all assessed catchment delineations. Natural land-cover was determined to be the best ...

Determination of Curve Number for snowmelt-runoff floods in a small catchment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Hejduk

2015-06-01

Full Text Available One of the widely used methods for predicting flood runoff depth from ungauged catchments is the curve number (CN method, developed by Soil Conservation Service (SCS of US Department of Agriculture. The CN parameter can be computed directly from recorded rainfall depths and direct runoff volumes in case of existing data. In presented investigations, the CN parameter has been computed for snowmelt-runoff events based on snowmelt and rainfall measurements. All required data has been gathered for a small agricultural catchment (A = 23.4 km2 of Zagożdżonka river, located in Central Poland. The CN number received from 28 snowmelt-runoff events has been compared with CN computed from rainfall-runoff events for the same catchment. The CN parameter, estimated empirically varies from 64.0 to 94.8. The relation between CN and snowmelt depth was investigated in a similar procedure to relation between CN and rainfall depth.

Can climate variability information constrain a hydrological model for an ungauged Costa Rican catchment?

Science.gov (United States)

Quesada-Montano, Beatriz; Westerberg, Ida K.; Fuentes-Andino, Diana; Hidalgo-Leon, Hugo; Halldin, Sven

2017-04-01

Long-term hydrological data are key to understanding catchment behaviour and for decision making within water management and planning. Given the lack of observed data in many regions worldwide, hydrological models are an alternative for reproducing historical streamflow series. Additional types of information - to locally observed discharge - can be used to constrain model parameter uncertainty for ungauged catchments. Climate variability exerts a strong influence on streamflow variability on long and short time scales, in particular in the Central-American region. We therefore explored the use of climate variability knowledge to constrain the simulated discharge uncertainty of a conceptual hydrological model applied to a Costa Rican catchment, assumed to be ungauged. To reduce model uncertainty we first rejected parameter relationships that disagreed with our understanding of the system. We then assessed how well climate-based constraints applied at long-term, inter-annual and intra-annual time scales could constrain model uncertainty. Finally, we compared the climate-based constraints to a constraint on low-flow statistics based on information obtained from global maps. We evaluated our method in terms of the ability of the model to reproduce the observed hydrograph and the active catchment processes in terms of two efficiency measures, a statistical consistency measure, a spread measure and 17 hydrological signatures. We found that climate variability knowledge was useful for reducing model uncertainty, in particular, unrealistic representation of deep groundwater processes. The constraints based on global maps of low-flow statistics provided more constraining information than those based on climate variability, but the latter rejected slow rainfall-runoff representations that the low flow statistics did not reject. The use of such knowledge, together with information on low-flow statistics and constraints on parameter relationships showed to be useful to

Sediment budgets of mountain catchments: Scale dependence and the influence of land-use

Science.gov (United States)

Förster, Helga; Dotterweich, Markus; Wunderlich, Jürgen

2010-05-01

Long-term sediment budgets of forested mountain catchments are scarcely investigated today. This is because they are traditionally expected to show few erosion features and low sediment delivery. This opinion originates from process-based hydrological studies proving the runoff preventing properties of trees and forest soils. In addition mountain areas have been colonized later and only sporadically compared to the fruitful loess-covered lowlands. On the other hand steep hillslopes, narrow valleys and the availability of regolith cause a high erosion potential. And there is evidence that historical floods and yearly occurring storms initiate intensive but local and sporadic erosion events. Sediment budgets from zero-order catchments of the Palatinate Forest in the south-western sandstone escarpment in Rhineland-Palatinate show spatially varying intensities of land use impact and relief conditions. The budgets are based on field data and a soilscape model of an upper periglacial cover bed with a homogenous thickness. OSL- and 14C-dates of colluvial deposits allow relating erosion events to land-use changes derived from historical maps and written archives. The presented case studies from the Palatinate Forest are of special interest as the high proximity to the loess-covered and intensively cultivated Rhine Graben effected settlement and land-use intensity in the mountain catchments. Clear cuts for settlements were joined by deforestation for agriculture and stretched mainly along the Haardtrand and high order valleys. Off these areas the strength of interference in the forest ecosystem depended on transport possibilities and distance to the Rhine Graben. In the vicinity strong devastation and clear cutting occurred. With increasing distance the felling intensity decreased and some parts seem to be nearly undisturbed until the 18th century. The needs for wood were controlled by the economical development as well as political decisions on local to European scale. The

Remote sensing of surface water quality in relation to catchment condition in Zimbabwe

Science.gov (United States)

Masocha, Mhosisi; Murwira, Amon; Magadza, Christopher H. D.; Hirji, Rafik; Dube, Timothy

2017-08-01

The degradation of river catchments is one of the most important contemporary environmental problems affecting water quality in tropical countries. In this study, we used remotely sensed Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to assess how catchment condition varies within and across river catchments in Zimbabwe. We then used non-linear regression to test whether catchment condition assessed using the NDVI is significantly (α = 0.05) related with levels of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) measured at different sampling points in thirty-two sub-catchments in Zimbabwe. The results showed a consistent negative curvilinear relationship between Landsat 8 derived NDVI and TSS measured across the catchments under study. In the drier catchments of the country, 98% of the variation in TSS is explained by NDVI, while in wetter catchments, 64% of the variation in TSS is explained by NDVI. Our results suggest that NDVI derived from free and readily available multispectral Landsat series data (Landsat 8) is a potential valuable tool for the rapid assessment of physical water quality in data poor catchments. Overall, the finding of this study underscores the usefulness of readily available satellite data for near-real time monitoring of the physical water quality at river catchment scale, especially in resource-constrained areas, such as the sub-Saharan Africa.

A hybrid method for flood simulation in small catchments combining hydrodynamic and hydrological techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Bellos, Vasilis; Tsakiris, George

2016-09-01

The study presents a new hybrid method for the simulation of flood events in small catchments. It combines a physically-based two-dimensional hydrodynamic model and the hydrological unit hydrograph theory. Unit hydrographs are derived using the FLOW-R2D model which is based on the full form of two-dimensional Shallow Water Equations, solved by a modified McCormack numerical scheme. The method is tested at a small catchment in a suburb of Athens-Greece for a storm event which occurred in February 2013. The catchment is divided into three friction zones and unit hydrographs of 15 and 30 min are produced. The infiltration process is simulated by the empirical Kostiakov equation and the Green-Ampt model. The results from the implementation of the proposed hybrid method are compared with recorded data at the hydrometric station at the outlet of the catchment and the results derived from the fully hydrodynamic model FLOW-R2D. It is concluded that for the case studied, the proposed hybrid method produces results close to those of the fully hydrodynamic simulation at substantially shorter computational time. This finding, if further verified in a variety of case studies, can be useful in devising effective hybrid tools for the two-dimensional flood simulations, which are lead to accurate and considerably faster results than those achieved by the fully hydrodynamic simulations.

Catchment Integration of Sensor Array Observations to Understand Hydrologic Connectivity

Science.gov (United States)

Redfern, S.; Livneh, B.; Molotch, N. P.; Suding, K.; Neff, J. C.; Hinckley, E. L. S.

2017-12-01

Hydrologic connectivity and the land surface water balance are likely to be impacted by climate change in the coming years. Although recent work has started to demonstrate that climate modulates connectivity, we still lack knowledge of how local ecology will respond to environmental and atmospheric changes and subsequently interact with connectivity. The overarching goal of this research is to address and forecast how climate change will affect hydrologic connectivity in an alpine environment, through the use of near-surface observations (temperature, humidity, soil moisture, snow depth) from a new 16-sensor array (plus 5 precipitation gauges), together with a distributed hydrologic model, over a small catchment on Colorado's Niwot Ridge (above 3000m). Model simulations will be constrained to distributed sensor measurements taken in the study area and calibrated with streamflow. Periods of wetting and dry-down will be analyzed to identify signatures of connectivity across the landscape, its seasonal signals and its sensitivity to land cover. Further work will aim to develop future hydrologic projections, compare model output with related observations, conduct multi-physics experiments, and continue to expand the existing sensor network.

Integrated approach to model decomposed flow hydrograph using artificial neural network and conceptual techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, Ashu; Srinivasulu, Sanaga

2006-02-01

This paper presents the findings of a study aimed at decomposing a flow hydrograph into different segments based on physical concepts in a catchment, and modelling different segments using different technique viz. conceptual and artificial neural networks (ANNs). An integrated modelling framework is proposed capable of modelling infiltration, base flow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture accounting, and certain segments of the decomposed flow hydrograph using conceptual techniques and the complex, non-linear, and dynamic rainfall-runoff process using ANN technique. Specifically, five different multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and two self-organizing map (SOM) models have been developed. The rainfall and streamflow data derived from the Kentucky River catchment were employed to test the proposed methodology and develop all the models. The performance of all the models was evaluated using seven different standard statistical measures. The results obtained in this study indicate that (a) the rainfall-runoff relationship in a large catchment consists of at least three or four different mappings corresponding to different dynamics of the underlying physical processes, (b) an integrated approach that models the different segments of the decomposed flow hydrograph using different techniques is better than a single ANN in modelling the complex, dynamic, non-linear, and fragmented rainfall runoff process, (c) a simple model based on the concept of flow recession is better than an ANN to model the falling limb of a flow hydrograph, and (d) decomposing a flow hydrograph into the different segments corresponding to the different dynamics based on the physical concepts is better than using the soft decomposition employed using SOM.

Catchment & sewer network simulation model to benchmark control strategies within urban wastewater systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saagi, Ramesh; Flores Alsina, Xavier; Fu, Guangtao

2016-01-01

This paper aims at developing a benchmark simulation model to evaluate control strategies for the urban catchment and sewer network. Various modules describing wastewater generation in the catchment, its subsequent transport and storage in the sewer system are presented. Global/local overflow based...... evaluation criteria describing the cumulative and acute effects are presented. Simulation results show that the proposed set of models is capable of generating daily, weekly and seasonal variations as well as describing the effect of rain events on wastewater characteristics. Two sets of case studies...

Catchment conceptualisation for examining applicability of chloride mass balance method in an area with historical forest clearance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Guan

2010-07-01

concentration (a factor of 10 and above generally indicates either a chloride disequilibrium, or cross-catchment water transfer, or both, for which the CMB method is not applicable. Based on regression between chloride O/I values and annual precipitation for type VI catchments, a catchment with annual precipitation of 900 mm in MLR has most likely reached new chloride equilibrium, and the CMB method can be applied if no cross-catchment water transfer occurs. CMB is applied to one catchment at chloride equilibrium, suggesting a net groundwater recharge of 27 mm/yr, about 3% of annual precipitation.

A bottom up approach to implementing multi-purpose mitigation measures for reducing flood risk and improving water quality in agricultural catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, M. E.; Quinn, P. F.; Jonczyk, J.; Burke, S.; Nicholson, A.; Barber, N.; Owen, G.; Palmer, M.

2012-04-01

A number of studies have suggested that there is evidence that modern land-use management practices have increased surface runoff at the local scale. There is an urgent need for interventions to reduce the risk of flooding whilst also delivering multiple benefits (doing more for less). There are many settlements, which regularly suffer from flooding, which would benefit from upstream mitigation measures. Interventions at the source of runoff generation can have a positive impact on the flood hydrograph downstream. An integrated approach to managing runoff can also have multiple benefits on pollution and ecology, which could lead to beneficial impacts at the catchment scale. Belford, a small community in Northumberland, UK has suffered from an increased number of flood events over the past ten years. There is currently support within the English and Welsh Environment Agency for sustainable flood management solutions such as storage ponds, wetlands, beaver dams and willow riparian features which are being trialled at Belford. These runoff attenuation features (RAFs) also have benefits to water quality, capture sediment and create new ecological zones. Although the process by which numerous RAFs were deployed in Belford proved initially difficult to achieve within the existing regulatory framework, an efficient uptake process is now supported by local regulators including several branches of the Environment Agency. The Belford runoff management framework provides a step by step guide to implementing mitigation measures in the Belford burn catchment and could be easily applied to other catchments at a similar scale. The approach is based on implementing mitigation measures through engaging with catchment stakeholders and using solid field science and management protocols.

Keeping the secret: Insights from repeated catchment-scale tracer experiments under transient conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Bogner, Christina; Hauhs, Michael; Lange, Holger

2016-04-01

Catchment-level tracer experiments are generally performed to identify site-specific hydrological response functions of the catchment. The existence and uniqueness of these response functions are hardly ever questioned. Here, we report on a series of replicated tracer experiments in two small first-order catchments, G1 (0.6 ha, roofed) and F4 (2.3 ha, without roof) at Gårdsjön in SW Sweden. The soils in both catchments are shallow (500 m2) the experiments were done without a roof mostly at transient conditions. The catchment F4 was equipped with a sprinkler system with a watering capacity of around 38-45 m3 day-1. Natural rainfall comes in addition. A bromide tracer solution was injected to groundwater at a single location about 40 m upstream the weir over a period of less than an hour, and was monitored using a set of groundwater tubes and the weir at the outlet over the following 4 days. In addition, discharge was measured. The experiments were repeated each summer from 2007 to 2015. While steady state conditions were guaranteed in G1, steady runoff has been achieved only four times in F4. We investigated tracer recovery rates against cumulated runoff since tracer application. Substantially different transit times and qualitatively different behaviour of the breakthrough curves were observed, even under steady state conditions. In G1, no single system response function could be identified in 5 replicates. Similarly, the catchment response functions in F4 under steady state differed between experiments. However, they remained in a similar range as in G1. Based on these results, we question the identifiability of flow paths and system properties, such as saturated water content or hydrologic transmissivity, at the catchment scale using tracer experiments. Rather, the series demonstrate the utter importance of the initial and boundary conditions which largely determine the response of the system to inert tracer pulses.

Development and application of a catchment scale pesticide fate and transport model for use in drinking water risk assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Pullan, S P; Whelan, M J; Rettino, J; Filby, K; Eyre, S; Holman, I P

2016-09-01

This paper describes the development and application of IMPT (Integrated Model for Pesticide Transport), a parameter-efficient tool for predicting diffuse-source pesticide concentrations in surface waters used for drinking water supply. The model was applied to a small UK headwater catchment with high frequency (8h) pesticide monitoring data and to five larger catchments (479-1653km(2)) with sampling approximately every 14days. Model performance was good for predictions of both flow (Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency generally >0.59 and PBIAS water resources to support operational and strategic risk assessments. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CRA-W's committee of intervention: analyse of catchments polluted with pesticides.

Science.gov (United States)

Noel, S; Bah, B B; Collinet, G; Buffet, D; Sorel, A; Hallet, V

2008-01-01

In the Walloon Region of Belgium, a committee of intervention has been created to investigate problems of pesticide contamination of various catchments use for drinking water production. This committee involves the Agricultural Research centre--Wallonia (CRA-W, project coordinator) and some University experts. It is funded by the Société Publique de Gestion des Eaux (SPGE). The diagnosis method, base on the AQUAPLAINE method (Arvatis-France), consists of 4 steps. The first step is the preparation of diagnosis (at the office) that takes into account the paper risk of active ingredients. and their uses, the identification of the agricultural parcels, the collection of cartographic and numeric data, the description of the hydrogeological and pedological contexts and the study of the meteorological data in relation with the period of pollution. The second step consists of making a plot diagnosis (on the field) to identify the way of transfer inside the plot and collecting data. At the third step, the people who can apply PPP treatment close to the catchment are met (farmers and city services). Information are collected on treatments applied and on the state of parcels. Based on the hypothesis of pollution cause, the committee proposes solution to solve the problem. One of the catchment that has been investigated by the committee is located at Biesmerée, (Namur province, in Belgium). A temporally contamination was caused by 4 pesticides : chlortoluron, isoproturon, trifluralin and diflufenican. After investigations, it seems that the pollution was probably due to the hydrogeological context. As the river is locally perched over the aquifer, the presence of Poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) could be due to the infiltration of surface water inside the catchment or/and to the presence of a sinkhole temporally activated during river flood period. Infiltration rate has to be assessed and river bank impermeabilization is recommended.

Drought propagation and its relation with catchment biophysical characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez-Garreton, C. D.; Lara, A.; Garreaud, R. D.

2016-12-01

Droughts propagate in the hydrological cycle from meteorological to soil moisture to hydrological droughts. To understand the drivers of this process is of paramount importance since the economic and societal impacts in water resources are directly related with hydrological droughts (and not with meteorological droughts, which have been most studied). This research analyses drought characteristics over a large region and identify its main exogenous (climate forcing) and endogenous (biophysical characteristics such as land cover type and topography) explanatory factors. The study region is Chile, which covers seven major climatic subtypes according to Köppen system, it has unique geographic characteristics, very sharp topography and a wide range of landscapes and vegetation conditions. Meteorological and hydrological droughts (deficit in precipitation and streamflow, respectively) are characterized by their durations and standardized deficit volumes using a variable threshold method, over 300 representative catchments (located between 27°S and 50°S). To quantify the propagation from meteorological to hydrological drought, we propose a novel drought attenuation index (DAI), calculated as the ratio between the meteorological drought severity slope and the hydrological drought severity slope. DAI varies from zero (catchment that attenuates completely a meteorological drought) to one (the meteorological drought is fully propagated through the hydrological cycle). This novel index provides key (and comparable) information about drought propagation over a wide range of different catchments, which has been highlighted as a major research gap. Similar drought indicators across the wide range of catchments are then linked with catchment biophysical characteristics. A thorough compilation of land cover information (including the percentage of native forests, grass land, urban and industrial areas, glaciers, water bodies and no vegetated areas), catchment physical

Streamflow response of a small forested catchment on different timescales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Zabaleta

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The hydrological response of a catchment to rainfall on different timescales is result of a complex system involving a range of physical processes which may operate simultaneously and have different spatial and temporal influences. This paper presents the analysis of streamflow response of a small humid-temperate catchment (Aixola, 4.8 km² in the Basque Country on different timescales and discusses the role of the controlling factors. Firstly, daily time series analysis was used to establish a hypothesis on the general functioning of the catchment through the relationship between precipitation and discharge on an annual and multiannual scale (2003–2008. Second, rainfall-runoff relationships and relationships among several hydrological variables, including catchment antecedent conditions, were explored at the event scale (222 events to check and improve the hypothesis. Finally, the evolution of electrical conductivity (EC during some of the monitored storm events (28 events was examined to identify the time origin of waters. Quick response of the catchment to almost all the rainfall events as well as a considerable regulation capacity was deduced from the correlation and spectral analyses. These results agree with runoff event scale data analysis; however, the event analysis revealed the non-linearity of the system, as antecedent conditions play a significant role in this catchment. Further, analysis at the event scale made possible to clarify factors controlling (precipitation, precipitation intensity and initial discharge the different aspects of the runoff response (runoff coefficient and discharge increase for this catchment. Finally, the evolution of EC of the waters enabled the time origin (event or pre-event waters of the quickflow to be established; specifically, the conductivity showed that pre-event waters usually represent a high percentage of the total discharge during runoff peaks. The importance of soil waters in the

Examining the Potential Travellers in Catchment Areas for Public Transport

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Landex, Alex; Hansen, Stephen

2006-01-01

The paper presents a method to examine the catchment areas for stops in high quality public transport systems based on the actual street network in the examined area. This is achieved by implementing the service area functions from the ArcGIS extension Network Analyst. The method is compared...

Identifying evidence of climate change impact on extreme events in permeable chalk catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Butler, A. P.; Nubert, S.

2009-12-01

The permeable chalk catchments of southern England are vital for the economy and well being of the UK. Not only important as a water resource, their freely draining soils support intensive agricultural production, and the rolling downs and chalk streams provide important habitants for many protected plant and animal species. Consequently, there are concerns about the potential impact of climate change on such catchments, particularly in relation to groundwater recharge. Of major concern are possible changes in extreme events, such as groundwater floods and droughts, as any increase in the frequency and/or severity of these has important consequences for water resources, ecological systems and local infrastructure. Studies of climate change impact on extreme events for such catchments have indicated that, under medium and high emissions scenarios, droughts are likely to become more severe whilst floods less so. However, given the uncertainties in such predictions and the inherent variability in historic data, producing definitive evidence of changes in flood/drought frequency/severity poses a significant challenge. Thus, there is a need for specific extreme event statistics that can be used as indicators of actual climate change in streamflow and groundwater level observations. Identifying such indicators that are sufficiently robust requires catchments with long historic time series data. One such catchment is the River Lavant, an intermittent chalk stream in West Sussex, UK. Located within this catchment is Chilgrove House, the site of the UK’s longest groundwater monitoring well (with a continuous record of water level observations of varying frequency dating back to 1836). Using a variety of meteorological datasets, the behaviour of the catchment has been modelled, from 1855 to present, using a 'leaky aquifer' conceptual model. Model calibration was based on observed daily streamflow, at a gauging station just outside the town of Chichester, from 1970. Long

Assessment of surface water resources availability using catchment modeling and the results of tracer studies in the meso-scale Migina Catchment, Rwanda

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Munyaneza, O.; Mukubwa, A.; Maskey, S.; Wenninger, J.W.; Uhlenbrook, S.

2013-01-01

In the last couple of years, different hydrological research projects were undertaken in the Migina catchment (243.2 km2), a tributary of the Kagera river in Southern Rwanda. These projects were aimed to understand hydrological processes of the catchment using analytical and experimental approaches

Threshold values and management options for nutrients in a catchment of a temperate estuary with poor ecological status

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Hinsby

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Intensive farming has severe impacts on the chemical status of groundwater and streams and consequently on the ecological status of dependent ecosystems. Eutrophication is a widespread problem in lakes and marine waters. Common problems are hypoxia, algal blooms, fish kills, and loss of water clarity, underwater vegetation, biodiversity and recreational value. In this paper we evaluate the nitrogen (N and phosphorus (P concentrations of groundwater and surface water in a coastal catchment, the loadings and sources of N and P, and their effect on the ecological status of an estuary. We calculate the necessary reductions in N and P loadings to the estuary for obtaining a good ecological status, which we define based on the number of days with N and P limitation, and the corresponding stream and groundwater threshold values assuming two different management options. The calculations are performed by the combined use of empirical models and a physically based 3-D integrated hydrological model of the whole catchment. The assessment of the ecological status indicates that the N and P loads to the investigated estuary should be reduced to levels corresponding to 52 and 56% of the current loads, respectively, to restore good ecological status. Model estimates show that threshold total N (TN concentrations should be in the range of 2.9 to 3.1 mg l⁻¹ in inlet freshwater (streams to Horsens estuary and 6.0 to 9.3 mg l⁻¹ in shallow aerobic groundwater (∼ 27–41 mg l⁻¹ of nitrate, depending on the management measures implemented in the catchment. The situation for total P (TP is more complex, but data indicate that groundwater threshold values are not needed. The stream threshold value for TP to Horsens estuary for the selected management options is 0.084 mg l⁻¹. Regional climate models project increasing winter precipitation and runoff in the investigated region resulting in increasing runoff and

Estimation of permafrost thawing rates in a sub-arctic catchment using recession flow analysis

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S. W. Lyon

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Permafrost thawing is likely to change the flow pathways taken by water as it moves through arctic and sub-arctic landscapes. The location and distribution of these pathways directly influence the carbon and other biogeochemical cycling in northern latitude catchments. While permafrost thawing due to climate change has been observed in the arctic and sub-arctic, direct observations of permafrost depth are difficult to perform at scales larger than a local scale. Using recession flow analysis, it may be possible to detect and estimate the rate of permafrost thawing based on a long-term streamflow record. We demonstrate the application of this approach to the sub-arctic Abiskojokken catchment in northern Sweden. Based on recession flow analysis, we estimate that permafrost in this catchment may be thawing at an average rate of about 0.9 cm/yr during the past 90 years. This estimated thawing rate is consistent with direct observations of permafrost thawing rates, ranging from 0.7 to 1.3 cm/yr over the past 30 years in the region.

Hydrologic connectivity between landscapes and streams: Transferring reach‐ and plot‐scale understanding to the catchment scale

Science.gov (United States)

Jencso, Kelsey G.; McGlynn, Brian L.; Gooseff, Michael N.; Wondzell, Steven M.; Bencala, Kenneth E.; Marshall, Lucy A.

2009-01-01

The relationship between catchment structure and runoff characteristics is poorly understood. In steep headwater catchments with shallow soils the accumulation of hillslope area (upslope accumulated area (UAA)) is a hypothesized first‐order control on the distribution of soil water and groundwater. Hillslope‐riparian water table connectivity represents the linkage between the dominant catchment landscape elements (hillslopes and riparian zones) and the channel network. Hydrologic connectivity between hillslope‐riparian‐stream (HRS) landscape elements is heterogeneous in space and often temporally transient. We sought to test the relationship between UAA and the existence and longevity of HRS shallow groundwater connectivity. We quantified water table connectivity based on 84 recording wells distributed across 24 HRS transects within the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (U.S. Forest Service), northern Rocky Mountains, Montana. Correlations were observed between the longevity of HRS water table connectivity and the size of each transect's UAA (r2 = 0.91). We applied this relationship to the entire stream network to quantify landscape‐scale connectivity through time and ascertain its relationship to catchment‐scale runoff dynamics. We found that the shape of the estimated annual landscape connectivity duration curve was highly related to the catchment flow duration curve (r2 = 0.95). This research suggests internal catchment landscape structure (topography and topology) as a first‐order control on runoff source area and whole catchment response characteristics.

La micro-échelle en synthèse organique : un outil commun chimie/génie chimique

OpenAIRE

Prat , Laurent E.; Loubiere , Karine; Dechy-Cabaret , Odile

2014-01-01

National audience; Cet article est une restitution courte de la présentation réalisée au cours des JIREC 2013 sur l'enseignement de la notion de changement d'échelle et de passage d'un mode batch à un mode continu en synthèse organique. L'enjeu est de faire travailler des étudiants issus des départements chimie et génie chimique autour d'un même outil, le microréacteur. Au cours d'une séance de travaux pratiques, les étudiants mettent en oeuvre une synthèse organique en continu à micro-échell...

The influence of model parameters on catchment-response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, S.M.S.; Gabriel, H.F.; Khan, A.A.

2002-01-01

This paper deals with the study of influence of influence of conceptual rainfall-runoff model parameters on catchment response (runoff). A conceptual modified watershed yield model is employed to study the effects of model-parameters on catchment-response, i.e. runoff. The model is calibrated, using manual parameter-fitting approach, also known as trial and error parameter-fitting. In all, there are twenty one (21) parameters that control the functioning of the model. A lumped parametric approach is used. The detailed analysis was performed on Ling River near Kahuta, having catchment area of 56 sq. miles. The model includes physical parameters like GWSM, PETS, PGWRO, etc. fitting coefficients like CINF, CGWS, etc. and initial estimates of the surface-water and groundwater storages i.e. srosp and gwsp. Sensitivity analysis offers a good way, without repetititious computations, the proper weight and consideration that must be taken when each of the influencing factor is evaluated. Sensitivity-analysis was performed to evaluate the influence of model-parameters on runoff. The sensitivity and relative contributions of model parameters influencing catchment-response are studied. (author)

Flash Flood Type Identification within Catchments in Beijing Mountainous Area

Science.gov (United States)

Nan, W.

2017-12-01

Flash flood is a common type of disaster in mountainous area, Flash flood with the feature of large flow rate, strong flushing force, destructive power, has periodically caused loss to life and destruction to infrastructure in mountainous area. Beijing as China's political, economic and cultural center, the disaster prevention and control work in Beijing mountainous area has always been concerned widely. According to the transport mechanism, sediment concentration and density, the flash flood type identification within catchment can provide basis for making the hazards prevention and mitigation policy. Taking Beijing as the study area, this paper extracted parameters related to catchment morphological and topography features respectively. By using Bayes discriminant, Logistic regression and Random forest, the catchments in Beijing mountainous area were divided into water floods process, fluvial sediment transport process and debris flows process. The results found that Logistic regression analysis showed the highest accuracy, with the overall accuracy of 88.2%. Bayes discriminant and Random forest had poor prediction effects. This study confirmed the ability of morphological and topography features to identify flash flood process. The circularity ratio, elongation ratio and roughness index can be used to explain the flash flood types effectively, and the Melton ratio and elevation relief ratio also did a good job during the identification, whereas the drainage density seemed not to be an issue at this level of detail. Based on the analysis of spatial patterns of flash flood types, fluvial sediment transport process and debris flow process were the dominant hazards, while the pure water flood process was much less. The catchments dominated by fluvial sediment transport process were mainly distributed in the Yan Mountain region, where the fault belts were relatively dense. The debris flow process prone to occur in the Taihang Mountain region thanks to the abundant

Water and Sediment Output Evaluation Using Cellular Automata on Alpine Catchment: Soana, Italy - Test Case

Science.gov (United States)

Pasculli, Antonio; Audisio, Chiara; Sciarra, Nicola

2017-12-01

In the alpine contest, the estimation of the rainfall (inflow) and the discharge (outflow) data are very important in order to, at least, analyse historical time series at catchment scale; determine the hydrological maximum and minimum estimate flood and drought frequency. Hydrological researches become a precious source of information for various human activities, in particular for land use management and planning. Many rainfall- runoff models have been proposed to reflect steady, gradually-varied flow condition inside a catchment. In these last years, the application of Reduced Complexity Models (RCM) has been representing an excellent alternative resource for evaluating the hydrological response of catchments, within a period of time up to decades. Hence, this paper is aimed at the discussion of the application of the research code CAESAR, based on cellular automaton (CA) approach, in order to evaluate the water and the sediment outputs from an alpine catchment (Soana, Italy), selected as test case. The comparison between the predicted numerical results, developed through parametric analysis, and the available measured data are discussed. Finally, the analysis of a numerical estimate of the sediment budget over ten years is presented. The necessity of a fast, but reliable numerical support when the measured data are not so easily accessible, as in Alpine catchments, is highlighted.

Trends in stream nitrogen concentrations for forested reference catchments across the USA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Argerich, A; Greathouse, E; Johnson, S L; Sebestyen, S D; Rhoades, C C; Knoepp, J D; Adams, M B; Likens, G E; Campbell, J L; McDowell, W H; Scatena, F N; Ice, G G

2013-01-01

To examine whether stream nitrogen concentrations in forested reference catchments have changed over time and if patterns were consistent across the USA, we synthesized up to 44 yr of data collected from 22 catchments at seven USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests. Trends in stream nitrogen presented high spatial variability both among catchments at a site and among sites across the USA. We found both increasing and decreasing trends in monthly flow-weighted stream nitrate and ammonium concentrations. At a subset of the catchments, we found that the length and period of analysis influenced whether trends were positive, negative or non-significant. Trends also differed among neighboring catchments within several Experimental Forests, suggesting the importance of catchment-specific factors in determining nutrient exports. Over the longest time periods, trends were more consistent among catchments within sites, although there are fewer long-term records for analysis. These findings highlight the critical value of long-term, uninterrupted stream chemistry monitoring at a network of sites across the USA to elucidate patterns of change in nutrient concentrations at minimally disturbed forested sites. (letter)

Estimasi Potensi PLTMH dengan Metode Regionalisasi pada Ungauged Catchments di Kecamatan Suoh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dyah Indriana Kusumastuti

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Electricity is the major problem in Suoh sub-district because there is no electricity distributed by National Electricity Company (PLN. Suoh is located in the upstream of Way Semaka and water is available in river tributaries throughout the year which can be utilized for micro hydro power. This research aims to analyse the potency of the rivers including Way Hantatai, Way Sekandak and Way Gunung Lanang. The three rivers are categorised as ungauged catchments. Research method includes analysis of hydrologic similarity berween Way Semaka and Way Besai catchments, application of regionalization method where FDC for Way Semaka was developed from discharge data from Way Besai located close to Way Semaka. Measurement of flow variables in the rivers are used to verify dependable discharge calculated by regionalization method. The potency of electricity power is calculated based on dependable discharge Q50 and head. The result shows that hydrologic similarity exists between Way Semaka and Way Besai catchments. Calculated discharges based on river measurements comparable to dependable discharges between 80%-93% from the FDCs for the three rivers. The maximum electricity power which can be generated are 15.26 KW, 4.12 KW and 2.71 KW for Way Hantatai, Way Sekandak and Way Gunung Lanang respectively.

Importance of including small-scale tile drain discharge in the calibration of a coupled groundwater-surface water catchment model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anne Lausten; Refsgaard, Jens Christian; Christensen, Britt Stenhøj Baun

2013-01-01

the catchment. In this study, a coupled groundwater-surface water model based on the MIKE SHE code was developed for the 4.7 km2 Lillebæk catchment in Denmark, where tile drain flow is a major contributor to the stream discharge. The catchment model was calibrated in several steps by incrementally including...... the observation data into the calibration to see the effect on model performance of including diverse data types, especially tile drain discharge. For the Lillebæk catchment, measurements of hydraulic head, daily stream discharge, and daily tile drain discharge from five small (1–4 ha) drainage areas exist....... The results showed that including tile drain data in the calibration of the catchment model improved its general performance for hydraulic heads and stream discharges. However, the model failed to correctly describe the local-scale dynamics of the tile drain discharges, and, furthermore, including the drain...

Technical Note: Reducing the spin-up time of integrated surface water–groundwater models

KAUST Repository

Ajami, H.

2014-06-26

One of the main challenges in catchment scale application of coupled/integrated hydrologic models is specifying a catchment\\'s initial conditions in terms of soil moisture and depth to water table (DTWT) distributions. One approach to reduce uncertainty in model initialization is to run the model recursively using a single or multiple years of forcing data until the system equilibrates with respect to state and diagnostic variables. However, such "spin-up" approaches often require many years of simulations, making them computationally intensive. In this study, a new hybrid approach was developed to reduce the computational burden of spin-up time for an integrated groundwater-surface water-land surface model (ParFlow.CLM) by using a combination of ParFlow.CLM simulations and an empirical DTWT function. The methodology is examined in two catchments located in the temperate and semi-arid regions of Denmark and Australia respectively. Our results illustrate that the hybrid approach reduced the spin-up time required by ParFlow.CLM by up to 50%, and we outline a methodology that is applicable to other coupled/integrated modelling frameworks when initialization from equilibrium state is required.

Technical Note: Reducing the spin-up time of integrated surface water–groundwater models

KAUST Repository

Ajami, H.

2014-12-12

One of the main challenges in the application of coupled or integrated hydrologic models is specifying a catchment\\'s initial conditions in terms of soil moisture and depth-to-water table (DTWT) distributions. One approach to reducing uncertainty in model initialization is to run the model recursively using either a single year or multiple years of forcing data until the system equilibrates with respect to state and diagnostic variables. However, such "spin-up" approaches often require many years of simulations, making them computationally intensive. In this study, a new hybrid approach was developed to reduce the computational burden of the spin-up procedure by using a combination of model simulations and an empirical DTWT function. The methodology is examined across two distinct catchments located in a temperate region of Denmark and a semi-arid region of Australia. Our results illustrate that the hybrid approach reduced the spin-up period required for an integrated groundwater–surface water–land surface model (ParFlow.CLM) by up to 50%. To generalize results to different climate and catchment conditions, we outline a methodology that is applicable to other coupled or integrated modeling frameworks when initialization from an equilibrium state is required.

L’évolution des essais cliniques de phase 2 : « les preuves de concept » en schizophrénie

OpenAIRE

Frisch , Céline

2014-01-01

Non disponible / Not available; La schizophrénie est une maladie mentale caractérisée par une dissociation de lapersonnalité, affectant le rapport du malade à la réalité. Elle fait partie des dix maladiesles plus invalidantes.Les traitements actuels (antipsychotiques) agissent principalement sur les symptômespositifs : hallucinations et délires et ont montré leurs limites sur le reste de lasymptomatologie.Les études de preuve de concept sont des études de phase IIa. Elles ont pour but deteste...

Modeling flash floods in ungauged mountain catchments of China: A decision tree learning approach for parameter regionalization

Science.gov (United States)

Ragettli, S.; Zhou, J.; Wang, H.; Liu, C.; Guo, L.

2017-12-01

Flash floods in small mountain catchments are one of the most frequent causes of loss of life and property from natural hazards in China. Hydrological models can be a useful tool for the anticipation of these events and the issuing of timely warnings. One of the main challenges of setting up such a system is finding appropriate model parameter values for ungauged catchments. Previous studies have shown that the transfer of parameter sets from hydrologically similar gauged catchments is one of the best performing regionalization methods. However, a remaining key issue is the identification of suitable descriptors of similarity. In this study, we use decision tree learning to explore parameter set transferability in the full space of catchment descriptors. For this purpose, a semi-distributed rainfall-runoff model is set up for 35 catchments in ten Chinese provinces. Hourly runoff data from in total 858 storm events are used to calibrate the model and to evaluate the performance of parameter set transfers between catchments. We then present a novel technique that uses the splitting rules of classification and regression trees (CART) for finding suitable donor catchments for ungauged target catchments. The ability of the model to detect flood events in assumed ungauged catchments is evaluated in series of leave-one-out tests. We show that CART analysis increases the probability of detection of 10-year flood events in comparison to a conventional measure of physiographic-climatic similarity by up to 20%. Decision tree learning can outperform other regionalization approaches because it generates rules that optimally consider spatial proximity and physical similarity. Spatial proximity can be used as a selection criteria but is skipped in the case where no similar gauged catchments are in the vicinity. We conclude that the CART regionalization concept is particularly suitable for implementation in sparsely gauged and topographically complex environments where a proximity-based

Flash-flood potential assessment and mapping by integrating the weights-of-evidence and frequency ratio statistical methods in GIS environment - case study: Bâsca Chiojdului River catchment (Romania)

Science.gov (United States)

Costache, Romulus; Zaharia, Liliana

2017-06-01

Given the significant worldwide human and economic losses caused due to floods annually, reducing the negative consequences of these hazards is a major concern in development strategies at different spatial scales. A basic step in flood risk management is identifying areas susceptible to flood occurrences. This paper proposes a methodology allowing the identification of areas with high potential of accelerated surface run-off and consequently, of flash-flood occurrences. The methodology involves assessment and mapping in GIS environment of flash flood potential index (FFPI), by integrating two statistical methods: frequency ratio and weights-of-evidence. The methodology was applied for Bâsca Chiojdului River catchment (340 km2), located in the Carpathians Curvature region (Romania). Firstly, the areas with torrential phenomena were identified and the main factors controlling the surface run-off were selected (in this study nine geographical factors were considered). Based on the features of the considered factors, many classes were set for each of them. In the next step, the weights of each class/category of the considered factors were determined, by identifying their spatial relationships with the presence or absence of torrential phenomena. Finally, the weights for each class/category of geographical factors were summarized in GIS, resulting the FFPI values for each of the two statistical methods. These values were divided into five classes of intensity and were mapped. The final results were used to estimate the flash-flood potential and also to identify the most susceptible areas to this phenomenon. Thus, the high and very high values of FFPI characterize more than one-third of the study catchment. The result validation was performed by (i) quantifying the rate of the number of pixels corresponding to the torrential phenomena considered for the study (training area) and for the results' testing (validating area) and (ii) plotting the ROC (receiver operating

Seasonal rainfall predictability over the Lake Kariba catchment area

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Muchuru, S

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The Lake Kariba catchment area in southern Africa has one of the most variable climates of any major river basin, with an extreme range of conditions across the catchment and through time. Marked seasonal and interannual fluctuations in rainfall...

Water quality-based real time control of integrated urban drainage: a preliminary study from Copenhagen, Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vezzaro, Luca; Lund Christensen, Margit; Thirsing, Carsten

2013-01-01

Global Real Time Control (RTC) of urban drainage systems is increasingly seen as cost-effective solution for responding to increasing performance demands. This study investigated the potential for including water-quality based RTC into the global control strategy which is under implementation...... in the Lynetten catchment (Copenhagen, Denmark). Two different strategies were simulated, considering: (i) water quality at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) inlet and (ii) pollution discharge to the bathing areas. These strategies were included in the Dynamic Overflow Risk Assessment (DORA) RTC strategy......, which allows for prioritization of the discharge points in the systems according to their sensitivity. A conceptual hydrological model was used to assess the performance of the integrated control strategy over an entire year. The simulation results showed the benefits of the proposed approaches...

Simulating high frequency water quality monitoring data using a catchment runoff attenuation flux tool (CRAFT).

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Russell; Quinn, Paul F; Perks, Matthew; Barber, Nicholas J; Jonczyk, Jennine; Owen, Gareth J

2016-12-01

High resolution water quality data has recently become widely available from numerous catchment based monitoring schemes. However, the models that can reproduce time series of concentrations or fluxes have not kept pace with the advances in monitoring data. Model performance at predicting phosphorus (P) and sediment concentrations has frequently been poor with models not fit for purpose except for predicting annual losses. Here, the data from the Eden Demonstration Test Catchments (DTC) project have been used to calibrate the Catchment Runoff Attenuation Flux Tool (CRAFT), a new, parsimonious model developed with the aim of modelling both the generation and attenuation of nutrients and sediments in small to medium sized catchments. The CRAFT has the ability to run on an hourly timestep and can calculate the mass of sediments and nutrients transported by three flow pathways representing rapid surface runoff, fast subsurface drainage and slow groundwater flow (baseflow). The attenuation feature of the model is introduced here; this enables surface runoff and contaminants transported via this pathway to be delayed in reaching the catchment outlet. It was used to investigate some hypotheses of nutrient and sediment transport in the Newby Beck Catchment (NBC) Model performance was assessed using a suite of metrics including visual best fit and the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency. It was found that this approach for water quality models may be the best assessment method as opposed to using a single metric. Furthermore, it was found that, when the aim of the simulations was to reproduce the time series of total P (TP) or total reactive P (TRP) to get the best visual fit, that attenuation was required. The model will be used in the future to explore the impacts on water quality of different mitigation options in the catchment; these will include attenuation of surface runoff. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Le genre Tunga Jarocki, 1838 (Siphonaptera : Tungidae. I – Taxonomie, phylogénie, écologie, rôle pathogène

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Beaucournu J.-C.

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Pour la première fois, les 12 espèces actuellement décrites dans le genre Tunga sont étudiées sur le plan de la taxonomie et de la répartition. Divers aspects de leur biologie et leur rôle pathogène sont également envisagés, et en particulier leur phylogénie, leur chorologie, leur phénologie, leur sexe-ratio et leurs dermecos.

Le genre Tunga Jarocki, 1838 (Siphonaptera : Tungidae). I – Taxonomie, phylogénie, écologie, rôle pathogène

Science.gov (United States)

Beaucournu, J.-C.; Degeilh, B.; Mergey, T.; Muñoz-Leal, S.; González-Acuña, D.

2012-01-01

Pour la première fois, les 12 espèces actuellement décrites dans le genre Tunga sont étudiées sur le plan de la taxonomie et de la répartition. Divers aspects de leur biologie et leur rôle pathogène sont également envisagés, et en particulier leur phylogénie, leur chorologie, leur phénologie, leur sexe-ratio et leurs dermecos. PMID:23193514

tran-SAS v1.0: a numerical model to compute catchment-scale hydrologic transport using StorAge Selection functions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Benettin

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the tran-SAS package, which includes a set of codes to model solute transport and water residence times through a hydrological system. The model is based on a catchment-scale approach that aims at reproducing the integrated response of the system at one of its outlets. The codes are implemented in MATLAB and are meant to be easy to edit, so that users with minimal programming knowledge can adapt them to the desired application. The problem of large-scale solute transport has both theoretical and practical implications. On the one side, the ability to represent the ensemble of water flow trajectories through a heterogeneous system helps unraveling streamflow generation processes and allows us to make inferences on plant–water interactions. On the other side, transport models are a practical tool that can be used to estimate the persistence of solutes in the environment. The core of the package is based on the implementation of an age master equation (ME, which is solved using general StorAge Selection (SAS functions. The age ME is first converted into a set of ordinary differential equations, each addressing the transport of an individual precipitation input through the catchment, and then it is discretized using an explicit numerical scheme. Results show that the implementation is efficient and allows the model to run in short times. The numerical accuracy is critically evaluated and it is shown to be satisfactory in most cases of hydrologic interest. Additionally, a higher-order implementation is provided within the package to evaluate and, if necessary, to improve the numerical accuracy of the results. The codes can be used to model streamflow age and solute concentration, but a number of additional outputs can be obtained by editing the codes to further advance the ability to understand and model catchment transport processes.

tran-SAS v1.0: a numerical model to compute catchment-scale hydrologic transport using StorAge Selection functions

Science.gov (United States)

Benettin, Paolo; Bertuzzo, Enrico

2018-04-01

This paper presents the tran-SAS package, which includes a set of codes to model solute transport and water residence times through a hydrological system. The model is based on a catchment-scale approach that aims at reproducing the integrated response of the system at one of its outlets. The codes are implemented in MATLAB and are meant to be easy to edit, so that users with minimal programming knowledge can adapt them to the desired application. The problem of large-scale solute transport has both theoretical and practical implications. On the one side, the ability to represent the ensemble of water flow trajectories through a heterogeneous system helps unraveling streamflow generation processes and allows us to make inferences on plant-water interactions. On the other side, transport models are a practical tool that can be used to estimate the persistence of solutes in the environment. The core of the package is based on the implementation of an age master equation (ME), which is solved using general StorAge Selection (SAS) functions. The age ME is first converted into a set of ordinary differential equations, each addressing the transport of an individual precipitation input through the catchment, and then it is discretized using an explicit numerical scheme. Results show that the implementation is efficient and allows the model to run in short times. The numerical accuracy is critically evaluated and it is shown to be satisfactory in most cases of hydrologic interest. Additionally, a higher-order implementation is provided within the package to evaluate and, if necessary, to improve the numerical accuracy of the results. The codes can be used to model streamflow age and solute concentration, but a number of additional outputs can be obtained by editing the codes to further advance the ability to understand and model catchment transport processes.

The challenge of integration in the implementation of Zimbabwe’s new water policy: case study of the catchment level institutions surrounding the Pungwe-Mutare water supply project

Science.gov (United States)

Tapela, Barbara Nompumelelo

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is viewed by policy makers and practitioners as facilitating the achievement of a balance between water resource use and resource protection, and the resolution of water-related conflicts. The IWRM approach has found particular use in the new water policies of Southern African countries such as Zimbabwe, where water scarcity, after the land question, is perceived to be a major threat to political, economic, social, military and environmental security. Ultimately, IWRM is seen as providing a framework towards ensuring broader security at the local, national, regional and global levels. However, the pilot phase implementation of the new water policy in the various regional countries has revealed that although the legal and institutional frameworks have been put in place, the implementation of the IWRM approach has tended to be problematic (J. Latham, 2001; GTZ, 2000; Leestemaker, 2000; Savenige and van der Zaag, 2000; Sithole, 2000). This paper adopts a case study approach and empirically examines the institutional challenges of implementing the IWRM approach in the post-pilot phase of Zimbabwe's new water policy. The focus is mainly on the institutional arrangements surrounding the Pungwe-Mutare Water Supply Project located within the Save Catchment Area in Eastern Zimbabwe. The major findings of the study are that, while there persist some problems associated with the traditional management approach, there have also emerged new challenges to IWRM. These mainly relate to the transaction costs of the water sector reforms, institutional resilience, stakeholder participation, and the achievement of the desired outcomes. There have also been problems emanating from unexpected political developments at the local and national levels, particularly with regard to the government's ;fast track; land resettlement programme. The paper concludes that there is a need for a more rigorous effort towards integrating the management of

Sediment sources in the Upper Severn catchment: a fingerprinting approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. L. Collins

1997-01-01

Full Text Available Suspended sediment sources in the Upper Severn catchment are quantified using a composite fingerprinting technique combining statistically-verified signatures with a multivariate mixing model. Composite fingerprints are developed from a suite of diagnostic properties comprising trace metal (Fe, Mn, AI, heavy metal (Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Co, Ni, base cation (Na, Mg, Ca, K, organic (C, N, radiometric (137Cs, 210Pb, and other (total P determinands. A numerical mixing model, to compare the fingerprints of contemporary catchment source materials with those of fluvial suspended sediment in transit and those of recent overbank floodplain deposits, provides a means of quantifying present and past sediment sources respectively. Sources are classified in terms of eroding surface soils under different land uses and channel banks. Eroding surface soils are the most important source of the contemporary suspended sediment loads sampled at the Institute of Hydrology flow gauging stations at Plynlimon and at Abermule. The erosion of forest soils, associated with the autumn and winter commercial activities of the Forestry Commission, is particularly evident. Reconstruction of sediment provenance over the recent past using a sediment core from the active river floodpiain at Abermule, in conjunction with a 137Cs chronology, demonstrates the significance of recent phases of afforestation and deforestation for accelerated catchment soil erosion.

Development of a hydrological model for simulation of runoff from catchments unbounded by ridge lines

Science.gov (United States)

Vema, Vamsikrishna; Sudheer, K. P.; Chaubey, I.

2017-08-01

Watershed hydrological models are effective tools for simulating the hydrological processes in the watershed. Although there are a plethora of hydrological models, none of them can be directly applied to make water conservation decisions in irregularly bounded areas that do not confirm to topographically defined ridge lines. This study proposes a novel hydrological model that can be directly applied to any catchment, with or without ridge line boundaries. The model is based on the water balance concept, and a linear function concept to approximate the cross-boundary flow from upstream areas to the administrative catchment under consideration. The developed model is tested in 2 watersheds - Riesel Experimental Watershed and a sub-basin of Cedar Creek Watershed in Texas, USA. Hypothetical administrative catchments that did not confirm to the location of ridge lines were considered for verifying the efficacy of the model for hydrologic simulations. The linear function concept used to account the cross boundary flow was based on the hypothesis that the flow coming from outside the boundary to administrative area was proportional to the flow generated in the boundary grid cell. The model performance was satisfactory with an NSE and r2 of ≥0.80 and a PBIAS of administrative catchments of the watersheds were in good agreement with the observed hydrographs, indicating a satisfactory performance of the model in the administratively bounded areas.

Integration of a Three-Dimensional Process-Based Hydrological Model into the Object Modeling System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giuseppe Formetta

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The integration of a spatial process model into an environmental modeling framework can enhance the model’s capabilities. This paper describes a general methodology for integrating environmental models into the Object Modeling System (OMS regardless of the model’s complexity, the programming language, and the operating system used. We present the integration of the GEOtop model into the OMS version 3.0 and illustrate its application in a small watershed. OMS is an environmental modeling framework that facilitates model development, calibration, evaluation, and maintenance. It provides innovative techniques in software design such as multithreading, implicit parallelism, calibration and sensitivity analysis algorithms, and cloud-services. GEOtop is a physically based, spatially distributed rainfall-runoff model that performs three-dimensional finite volume calculations of water and energy budgets. Executing GEOtop as an OMS model component allows it to: (1 interact directly with the open-source geographical information system (GIS uDig-JGrass to access geo-processing, visualization, and other modeling components; and (2 use OMS components for automatic calibration, sensitivity analysis, or meteorological data interpolation. A case study of the model in a semi-arid agricultural catchment is presented for illustration and proof-of-concept. Simulated soil water content and soil temperature results are compared with measured data, and model performance is evaluated using goodness-of-fit indices. This study serves as a template for future integration of process models into OMS.

Combining caesium-137 measurements and suspended sediment load data to investigate the sediment response of a small catchment in southern Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Porto

2015-03-01

Full Text Available A long-term measurement programme was operated in southern Italy during the 1960s and 1970s, to provide information on the suspended sediment yields from the main river basins. Information obtained for the rivers of Calabria suggests that suspended sediment yields in this area are relatively low. However, there is evidence that the intensity of land degradation within the upstream catchments is substantially higher than suggested by the values of specific sediment yield and there is a need to explore the relationship between on-site soil loss and downstream sediment yield more closely. Monitoring time-integrated erosion rates over large areas has traditionally required extensive long-term measurement programmes employing experimental plots. The fallout radionuclide caesium-137 (137Cs offers an alternative means of documenting medium-term rates of soil loss. This paper describes the use of 137Cs measurements and the available sediment load data to explore the links between soil erosion, sediment redistribution and storage, and sediment output for a medium-scale (41.3 km2 catchment in Calabria. Data available from a sediment load monitoring programme undertaken at the catchment outlet during 1962–1977 have been used to estimate the longer-term catchment sediment yield. This estimate has been combined with information provided by the 137Cs measurements, to establish a medium-term sediment budget for the catchment. The results provided by the 137Cs measurements indicate that the catchment is subject to much higher rates of soil loss and land degradation than suggested by its specific sediment yield. These findings are consistent with the results obtained for other catchments in Calabria for which both 137Cs derived erosion rates and measured sediment yields are available.

Mapping SOC in a river catchment by integrating laboratory spectra wavelength with remote sensing spectra

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Peng, Yi; Xiong, Xiong; Knadel, Maria

There is potential to use soil ·-proximal and remote sensing derived spectra concomitantly to develop soil organic carbon (SOC) models. Yet mixing spectral data from different sources and technologies to improve soil models is still in its infancy. The objective of this study was to incorporate...... soil spectral features indicative of SOC from laboratory visible near-infrared reflectance (vis-NlR) spectra and incorporate them with remote sensing (RS) images to improve predictions of top SOC in the Skjem river catchment, Denmark. The secondary objective was to improve prediction results...

Ground beetle habitat templets and riverbank integrity

OpenAIRE

Van Looy, Kris; Vanacker, Stijn; Jochems, Hans; De Blust, Geert; Dufrêne, M

2006-01-01

The habitat templet approach was used in a scale-sensitive bioindicator assessment for the ecological integrity of riverbanks and for specific responses to river management. Ground beetle habitat templets were derived from a catchment scale sampling, integrating the overall variety of bank types. This coarse-filter analysis was integrated in the reach scale fine-filtering approaches of community responses to habitat integrity and river management impacts. Higher species diversity was associat...

Understanding catchment dynamics through a Space-Society-Water trialectic

Science.gov (United States)

Sutherland, Catherine; Jewitt, Graham; Risko, Susan; Hay, Ducan; Stuart-Hill, Sabine; Browne, Michelle

2017-04-01

Can healthy catchments be utilized to secure water for the benefit of society? This is a complex question as it requires an understanding of the connections and relations between biophysical, social, political, economic and governance dimensions over space and time in the catchment and must interrogate whether there is 'value' in investing in the catchment natural or ecological infrastructure (EI), how this should be done, where the most valuable EI is located, and whether an investment in EI will generate co-benefits socially, environmentally and economically. Here, we adopt a social ecological relations rather than systems approach to explore these interactions through development of a space-society-water trialectic. Trialectic thinking is challenging as it requires new epistemologies and it challenges conventional modes of thought. It is not ordered or fixed, but rather is constantly evolving, revealing the dynamic relations between the elements under exploration. The construction of knowledge, through detailed scientific research and social learning, which contributes to the understanding and achievement of sustainable water supply, water related resilient economic growth, greater social equity and justice in relation to water and the reduction of environmental risk is illustrated through research in the uMngeni Catchment, South Africa. Using four case studies as a basis, we construct the catchment level society-water-space trialectic as a way of connecting, assembling and comparing the understanding and knowledge that has been produced. The relations in the three elements of the trialectic are constructed through identifying, understanding and analysing the actors, discourses, knowledge, biophysical materialities, issues and spatial connections in the case studies. Together these relations, or multiple trajectories, are assembled to form the society-water-space trialectic, which illuminates the dominant relations in the catchment and hence reveal the leverage

Effect of catchment properties and flood generation regime on copula selection for bivariate flood frequency analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Filipova, Valeriya; Lawrence, Deborah; Klempe, Harald

2018-02-01

Applying copula-based bivariate flood frequency analysis is advantageous because the results provide information on both the flood peak and volume. More data are, however, required for such an analysis, and it is often the case that only data series with a limited record length are available. To overcome this issue of limited record length, data regarding climatic and geomorphological properties can be used to complement statistical methods. In this paper, we present a study of 27 catchments located throughout Norway, in which we assess whether catchment properties, flood generation processes and flood regime have an effect on the correlation between flood peak and volume and, in turn, on the selection of copulas. To achieve this, the annual maximum flood events were first classified into events generated primarily by rainfall, snowmelt or a combination of these. The catchments were then classified into flood regime, depending on the predominant flood generation process producing the annual maximum flood events. A contingency table and Fisher's exact test were used to determine the factors that affect the selection of copulas in the study area. The results show that the two-parameter copulas BB1 and BB7 are more commonly selected in catchments with high steepness, high mean annual runoff and rainfall flood regime. These findings suggest that in these types of catchments, the dependence structure between flood peak and volume is more complex and cannot be modeled effectively using a one-parameter copula. The results illustrate that by relating copula types to flood regime and catchment properties, additional information can be supplied for selecting copulas in catchments with limited data.

Vaal River catchment: problems and research needs

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Braune, E

1987-01-01

Full Text Available , the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) complex. Although the catchment only produces eight per cent of the mean annual runoff of the country it has the highest concentration of urban, industrial, mining and power generation development in South Africa... of the Vaal River. The purpose of the workshop and preceding symposium was to examine the ever increasing complexity of the Vaal River system, the much enlarged spectrum of user water quality needs and problems, and those activities in the catchment which...

Stochastic analysis to assess the spatial distribution of groundwater nitrate concentrations in the Po catchment (Italy)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cinnirella, Sergio; Buttafuoco, Gabriele; Pirrone, Nicola

2005-01-01

A large database including temporal trends of physical, ecological and socio-economic data was developed within the EUROCAT project. The aim was to estimate the nutrient fluxes for different socio-economic scenarios at catchment and coastal zone level of the Po catchment (Northern Italy) with reference to the Water Quality Objectives reported in the Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/CE) and also in Italian legislation. Emission data derived from different sources at national, regional and local levels are referred to point and non-point sources. While non-point (diffuse) sources are simply integrated into the nutrient flux model, point sources are irregularly distributed. Intensive farming activity in the Po valley is one of the main Pressure factors Driving groundwater pollution in the catchment, therefore understanding the spatial variability of groundwater nitrate concentrations is a critical issue to be considered in developing a Water Quality Management Plan. In order to use the scattered point source data as input in our biogeochemical and transport models, it was necessary to predict their values and associated uncertainty at unsampled locations. This study reports the spatial distribution and uncertainty of groundwater nitrate concentration at a test site of the Po watershed using a probabilistic approach. Our approach was based on geostatistical sequential Gaussian simulation used to yield a series of stochastic images characterized by equally probable spatial distributions of the nitrate concentration across the area. Post-processing of many simulations allowed the mapping of contaminated and uncontaminated areas and provided a model for the uncertainty in the spatial distribution of nitrate concentrations. - The stochastic simulation should be preferred to kriging in environmental studies, whenever it is critical to preserve the variation of a variable

The role of soil weathering and hydrology in regulating chemical fluxes from catchments (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Maher, K.; Chamberlain, C. P.

2010-12-01

Catchment-scale chemical fluxes have been linked to a number of different parameters that describe the conditions at the Earth’s surface, including runoff, temperature, rock type, vegetation, and the rate of tectonic uplift. However, many of the relationships relating chemical denudation to surface processes and conditions, while based on established theoretical principles, are largely empirical and derived solely from modern observations. Thus, an enhanced mechanistic basis for linking global solute fluxes to both surface processes and climate may improve our confidence in extrapolating modern solute fluxes to past and future conditions. One approach is to link observations from detailed soil-based studies with catchment-scale properties. For example, a number of recent studies of chemical weathering at the soil-profile scale have reinforced the importance of hydrologic processes in controlling chemical weathering rates. An analysis of data from granitic soils shows that weathering rates decrease with increasing fluid residence times and decreasing flow rates—over moderate fluid residence times, from 5 days to 10 years, transport-controlled weathering explains the orders of magnitude variation in weathering rates to a better extent than soil age. However, the importance of transport-controlled weathering is difficult to discern at the catchment scale because of the range of flow rates and fluid residence times captured by a single discharge or solute flux measurement. To assess the importance of transport-controlled weathering on catchment scale chemical fluxes, we present a model that links the chemical flux to the extent of reaction between the soil waters and the solids, or the fluid residence time. Different approaches for describing the distribution of fluid residence times within a catchment are then compared with the observed Si fluxes for a limited number of catchments. This model predicts high solute fluxes in regions with high run-off, relief, and

Fuzzy knowledge bases integration based on ontology

OpenAIRE

Ternovoy, Maksym; Shtogrina, Olena

2012-01-01

the paper describes the approach for fuzzy knowledge bases integration with the usage of ontology. This approach is based on metadata-base usage for integration of different knowledge bases with common ontology. The design process of metadata-base is described.

Operational validation of a multi-period and multi-criteria model conditioning approach for the prediction of rainfall-runoff processes in small forest catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, H.; Kim, S.

2012-12-01

Most of hydrologic models have generally been used to describe and represent the spatio-temporal variability of hydrological processes in the watershed scale. Though it is an obvious fact that hydrological responses have the time varying nature, optimal values of model parameters were normally considered as time invariants or constants in most cases. The recent paper of Choi and Beven (2007) presents a multi-period and multi-criteria model conditioning approach. The approach is based on the equifinality thesis within the Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) framework. In their application, the behavioural TOPMODEL parameter sets are determined by several performance measures for global (annual) and short (30-days) periods, clustered using a Fuzzy C-means algorithm, into 15 types representing different hydrological conditions. Their study shows a good performance on the calibration of a rainfall-runoff model in a forest catchment, and also gives strong indications that it is uncommon to find model realizations that were behavioural over all multi-periods and all performance measures, and multi-period model conditioning approach may become new effective tool for predictions of hydrological processes in ungauged catchments. This study is a follow-up study on the Choi and Beven's (2007) model conditioning approach to test how the approach is effective for the prediction of rainfall-runoff responses in ungauged catchments. To achieve this purpose, 6 small forest catchments are selected among the several hydrological experimental catchments operated by Korea Forest Research Institute. In each catchment, long-term hydrological time series data varying from 10 to 30 years were available. The areas of the selected catchments range from 13.6 to 37.8 ha, and all areas are covered by coniferous or broad-leaves forests. The selected catchments locate in the southern coastal area to the northern part of South Korea. The bed rocks are Granite gneiss, Granite or

LISEM: a physically based model to simulate runoff and soil erosion in catchments: model structure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roo, de A.P.J.; Wesseling, C.G.; Cremers, N.H.D.T.; Verzandvoort, M.A.; Ritsema, C.J.; Oostindie, K.

1996-01-01

The Limburg Soil Erosion Model (LISEM) is described as a way of simulating hydrological and soil erosion processes during single rainfall events on the catchment scale. Sensitivity analysis of the model shows that the initial matric pressure potentialthe hydraulic conductivity of the soil and

Estimation of Soil Moisture in an Alpine Catchment with RADARSAT2 Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Pasolli

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Soil moisture retrieval is one of the most challenging problems in the context of biophysical parameter estimation from remotely sensed data. Typically, microwave signals are used thanks to their sensitivity to variations in the water content of soil. However, especially in the Alps, the presence of vegetation and the heterogeneity of topography may significantly affect the microwave signal, thus increasing the complexity of the retrieval. In this paper, the effectiveness of RADARSAT2 SAR images for the estimation of soil moisture in an alpine catchment is investigated. We first carry out a sensitivity analysis of the SAR signal to the moisture content of soil and other target properties (e.g., topography and vegetation. Then we propose a technique for estimating soil moisture based on the Support Vector Regression algorithm and the integration of ancillary data. Preliminary results are discussed both in terms of accuracy over point measurements and effectiveness in handling spatially distributed data.

Impact of land use, soil and DEM databases on surface runoff assessment with GIS decision support tool: A study case on the Briançon vineyard catchment (Gard, France)

Science.gov (United States)

Regazzoni, C.; Payraudeau, S.

2012-04-01

Runoff and associated erosion represent a primary mode of mobilization and transfer of pesticides from agricultural lands to watercourses and groundwater. The pesticides toxicity is potentially higher at the headwater catchment scale. These catchments are usually ungauged and characterized by temporary streams. Several mitigation strategies and management practices are currently used to mitigate the pesticides mixtures in agro-ecosystems. Among those practices, Stormwater Wetlands (SW) could be implemented to store surface runoff and to mitigate pesticides loads. The implementation of New Potential Stormwater Wetlands (NPSW) requires a diagnosis of intermittent runoff at the headwater catchment scale. The main difficulty to perform this diagnosis at the headwater catchment scale is to spatially characterize with enough accuracy the landscape components. Indeed, fields and field margins enhance or decrease the runoff and determine the pathways of hortonian overland flow. Land use, soil and Digital Elevation Model databases are systematically used. The question of the respective weight of each of these databases on the uncertainty of the diagnostic results is rarely analyzed at the headwater catchment scale. Therefore, this work focused (i) on the uncertainties of each of these databases and their propagation on the hortonian overland flow modelling, (ii) the methods to improve the accuracy of each database, (iii) the propagation of the databases uncertainties on intermittent runoff modelling and (iv) the impact of modelling cell size on the diagnosis. The model developed was a raster approach of the SCS-CN method integrating re-infiltration processes. The uncertainty propagation was analyzed on the Briançon vineyard catchment (Gard, France, 1400 ha). Based on this study site, the results showed that the geographic and thematic accuracies of regional soil database (1:250 000) were insufficient to correctly simulate the hortonian overland flow. These results have to

Export of nitrogen from catchments: A worldwide analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez-Cobelas, M.; Angeler, D.G.; Sanchez-Carrillo, S.

2008-01-01

This study reviews nitrogen export rates from 946 rivers of the world to determine the influence of quantitative (runoff, rainfall, inhabitant density, catchment area, percentage of land use cover, airborne deposition, fertilizer input) and qualitative (dominant type of forest, occurrence of stagnant waterbodies, dominant land use, occurrence of point sources, runoff type) environmental factors on nitrogen fluxes. All fractions (total, nitrate, ammonia, dissolved organic and particulate organic) of nitrogen export showed a left-skewed distribution, which suggests a relatively pristine condition for most systems. Total nitrogen export showed the highest variability whereas total organic nitrogen export comprised the dominant fraction of export. Nitrogen export rates were only weakly explained by our qualitative and quantitative environmental variables. Our study suggests that the consideration of spatial and temporal scales is important for predicting nitrogen export rates using simple and easy-to-get environmental variables. Regionally based modelling approaches prove more useful than global-scale analyses. - Spatial and temporal scales are important determinants for nitrogen export from catchments and emphasis should be put on regional approaches

River-groundwater connectivity and nutrient dynamics in a mesoscale catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Fleckenstein, Jan H.; Musolff, Andreas; Gilfedder, Benjamin; Frei, Sven; Wankmüller, Fabian; Trauth, Nico

2017-04-01

Diffuse solute exports from catchments are governed by many interrelated factors such as land use, climate, geological-/ hydrogeological setup and morphology. Those factors create spatial variations in solute concentrations and turnover rates in the subsurface as well as in the stream network. River-groundwater connectivity is a crucial control in this context: On the one hand groundwater is a main pathway for nitrate inputs to the stream. On the other hand, groundwater connectivity with the stream affects the magnitude of hyporheic exchange of stream water with the stream bed. We present results of a longitudinal sampling campaign along the Selke river, a 67 km long third-order stream in the Harz mountains in central Germany. Water quality at the catchment outlet is strongly impacted by agriculture with high concentrations of nitrate and a chemostatic nitrate export regime. However, the specific nitrate pathways to the stream are not fully understood as there is arable land distributed throughout the catchment. While the sparsely distributed arable land in the mountainous upper catchment receives much higher amounts of precipitation, the downstream alluvial plains are drier, but more intensively used. The three-day campaign was conducted in June 2016 under constant low flow conditions. Stream water samples were taken every 2 km along the main stem of the river and at its major tributaries. Samples were analyzed for field parameters, major cations and anions, N-O isotopes, nutrients and Radon-222 (Rn) concentrations. Additionally, at each sampling location, river discharge was manually measured using current meters. Groundwater influxes to each sampled river section were quantified from the Rn measurements using the code FINIFLUX, (Frei and Gilfedder 2015). Rn and ion concentrations showed an increase from the spring to the mouth, indicating a growing impact of groundwater flux to the river. However, increases in groundwater gains were not gradual. The strongest

SEASONAL CHANGES IN PHOSPHORUS LOAD FLOWING OUT OF SMALL AGRICULTURAL CATCHMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krzysztof Pulikowski

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this article distribution of monthly phosphorus loads flowing out of two agricultural catchments which are located in different physiographic conditions of Lower Silesia was analysed. Loads of phosphorus runoff from the catchment located in the piedmont part of Lower Silesia in each month rarely exceed 0.10 kg P ∙ ha-1. The size of annual load is determined by loads obtained in two months of early spring. Much lower loads obtained for lowland catchment, located near Wroclaw. Values ​​calculated for each month rarely exceed the value of 0.01 kg P ∙ ha-1. Culmination of loads bringing away is a bit more extended in a time compared to the catchment located on Sudety Mts. Foreland. Much higher loads are observed during the period from January to April – this period has a major impact on the size of phosphorus load that flows out from this catchment during whole hydrological year. The obtained results clearly indicate that the threat of watercourses and water reservoirs supply in phosphorus compounds from agricultural land is periodic and it is particularly high during early spring. Phosphorus load flowing out from the analyzed catchments is very diverse. From facility located on Sudety Foothill in hydrological year, during research period, flowed away average 0.81 kg P ∙ ha-1. Significantly lower values were obtained for second facility and it was average 0.15 kg P ∙ ha-1 during a year. The size of load discharged during a year is largely determined by amount of phosphorus load flowing out during winter half of the year (from XI to IV. In case of foothill catchment in this period flowed out average 0.56 kg P ∙ ha-1, which presents 69% of annual load and in lowland catchment this percentage was even slightly higher and was 73%.

A Catchment Systems Engineering (CSE) approach to managing intensively farmed land

Science.gov (United States)

Jonczyk, Jennine; Quinn, Paul; Barber, Nicholas; Wilkinson, Mark; ODonnell, Greg

2014-05-01

Rural land management practices can have a significant impact on the hydrological and nutrient dynamics within a catchment which can dramatically alter the way it processes water, exacerbating nutrient losses from the system. A collaborative and holistic approach for managing potential conflicts between land management activity for food production alongside the aspiration to achieve good water quality and the need to make space for water can ensure the long-term sustainability of our agricultural catchments. Catchment System Engineering (CSE) is an interventionist approach to altering the catchment scale runoff regime through the manipulation of hydrological flow pathways throughout the catchment. By targeting hydrological flow pathways at source, such as overland flow, field drain and ditch function, a significant component of the runoff generation can be managed, greatly reducing erosive soil losses. Coupled with management of farm nutrients at source many runoff attenuation features or measures can be co-located to achieve benefits for water quality. Examples of community-led mitigation measures using the CSE approach will be presented from two catchments in Northumberland, Northern England, that demonstrate the generic framework for identification of multipurpose features that slow, store and filter runoff at strategic locations in the landscape. Measures include within-field barriers, edge of field traps and within-field sediment filters and sediment traps which demonstrate how sediment can be trapped locally (including silt and clay fractions) and be recovered for use back on the land. Deliverables from this CSE approach includes the reduction of downstream flood risk and capturing of sediment and associated nutrients. The CSE approach allows for a more natural flood and nutrient management approach which helps to restore vital catchment functions to re-establish a healthy catchment system.

The nitrate response of a lowland catchment and groundwater travel times

Science.gov (United States)

van der Velde, Ype; Rozemeijer, Joachim; de Rooij, Gerrit; van Geer, Frans

2010-05-01

Intensive agriculture in lowland catchments causes eutrophication of downstream waters. To determine effective measures to reduce the nutrient loads from upstream lowland catchments, we need to understand the origin of long-term and daily variations in surface water nutrient concentrations. Surface water concentrations are often linked to travel time distributions of water passing through the saturated and unsaturated soil of the contributing catchment. This distribution represents the contact time over which sorption, desorption and degradation takes place. However, travel time distributions are strongly influenced by processes like tube drain flow, overland flow and the dynamics of draining ditches and streams and therefore exhibit strong daily and seasonal variations. The study we will present is situated in the 6.6 km2 Hupsel brook catchment in The Netherlands. In this catchment nitrate and chloride concentrations have been intensively monitored for the past 26 years under steadily decreasing agricultural inputs. We described the complicated dynamics of subsurface water fluxes as streams, ditches and tube drains locally switch between active or passive depending on the ambient groundwater level by a groundwater model with high spatial and temporal resolutions. A transient particle tracking approach is used to derive a unique catchment-scale travel time distribution for each day during the 26 year model period. These transient travel time distributions are not smooth distributions, but distributions that are strongly spiked reflecting the contribution of past rainfall events to the current discharge. We will show that a catchment-scale mass response function approach that only describes catchment-scale mixing and degradation suffices to accurately reproduce observed chloride and nitrate surface water concentrations as long as the mass response functions include the dynamics of travel time distributions caused by the highly variable connectivity of the surface

Carbon redistribution by erosion processes in an intensively disturbed catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Boix-Fayos, Carolina; Martínez-Mena, María; Pérez Cutillas, Pedro; de Vente, Joris; Barberá, Gonzalo G.; Mosch, Wouter; Navarro Cano, Jose Antonio; Gaspar, Leticia; Navas, Ana

2016-04-01

Understanding how organic carbon moves with sediments along the fluvial system is crucial to close catchment scale carbon budgets. Especially challenging is the analysis of organic carbon dynamics during fluvial transport in heterogeneous, fragile and disturbed environments with ephemeral and intense hydrological pulses, typical of Mediterranean conditions. This paper explores the catchment scale organic carbon redistribution by lateral flows in extreme Mediterranean environmental conditions from a geomorphological perspective. The study area is a catchment (Cárcavo) in SE Spain with a semiarid climate, erodible lithologies, shallow soils, and highly disturbed by agricultural terraces, land levelling, reforestations and construction of check-dams. To increase understanding of erosion induced catchment scale organic carbon redistribution, we studied the subcatchments of 8 check-dams distributed along the catchment main channel in detail. We determined 137Cs, physicochemical characteristics and organic carbon pools of soils and sediments deposited behind each check-dam, performed spatial analysis of properties of the catchment and buffer areas around check-dams, and carried out geomorphological analysis of the slope-channel connections. Soils showed very low Total Organic Carbon (TOC) values oscillating between 15.2 and 4.4 g Kg-1 for forest and agricultural soils, respectively. Sediments mobilized by erosion were poor in TOC compared to the eroded (forest) soils (6.6±0.7 g Kg-1), and the redistribution of organic carbon through the catchment, especially of the Mineral Associated Organic Carbon (MAC) pool, showed the same pattern as clay particles and 137Cs. The TOC erosion rates (0.031±0.03 Mg ha-1 y-1) were comparable to others reported for subhumid Mediterranean catchments and to those modelled worldwide for pasture land. Those lateral fluxes were equivalent to 10.4 % of the TOC stock from the topsoil at the moment of the check-dam construction and

Modelling the Impact of Land Use Change on Water Quality in Agricultural Catchments

Science.gov (United States)

Johnes, P. J.; Heathwaite, A. L.

1997-03-01

Export coefficient modelling was used to model the impact of agriculture on nitrogen and phosphorus loading on the surface waters of two contrasting agricultural catchments. The model was originally developed for the Windrush catchment where the highly reactive Jurassic limestone aquifer underlying the catchment is well connected to the surface drainage network, allowing the system to be modelled using uniform export coefficients for each nutrient source in the catchment, regardless of proximity to the surface drainage network. In the Slapton catchment, the hydrological pathways are dominated by surface and lateral shallow subsurface flow, requiring modification of the export coefficient model to incorporate a distance-decay component in the export coefficients. The modified model was calibrated against observed total nitrogen and total phosphorus loads delivered to Slapton Ley from inflowing streams in its catchment. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to isolate the key controls on nutrient export in the modified model. The model was validated against long-term records of water quality, and was found to be accurate in its predictions and sensitive to both temporal and spatial changes in agricultural practice in the catchment. The model was then used to forecast the potential reduction in nutrient loading on Slapton Ley associated with a range of catchment management strategies. The best practicable environmental option (BPEO) was found to be spatial redistribution of high nutrient export risk sources to areas of the catchment with the greatest intrinsic nutrient retention capacity.

Modelling long-term hydrochemical responce at ENCORE catchments in the UK and Norway

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jenkins, A; Wright, R F; Cosby, B J

1994-11-01

ENCORE is an interdisciplinary project focusing on biological and chemical response to environmental change and the links between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This report applies the MAGIC model, which is a catchment-scale model of soil and water acidification, to ten ENCORE catchments in the UK and Norway and uses it to examine the dynamic response to several scenarios of future land-use. MAGIC is an acronym for Model for Acidification of Groundwater In Catchments. The model is evaluated against catchment manipulation studies involving acid addition, acid exclusion, terrestrial liming and upland afforestation. Critical loads for sulphur are calculated. At all sites MAGIC successfully simulates present-day observed stream and soil chemistry. The predicted response of soils and surface waters to the two standard future deposition scenarios is similar at all catchments. All catchments continue to acidify under the worst-case scenario and all catchments recover under the best-case scenario. Exceptions are related to situations with concurrent land-use change, or in the case of nitrogen saturation. The success of MAGIC illustrates its robustness and indicates that the major processes included in the model are correctly identified as the major mechanisms controlling catchment chemical response to acid input. 39 refs., 10 figs., 4 tabs.

Evaluation of a distributed catchment scale water balance model

Science.gov (United States)

Troch, Peter A.; Mancini, Marco; Paniconi, Claudio; Wood, Eric F.

1993-01-01

The validity of some of the simplifying assumptions in a conceptual water balance model is investigated by comparing simulation results from the conceptual model with simulation results from a three-dimensional physically based numerical model and with field observations. We examine, in particular, assumptions and simplifications related to water table dynamics, vertical soil moisture and pressure head distributions, and subsurface flow contributions to stream discharge. The conceptual model relies on a topographic index to predict saturation excess runoff and on Philip's infiltration equation to predict infiltration excess runoff. The numerical model solves the three-dimensional Richards equation describing flow in variably saturated porous media, and handles seepage face boundaries, infiltration excess and saturation excess runoff production, and soil driven and atmosphere driven surface fluxes. The study catchments (a 7.2 sq km catchment and a 0.64 sq km subcatchment) are located in the North Appalachian ridge and valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Hydrologic data collected during the MACHYDRO 90 field experiment are used to calibrate the models and to evaluate simulation results. It is found that water table dynamics as predicted by the conceptual model are close to the observations in a shallow water well and therefore, that a linear relationship between a topographic index and the local water table depth is found to be a reasonable assumption for catchment scale modeling. However, the hydraulic equilibrium assumption is not valid for the upper 100 cm layer of the unsaturated zone and a conceptual model that incorporates a root zone is suggested. Furthermore, theoretical subsurface flow characteristics from the conceptual model are found to be different from field observations, numerical simulation results, and theoretical baseflow recession characteristics based on Boussinesq's groundwater equation.

Catchment controls and human disturbances on the geomorphology of small Mediterranean estuarine systems

Science.gov (United States)

Estrany, Joan; Grimalt, Miquel

2014-10-01

Geographic signatures are physical and human-induced characteristics or processes that identify comparable or unique features of estuaries along latitudinal gradients. In Mediterranean areas, the microtidal regime and the strong seasonal and inter-annual contrasts cause an alternation between relatively high runoff and arid conditions. Furthermore, the long history of human settlement also increases the complexity in the study of these estuarine systems. This study investigates these signatures of the estuaries located within the Mallorcan eastern coast, which are geomorphologically homogeneous because of a similar bedrock geology and Holocene history. A multi-method approach focused on the integration of geomorphometry, hydraulics, historical sources and statistics was used. We explore the role played by catchment morphometric parameters, severe flash flood events and human disturbances in controlling the geomorphology of 10 beach-barrier enclosed, fluvial incised lagoons. Most of the lagoons discharge into 'calas', ranging in size from 1345 to 17,537 m2 and their related catchments are representative of the Mediterranean hydrological systems. Multiple regression models illustrate that the size, slope and drainage network development of the catchments explain the variance in length (r2 = 0.67), volume (r2 = 0.49), area (r2 = 0.64), circularity (r2 = 0.72) and average width (r2 = 0.81) of the lagoons. Depending on these catchment morphometric variables, the shape of the lagoons is also determined by the occurrence of catastrophic flash floods, which cause scouring and dredging, whereas the ordinary flood events and sea storms promote refilling and sedimentation. A historical analysis since 1850 documented 18 flood events, 5 of which were catastrophic with destructive effects along the catchments and large morphological changes in coastal lagoons. High intensity rainfall (up to 200 mm in 2 h), the geomorphometry of the catchments and the massive construction of

Estimating Catchment-Scale Snowpack Variability in Complex Forested Terrain, Valles Caldera National Preserve, NM

Science.gov (United States)

Harpold, A. A.; Brooks, P. D.; Biederman, J. A.; Swetnam, T.

2011-12-01

Difficulty estimating snowpack variability across complex forested terrain currently hinders the prediction of water resources in the semi-arid Southwestern U.S. Catchment-scale estimates of snowpack variability are necessary for addressing ecological, hydrological, and water resources issues, but are often interpolated from a small number of point-scale observations. In this study, we used LiDAR-derived distributed datasets to investigate how elevation, aspect, topography, and vegetation interact to control catchment-scale snowpack variability. The study area is the Redondo massif in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, NM, a resurgent dome that varies from 2500 to 3430 m and drains from all aspects. Mean LiDAR-derived snow depths from four catchments (2.2 to 3.4 km^2) draining different aspects of the Redondo massif varied by 30%, despite similar mean elevations and mixed conifer forest cover. To better quantify this variability in snow depths we performed a multiple linear regression (MLR) at a 7.3 by 7.3 km study area (5 x 106 snow depth measurements) comprising the four catchments. The MLR showed that elevation explained 45% of the variability in snow depths across the study area, aspect explained 18% (dominated by N-S aspect), and vegetation 2% (canopy density and height). This linear relationship was not transferable to the catchment-scale however, where additional MLR analyses showed the influence of aspect and elevation differed between the catchments. The strong influence of North-South aspect in most catchments indicated that the solar radiation is an important control on snow depth variability. To explore the role of solar radiation, a model was used to generate winter solar forcing index (SFI) values based on the local and remote topography. The SFI was able to explain a large amount of snow depth variability in areas with similar elevation and aspect. Finally, the SFI was modified to include the effects of shading from vegetation (in and out of